Graphics Card/Mobo Issue

[ary7239]

Hey all,

At the beginning of this year i built a computer from scratch for the first time with help from a few friends who knew what they were doing (or at least i hope they did), and for the most part everything has worked fantastic to date. The only issue i have had is when playing games with intense graphics such as SC2, Guild Wars 2, Tera Online, etc. The problem that occurs randomly (not always, but is happening more and more now) is suddenly the screen will blink for a second, and when the screen comes back it will be distorted with the screen covered with small squares all over. Accompanying this issue is a very loud noise that sounds like static mixed with vibration, it is very odd. I wish i had a screenshot but every time it happens i get scared from the noise and screen and instantly force a shut down with the power button (i cannot interract with the screen at all, yet people on skype can still hear me/i can hear them, etc). My quick fix solutions up to this point have been simply turning off the computer and turning it on, and the other which seems to help for longer periods of time is to take out my graphics card from the mobo and plug it back in. This leads me to believe that the issue is either with the graphics card or the mobo itself.

Based on the information above i was just wondering if anyone has an idea as to which of the two is causing this and/or what i can do to fix it!

Thanks!
-Arik

 

[Fat.Clown]

sounds like your graphics card is either defective or it is overheating.

 

[ary7239]

How would you recommend i check which the problem is? If the graphics card is in fact overheating would i not still need to replace it?

 

[ary7239]

I ran HW monitor and my graphics card while playing SC2 is at 51C, or 123F

 

[ugoboom]

IMO I would look at the graphics card being the problem as last. When I built my current computer 2 and 1/2 years ago, I experienced basically the same exact issue as you, but instead of skype still working it was teamspeak. In short it was a memory issue. You should post your full system specifications here with as much manufacturer and model number info as you can.

In the meantime if you want to start to tackle this, a good way is by checking if you are having overall system instability. Everything may appear to be working fine within windows, but many instability problems only truly show themselves during gaming. Download Prime95, get the 64bit version if you are using a 64bit version of windows. Run that program with the default settings at the same monitoring your temps. If you have a quad core processor for instance, prime95 will be giving information about each separate core as it is running. The longer it runs, the more your cpu will heat up but should hit a plateau at some point. Eventually if your problem is due to heat issues between your cpu, memory controller, and ram, Your computer will likely either lock up or in the info about the separate cores in prime95 you may see a core or two fail. It will tell you if that is the case and if you do see a core fail just stop the test right away. You'll know then if your problem is related to the graphics card or not, b/c prime95 doesn't test your graphics. If you have failing cores then you should use memtest86+ to see if you have ram errors because if the ram shows errors under that test, its unlikely that anything is wrong w/ the cpu.

*edit* Also, if the above ends in you finding out that the memory is showing errors, don't assume you have bad RAM, it's most likely just been configured wrong from the start.

 

[ary7239]

This is the best i could do as far as my hardware. Any other info you need i can look into for sure if it helps solving the issue

Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Graphics Card: MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Power Supply: CORSAIR Gaming Series GS600 600W ATX 12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

HeatSink: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

 

[ugoboom]

All that hardware together shouldn't really present any stability issues using default bios settings, although you should go into setup and enable the X.M.P. memory profile under advanced memory settings if someone hasn't done that already. Post back with the results of the prime95 test

 

[Matt77]

Cooling may be an issue.

 

[Fat.Clown]

here are things I would try;

1. update and do a clean install of your video drivers.
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/VideoCards/Driver-2.jpg
see where step 2 point to? make sure to check that box.

2. test your video card for errors.
download and install either msi afterburner or evga precision and stress test with one of the programs.

you said SC2 ran up to 51C, so it heat may not be the problem, but I'd still keep an eye on the temperatures, since these programs stress your video card more than SC2.

don't forget to test the memory Folding@home - DownloadUtils
(MemtestG80)

 

[ary7239]

I hope this post doesnt pop up 3 times, but for some reason my last 2 didnt show up

Finally caught it in action and had my phone next to me to take pictures (screenshots dont work when this happens)

http://i.imgur.com/dpQvR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cW0B7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sF8pQ.jpg (this is on my second monitor, so yes, it happens on both screens)