GPU (8800GT) failed?

[Rask]

My factory-clocked XFX GF8800GT seems to have failed me. Displays odd streaks through the screen and mutates letters and numbers into odd shapes (Matrix anyone?). It began yesterday when playing around in UDK and launching L4D after that. In UDK I got some 3D image stutter and streaks, which then passed. Then I began playing L4D, but after 15 minutes the game froze, the screen got messed up and some textures seemed to change place (brickwalls to fonts, etc.) and color.

I checked the GPU and it was quite dusty. I cleaned it up and let it cool off for a few hours, after which I tried whether it worked. it did, for a good 15 minutes again, resulting in same problems.

After this my boot screen (no windows initialized, so its definetly the GPU) and everythign else is screwed up.

So, any tricks to fix this? Or in other words, any ideas with what to replace my XFX GF8800GT 512MB Alpha Dog XXX version? Preferrably something which measures a bit above this would be nice, but keeping the price low to let me pay the bills. Let's say the price should be capped at a max of 300 euros. I was thinking of a GF9800, but should I go straight to the GTX2blabla cards or something?

EDIT: Could it be video memory as I remember simply pressing reset on the PC the first time the problems occured, the fresh boot displayed corrupted image from the session before the reset (e.g. Steam window, opened applications in taskbar, etc.) when the Windows desktop loaded?

 

[Jetfire]

They're known for it. Mine failed a month ago. I simply replaced it with a 9800gt, essentially the same, still decent, card.

 

[Deathmaker]

Is it still under warranty?

 

[Rask]

XFX site says its products all have a 1-year warranty (with terms and conditions as usual), but I'm trying to get something up with the shop I bought the parts from. We'll see. Edit: bough this set about 1½ years ago.

I'll laugh if they begin yapping about "overclocking voids your warranty", as this one is factory-clocked. And if the folks at the shop I bought this set from begin bitching about too much heat, I'll let them know that they are the folks who built it for me, and should've know about things such as heat ****ing up my parts.

Is "open up your case and use "excessive" pressurized air to clean the computer as "quite normal" actions can't clean it up enough" a condition to keep a warranty possible? Meaning if I didn't do this, is my warranty void?

 

[GeckoYamori]

I had the same issues with my 8800 starting last month. Red streaks, bad textures and ****. Appeared during boot as well. Cleaned off some dust and after that I started getting artifacts just from idling in Windows. Had mine for 2 years and never clocked it or anything.

 

[ZenPirate]

The card is toast. Ram failure.
Could you get an ati 5850 for that price? if so that is the way to go, if not get an ati 5770

 

[NRG]

If it was really dusty then it's possible you caused permanent damage from overheating. Watch your temps when you play and if they're reaching dangerous temperatures (<90c) even after a good cleaning and sufficient airflow, then this is probably the case. Could be the voltage regulator or something like the RAM as ZenPirate said. Neither are really replaceable or fixable. A damaged voltage controller can cause nasty temperatures at nearly all times too.

You can definitely try fixing circuit-related issues with methods like Skakruk linked to, but I would definitely try a heat gun or hair dryer so you can focus on specific areas before straight up baking the card. Don't forget to remove the cooler, stickers and anything plastic.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

That reminds me I need to do the semi-annual cleaning of the home computers.

 

[-n7-]

And if the folks at the shop I bought this set from begin bitching about too much heat, I'll let them know that they are the folks who built it for me, and should've know about things such as heat ****ing up my parts.

Yeah what the hell is wrong with them.

They should have come over to your house every few months to dust out your case for you.

Seriously though, it's effed.

XFX has lifetime warranty if you registered the card, or 1 year otherwise.
I don't see how the store could do anything if it's past warranty point, but who knows...

 

[Rask]

Yeah what the hell is wrong with them.

They should have come over to your house every few months to dust out your case for you.

Seriously though, it's effed.

You get the point.

XFX has lifetime warranty if you registered the card, or 1 year otherwise.
I don't see how the store could do anything if it's past warranty point, but who knows...

I see. Should've known.

Although the shopkeeper promised to look for a way to get a new card for free or damn cheap, thank god.

Also got two case fans today to compete heat a bit. Must buy some dustscreens for a hole though. Do two CFM 79 rated fans (one for inhale one for exhaust) work well to cool down a case?

 

[SkaarjMaster]

yes, but they might sound like vacuum cleaners. Can you adjust the fan speed with anything? Do you have any case fans at all right now? If not, I would buy an intake fan with a slightly higher CFM rating than the exhaust.......maybe something like 43 CFM and 35 CFM or something like that. Preferably, 120mm but it sounds like you may only be able to use 80mm fans; you can go higher with the CFMs with 120mm fans also.

 

[ZenPirate]

All the G92 based cards (of which the 8800 series are in) were known for ram module corruption. I had two fail myself. Think of it as the xbox 360 of graphics cards

 

[Rask]

yes, but they might sound like vacuum cleaners. Can you adjust the fan speed with anything? Do you have any case fans at all right now? If not, I would buy an intake fan with a slightly higher CFM rating than the exhaust.......maybe something like 43 CFM and 35 CFM or something like that. Preferably, 120mm but it sounds like you may only be able to use 80mm fans; you can go higher with the CFMs with 120mm fans also.

My case is quite loud as is, so desibels are not a concern, and I play/work with a headset which muffles other sounds so I'm fine. I've got two 120x120 slots free, no other fans than the ones in my PSU, CPU and now toasted GPU.

The fans arrived yesterday. Now I'm waiting to hear from the PC shop where I dropped the rig to get a new card and diagnose what went wrong with the GPU.

Are there any materials which you can find in your kitchen or something, which could be used as a dustscreen? I'd rather not accidentally stick something in my case which could burst into flames.

Now I'm battling with a ****ty old IBM NetVista, okay for surfing though.

 

[Rask]

I'll check whether I've got something similar around the house, thanks for the tip Skakruk.

Update on the GPU: the shop returned my rig which now sports an ATI Radeon X600 (yeehaaw!) as a placeholder until a replacement for my 8800GT arrives. I'll install two case fans when I've got the time to do a quick how-to based on the install.

EDIT: also regarding on cooling the case, can a system be run with too cold temperatures? I mean if a piece of hardware is manufactured to run on certain temperatures will it suffer if run with under-temps?

 

[SkaarjMaster]

No problem then........you have 120mm fan slots.

 

[tomcat ha]

yeah nvidia has not been doing great reliability wise, i wonder how the gt200 series will hold up.

Ati seems to last a lot longer

 

[TurdDrive]

Yes. Hard Drives for example; the oil in the bearings won't lubricate well if too cold. We're talking extremes here though - on air cooling you'll never be able to make you're hardware 'too cold', so don't worry about it.

How cold it to cold.

Because mine AUX (dont know what that is) is at 7c

 

[TurdDrive]

I have no idea it come up with Speed fan and its always 7c

 

[Rask]

As it seems to be taking ages for XFX to ship a replacement, I'm going to the shop tomorrow and try to talk them to hand me a equal perfomance GPU and let them keep the card which could arrive tomorrow or after two months.

I think a 9800GT would be good enough, and the price (100+-20 euros) might be about the same as the 8800GT I had... I could throw in 20-50 euros to accommodate for a perfomance boost too.

Any suggestions for a GPU to replace my old one other than the one I had in mind?

Edit: With a budget of 170 (old card in change + ~70e) euros, I was thinking of a GTX260 (896MB) or a HD5770 (1GB). These seem to perform quite the same from what I've read from GPU charts around and are a good update from a 8800...

 

[Rask]

The Radeon

Quite straight forward.

Any pointers for good cards around the same price?