Anyone know what causes this?

[garrydfrench]

Does anyone know what causes this?


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[DaveLembke]

Does this happen when using a different display to point the finger to the computer as the cause?

If it does this on another display then its likely that there is either a shared memory issue if shared memory is used for integrated GPU or the GPU itself is damaged. If problem goes away when using a different display then the display itself likely has the issue.

memtest86 can be used to test the System RAM https://www.memtest86.com/

[garrydfrench]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what to do here.
I tried another monitor. It still happens. It's a oldish system I built myself about 10 or so years ago. The system is;

Lian Li full tower
ASUS P5E M/B
Intel Core2Duo E8500
8GB DDR2 1600 RAM
2GB AMD Radeon HD 5900 Series
Various SSDs and HHDs

I suspect it might be the graphics card but I don't know how to eliminate the possibility of it being RAM or CPU. I don't have any spares I can swap in/out to try.
The problem has been getting worse over time and is at the stage now that just to type this reply is taking ages because the screen locks up now and then with a message saying "The display driver has stopped working and has recovered" (or words to that effect).
I used Memtest years ago and forgot all about it but it would be hard to run at the moment because I only get a few minutes before the graphics crash.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[patio]

Was the PC moved recently ? ?...if so remove ALL power and remove/re=seat the vid card and RAM stiks

Have you tried the onboard vid to eliminate the monitor as the culprit ? ?

[garrydfrench]

Was the PC moved recently ? ?...if so remove ALL power and remove/re=seat the vid card and RAM stiks

Have you tried the onboard vid to eliminate the monitor as the culprit ? ?

Thanks for the reply.
The case hasn't been moved in ages. I re-seated the RAM and graphics card - no difference. The problem persists.
As I mentioned, I think I eliminated the monitor as the problem when I tried another monitor and the problem persisted.
Also, I don't think this M/B has a on board graphics controller.

[patio]

Then the vid card is dying...

[Geek-9pm]

Let's talk abbot the viseo cable.
What kind is it?

[garrydfrench]

Hi Geek. My system specs are in my second post. The card is a 2GB AMD Radeon HD 5900 Series.

I run a dual boot system - Windows 7 & Windows 10 - installed on separate SSDs.

The problem occurs regardless of which OS I boot.

I don't have another graphics card to swap out and try.

I just thought someone may have seen this type of problem before and knew what caused it.

[DaveLembke]

I just thought someone may have seen this type of problem before and knew what caused it.

Bunch of us here have, and its most likely that your video card has issues, when not a shared memory situation. The good thing is that for around $30+ USD you can get a healthy video card and put an end to this problem. But if you have the HD 5970  you will need to spend more to match that performance.

Would this video card happen to be covered by any warranty? Its an older card, but sometimes people buy older series cards on the cheap and it might be recent enough to be under warranty, however probably owned too long to be covered by warranty.

What is exact model of that video card. Looking online it might be this 5970 of the 5900 series from around 2010 when it came out... https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102887  If so this was a costly video card when new.... did you get this second hand?

The damage with blocks that show and twinkle is usually the result of a cooked card, a video card that has been overheated. The GPU roasts and transistors with millions of them on the die, some of them fail from thermal failure and get into hung or unpredictable states making for the video card to wonk out the video or no video at all. You can also get lines. But usually blocks. Sometimes the system will boot and just some blocks but as the GPU heats up more and more blocks start to show. On video cards with damaged memory or systems with integrated video where some of the system RAM is shared with the GPU, a RAM problem can also act like a GPU issue, but its usually a refresh issue where stuff remains as ghosts on the desktop etc with memory issues, partial windows remaining that are not interactive etc.

[garrydfrench]

Hi Dave.

I bought the graphics card new, along with everything else in the tower, when I built the system.
I can't remember the brand but I do remember it was expensive at the time.

After comments here, and on another forum...
I bit the bullet this afternoon and ordered a new graphics card. Although I didn't check if it is
compatible with my system. I'm hoping it will slot straight into the PCI-E slot on my M/B.
I ordered a MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti X 4GB. It was cheap.
Thanks for all the comments. They are all appreciated.

[DaveLembke]

Cool and glad the consensus was about the same between our site and others suggestive of this replacement.

Some info to know about that GTX 1050. I recently ran into a surprise with a older system with a GTX 1050 which i picked up for $130 and had to return it.

#1 - It doesnt have support for older VGA or Analog DVI so hopefully your display(s) can take the Digital DVI connection or newer connection like HDMI. I refused to buy a new display to support the card and found that the 700 series for nvidia cards is the last series to have Analog Video Support. So I got a GeForce GTX 780 ti 2GB from my younger brother for $100 when he upgraded to the GTX 1080 for around $550. I personally wouldnt be able to pay that kind of money for a video card because I'm too cheap when it comes to computer hardware so the GTX 780 at $100 was a good deal and allowed me to have better performance and still keep my older VGA displays which I have no problems with.

#2 - Performance may be slightly bottlenecked in older motherboard builds like yours. But you probably wont notice it unless you tested this card on a newer build that can make full use of its full potential. This was also a concern i had since my build was an older AMD Socket AM2+ motherboard with a CPU in it from 2009 with a BIOS date of 2008 and my PCI-E slot is only 2.0.

#3 - Depending on which GTX 1050 you got there are two different bench marks. They made a GTX 1050 that doesnt require the 12V molex power that is clocked lighter than its bigger more powerful twin that has the 12V molex power connections. They designed the weaker twin to work using just the power from the PCI-E slot alone which I think is around 68 watts. The more powerful twin with the same GPU consumes around 80 watts of power and benchmarks are better. I fell into the trap of looking at the bigger brother twins benchmark results and then when looking how they could get this kind of performance with a lighter power consuming GTX 1050 that is when I found that the GTX 1050 came as two options, power sipping or power hungry and two different benchmarks. The more powerful better performing GTX 1050 will have a 6 or 8 pin molex for the 12V direct power tap. 

[garrydfrench]

Good info Dave, thanks for that.
I usually research parts I buy to the nth degree before purchase however I went ahead and ordered the MSI 1050 without giving it much thought.

Let's hope I haven't made a mistake. Luckily the tower isn't a gaming machine so performance shouldn't be a issue.

[DaveLembke]

Cool ... Best of Luck 

[garrydfrench]

A final update.

I fitted the new graphics card when it arrived, and all is well.
Also, after removing the old card I noticed it was slightly bowed in the middle. I suspect it might have over heated at some stage.

[patio]

Good job...glad yer fixed up.