Not Sure what the problem is

[Callumwr]

Recently i had a problem with my graphics card (nvidia fx5500), whenever i tried to play a game it would freeze momentarily for about 10-20 seconds before showing another frame then freezing again. i realised that my fan wasnt working and that it had packed up, i got it replaced along with a new heat-sink. When i re-installed the graphics card i found i still had the same problem (although sometimes the image whilst playing games appears as colours of a fluoro type (e.g. purple and green)).

is this a problem with my graphics card?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[schusterjo]

The GPU probably reached beyond it max temp and now the graphic card is damaged.
Visit Nvidia and update to the latest driver.
Start,run type dxdiag, display tab, run the test. results will list at bottom.
other then that replace with a known good graphic card and see if the issues continue.
replace graphic card

Note:
All fans should be cleaned at no more then 500 hours of use.

 

[Callumwr]

yeah thanks, i downloaded the latest driver from nvidia, and ran the dxdiag tests. the tests worked fine but my games still don't work.

thanks for the help

 

[baronvongogo]

What are your CPU temps?

download everest:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

once installed run it click on computer in the menu then sensor it`ll display your temps let us know what it says.

 

[Callumwr]

Temperatures:
Motherboard 25 °C (77 °F)
CPU 44 °C (111 °F)
Aux 25 °C (77 °F)
WDC WD800JD-00HKA0 40 °C (104 °F)

is that alright?

 

[Apokalipse]

what game are you trying to run?

 

[baronvongogo]

yes looks fine except it doesnt have your graphics card temp , could look in the Nvidia control and look for the temp section it should tell you how hot it is running. Have you tried running the following diagnostic tools:

3dmark05(tests graphics card):
http://www.futuremark.com/download/3dmark05/

prime95(once installed open it go to options>torture test and check the box for small FFTs run for 2-5 hours):
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4363

Memtest (put the memtest folder somewhere easy like c: then open command prompt and type the following cd c:\alegrmemtest\ then press enter then type memtest /time 120 press enter again and it should run for 2 hours the 120 is how many minutes so choose what you feel is right):
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3257

3dmark05 is your first bet to test your comp and graphics card and wont take as long as the others to run, if the computer freezes under heavy load from running it then you might need a new graphics card. Although Id still run prime95 to test your CPU and memtest to run RAM diagnostics just to make sure.

 

[Callumwr]

i have tried to run guild wars, fable, aoe3 and halo combat evolved. all have the same result. the freezing every 20 or so seconds. i have been able to play all of these games fine in the past.

 

[Apokalipse]

try reinstalling the drivers

this is the driver I use:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1399

if that doesn't work, my guess is the heat's damaged the card.

 

[schusterjo]

He said the fan locked up and he had to replace the fan. Well if the fan locked up and the GPU got to hot (he started to notice color distortion thats how he ended up checking the card) then most likely GPU is damaged. I personally don't see how ram would cause color distortion. At least I have never ran into that or herd of it. Test will not always show a Damaged GPU because it will still perform just not under heavy graphics. Almost like overclocking it and you will get to the point where the color starts to distort. Thats when you know that you have added to much voltage or overclocked the GPU or memory. If you are getting color distortion after a fan has locked up and you noticed the color starting to distort under normal clock/voltage settings then Its a bad driver or the Graphic card has ben damaged due to over heated.