who knows about graphics cards?

**TimTay** · 12th June 2011, 13:26

hi all, my neighbour is having a little hassle with his computer. iam not exactly a computer beginer but this problem has me stumped.

its a packard bell quad core machine from pc world and had a nvidia gt220 graphics card in it.

now recently it has been crashing out solid requireing a hard boot. then once back into windows it comes up saying there was a problem with the software drivers. so went onto the nvidia website and got the latest drivers. still not any better and window has popped up a few time saying there is a hardware fault. this has been followed with little multicolored squares all over the screen

and crashing.

would the card be faulty? is there software out there to test it. had a quick look but not sure what to use as audio is my thing.

cheers for any input, Tim

**bigmac** · 12th June 2011, 13:52

Sounds faulty do a stress test on card

**Ginge7289** · 12th June 2011, 14:18

How old is it? Sometime new drivers have bugs and going back a couple of drivers works till they fix the new one's.

**TimTay** · 12th June 2011, 14:20

Computer is about a year old, was running great but just started playing funny ******s. Then tried a rollback aswell to know avail.

**Rebellion8878** · 12th June 2011, 14:58

Go into safe mode, remove old drivers then reboot, into normal windows and install the new ones. If no luck then try to use an earlier version. Sometime old drivers may not be properly removed or leave traces which can conflict. 3dmark software could stress test it, lots of weird black shapes usually indicates artifacting which in turn means overheating. A bluescreen could indicate the same, power problems or software issue.

**Ginge7289** · 12th June 2011, 15:00

May sound like a silly question, but has it been cleaned out inside? If it is overheating it could be caused by a massive build up of dust around the fans.

**Tmd** · 12th June 2011, 17:00

Could also be a dicky power supply, often pcs built for big retailers have power supplies that are barely good enough add a bit of dust causing a little extra heat and can cause same issues. Could be driver issue and a fan on the graphics card too?

**TimTay** · 12th June 2011, 17:04

cheers for the input, i know its never been opened up the guys retired and only uses it for the odd photoshop. but will remove the drivers in safe mode, and also give it a clean followed by 3dmark stress test. see where that gets me.

**Birchy63** · 13th June 2011, 13:56

Make sure the monitor VGA cable is "OK", a fault here will cause ghosting.

From the description though i'd say the GFX card is knackered, artefacts on screen = GPU cooked.... I've cooked 3 graphic cards between 1999 and 2008 so I really have seen it all before.

If it's onboard graphics then it's a new motherboard job im afraid.

Problem with store bought PC's is they rarely have sufficient cooling, as IT muggles want power and quietness for the cost of a pint of milk.

My latest rig (just the tower) set me back over £1200, CPU is water cooled and it's got 5 x 120mm case fans belting air through it... 3 are variable temp controlled and 2 are switched in if the top of the case reaches 36c.
Add to that 2 x 80mm fans on the graphic card and it makes for quite a lot of noise.....

Store bought machines rarely have more than 1 case fan and they're sold to customers who will probably never open them up to de-dust.

**TimTay** · 13th June 2011, 14:08

I agree graphics is nakerd, tried everything else but still the same. So am going to give the machine mini service and a new card. What would folk reckomend? He only really uses Photoshop so I know a 30quid card would suffice but what card would you fit up to say 80-90 quid. As I said I'm a audio man along as I've got a pic on the screen I'm happy lol