Is my GFX card dead?

[AfroLegend]

Hi all,

Last night while I was watching a video, my screen locked up and then scrambled followed by the computer crashing. I assume this was caused by my graphics driver not working.

When the computer restarted, the BIOS screen had miscolored pixels and then horizontal blue lines appeared on the monitor. When Windows loaded, I got a BSOD sayings atikmpag.sys had caused an error. I loaded it in safe mode and disabled my display adapter and now see alternating lines of discoloration across my screen.

My question to you guys is, does this seem indicative of graphics card failure and should I just go ahead and buy a new one?

The card is a XFX Radeon HD 4850

Thanks!

 

[PP Mguire]

Have you cleaned and repasted this card like every 6 months to a year since you've had it? Those single slot coolers get super clogged super fast. Also due to the single slot nature they run hot and the past gets dry quick. I would take it apart and meticulously clean everything properly and repaste with a grain of rice sized amount of TIM on the center of the GPU die.

 

[AfroLegend]

Have you cleaned and repasted this card like every 6 months to a year since you've had it? Those single slot coolers get super clogged super fast. Also due to the single slot nature they run hot and the past gets dry quick. I would take it apart and meticulously clean everything properly and repaste with a grain of rice sized amount of TIM on the center of the GPU die.

No, I haven't done any kind of preventative maintenance on the card and I've had it for probably about 4 years now. Appreciate the tips, I'll give it a shot later today.

 

[PP Mguire]

The card is probably cooking itself causing the memory to artifact which is normally what causes those lines. The BSOD would be the card crashing at default clocks.