[MR0624]

About 2 months ago, my video card froze up during a game (not unusual at the time), but when I tried to restart it, I got a screen similar to the one in my picture below. I replaced the card with an older card (and stopped playing games, since the older card can't really handle it). Everything's been working alright for about a month or so. However, today, I was watching the football games on directv supercast, and I tried to enable fullscreen mode. My video card immediately gave me the same sort of bars that I got when the other card died. The same exact thing happened, basically. What's causing this? I'm not doing anything really high-stress with the computer but the cards are both basically useless. I know it's not a heat issue (my temps are fine), so I'm thinking it's something with the mobo or PSU. Any ideas?

Here's what the screen looks like:

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This is usually a sign of graphical memory corruption, which usually means the video card has developed an issue. Nothing to do with the board or PSU.

[Neil Jones]

This is usually a sign of graphical memory corruption, which usually means the video card has developed an issue. Nothing to do with the board or PSU.

[MR0624]

Then why would it happen to both video cards?

[phillpower2]

Looks like the screen is artifacting which can be caused by failing VRam or driver issues; http://www.playtool..../artifacts.html try updating your video card drivers.
Stress test your gfx card using this http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/
and use this to check your voltages http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html post a screen shot of the results.

Then why would it happen to both video cards?

Unstable voltages or bad video card slot perhaps.

[MR0624]

Well now windows will start up and show the windows loading screen but it doesn't get past that- the blue login screen doesn't show up and the monitor idles as if it's getting no signal, so I can't run any tests.

[phillpower2]

Can you get into the BIOS or boot up in safe mode, you could try restoring the default settings or last good configuration from there.

[MR0624]

Good and bad news to report. Good: Got it running in safe mode, which allowed me to upload my school files that I needed to FTP in case I can't use this for a few days. Also good, got the new drivers for the video card, going to restart in a moment to see if that has any effect.

Bad: When I try and run that stress program, FurMark, it says Failed to run FurMark. Startup has failed. Bye! Also, here's the results of my cpuid hardware monitor, which reports only temperatures on the hard drive, which is also bad.

[phillpower2]

Glad to hear you managed to retrieve your school work, its a good start.
Use Speedfan to attempt getting a screen shot of your temps and voltages http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
And GPU-Z http://download.cnet...4-10788513.html to get a basic report on your graphics card.
Any luck with the new drivers?

[MR0624]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - crazy week. I've got this whole weekend to hopefully fix this though, so I can run whatever tests you need somewhat punctually now. Anyways, the new drivers didn't help. SpeedFan ran and here's a screenshot:



Gpu-z didn't run - it said the service cannot run in safe mode, and I'm still unable to boot into regular windows.

[D-Berd]

What type of pc? make and model?
What type of video card(s)?
Can you check the voltages in bios?
You said you checked the temps, what were they? {cpu and video card}
Can you try a different monitor?

It looks like a heat issue but it could be something else....need more info.

[phillpower2]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - crazy week. I've got this whole weekend to hopefully fix this though, so I can run whatever tests you need somewhat punctually now. Anyways, the new drivers didn't help. SpeedFan ran and here's a screenshot:



Gpu-z didn't run - it said the service cannot run in safe mode, and I'm still unable to boot into regular windows.

Sorry about the delay posting back I thought you were going to do more testing and then post back with the results
Can you loan a known good PSU to try? If you look at the +3.3V reading in your Speedfan screen shot it is not registering anything, this may be the cause of the issue

Unstable voltages

as suggested in post #4 whilst this is non conclusive evidence it is a strong contender and trying another good PSU may eliminate or prove it.