buckman341
In Runtime
- Messages
- 119
Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any help in solving this mystery. Haven't been able to use my PC in a month and it's really got me down I'll lay out the basic history for starters, if there is any more information I should supply I would be glad to do so.
1- Went away for about 6 months (basic training and tech school for Air Force) stored my computer unplugged in a safe place. Was working fine when I left.
2- Got back and ordered a new solid state hard drive and install windows vista on it, previously i had been using xp on a regular drive. after a few short days I started getting massive artifacting in vista. (680i mobo and 8800gtx video card). Figured since it was artifacting it was probably the video card so I ordered a new one.
3- New card arrives, GTX 260 nvidia, works fine for a day or so then the artifacting returns even in bios now. now i heard that there was a bad batch of 260's out there (memory issues) so i thought maybe i got a DOA.
4- Trying to work out the details of the RMA when all of a sudden my keyboard stops working on my PC even in bios but it works fine on my laptop. now it looks like the motherboard.
5- RMA motherboard, new one arrives, pop all the hardware back in and the 260. more artifacting.
6- Put old 8800 gtx back in thinking maybe it was fine in the first place and just the motherboard was guilty. works fine... for a day... then more artifacting even in bios. There was one thing tho now that I think about it. I got a weird error message just before everything went wrong again. Actually it also happened right before everything messed up the first time too. The screen started flickering and then I got a yellow caution sign on the taskbar that said something like "nvidia driver something has recovered from a serious error." It was shortly after this that everything went to **** and I got artifacting again. However I don't believe this is a drivers issue because I am getting just as much artifacting in bios before windows even loads. Maybe the video card dying caused a driver error?
So as it stands now I RMA'd the 260 back. I have a (supposedly) brand new motherboard and a maybe dead 8800gtx. I really don't know what to think now. Other details:
I run off a battery backup with surge protection 100% of the time. Voltages off my PSU are spot on 11.99V, 5.04V, 3.25V, 1.91V for memory (1.90 is specs), and vcore is 1.07V which i think is fine. It's a 700Watt supply with both PCI-e power cables going to card. Card is seated firmly with nothing touching it to short it out. System is well cooled. I can currenly run vista in safe and normal mode, but both have massive artifacting.
Possible theories...
Motherboard exploded and took my 8800gtx with it? New video card was a dud also? There was a bad batch out supposedly...
Power supply bad? Wouldn't my voltages be out of whack?
I got TWO bad motherboards? Doubt it...
If you have any ideas please let me know I'm getting pretty desperate here Anything I should look for? Anything at all no matter how crazy it is I'll check it out. Please help.
1- Went away for about 6 months (basic training and tech school for Air Force) stored my computer unplugged in a safe place. Was working fine when I left.
2- Got back and ordered a new solid state hard drive and install windows vista on it, previously i had been using xp on a regular drive. after a few short days I started getting massive artifacting in vista. (680i mobo and 8800gtx video card). Figured since it was artifacting it was probably the video card so I ordered a new one.
3- New card arrives, GTX 260 nvidia, works fine for a day or so then the artifacting returns even in bios now. now i heard that there was a bad batch of 260's out there (memory issues) so i thought maybe i got a DOA.
4- Trying to work out the details of the RMA when all of a sudden my keyboard stops working on my PC even in bios but it works fine on my laptop. now it looks like the motherboard.
5- RMA motherboard, new one arrives, pop all the hardware back in and the 260. more artifacting.
6- Put old 8800 gtx back in thinking maybe it was fine in the first place and just the motherboard was guilty. works fine... for a day... then more artifacting even in bios. There was one thing tho now that I think about it. I got a weird error message just before everything went wrong again. Actually it also happened right before everything messed up the first time too. The screen started flickering and then I got a yellow caution sign on the taskbar that said something like "nvidia driver something has recovered from a serious error." It was shortly after this that everything went to **** and I got artifacting again. However I don't believe this is a drivers issue because I am getting just as much artifacting in bios before windows even loads. Maybe the video card dying caused a driver error?
So as it stands now I RMA'd the 260 back. I have a (supposedly) brand new motherboard and a maybe dead 8800gtx. I really don't know what to think now. Other details:
I run off a battery backup with surge protection 100% of the time. Voltages off my PSU are spot on 11.99V, 5.04V, 3.25V, 1.91V for memory (1.90 is specs), and vcore is 1.07V which i think is fine. It's a 700Watt supply with both PCI-e power cables going to card. Card is seated firmly with nothing touching it to short it out. System is well cooled. I can currenly run vista in safe and normal mode, but both have massive artifacting.
Possible theories...
Motherboard exploded and took my 8800gtx with it? New video card was a dud also? There was a bad batch out supposedly...
Power supply bad? Wouldn't my voltages be out of whack?
I got TWO bad motherboards? Doubt it...
If you have any ideas please let me know I'm getting pretty desperate here Anything I should look for? Anything at all no matter how crazy it is I'll check it out. Please help.