Graphic cards problems

[Lior .B.]

Hi everyone.

lately I'm experience freeze up and pixels smearing. I have replaced few Graphic cards ( 2 Nvidia fx5500 (the original has some capacitors blown up), 2 Quadro4 980 XGL) and the problem still presists.

Could it be a Power supply issue or motheboard/AGP problem? I have an asus p4p800 with 2GB of ram (512 in each slot).
Sometimes I get a 3.3V warning (it dips below 2.9) but I don't know if this is related.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Could also be an overheating situation. Video cards will do all sorts of weird things when they get too hot, culminating in a system hang. What kind of cooling do you have in the case? I had a video card once that, while it came with a heatsink and no fan, this was actually insufficient for its cooling needs. I mounted a case fan directly across from it to draw the heat away, and the problem was solved.

What other devices do you have inside or attached to this computer? Power could also be the issue, as you said.

 

[Lior .B.]

Right now the temperatures are as follow:
CPU 32C/91F
MB 54C/129F.

The case is completely open which is strange because the room temperature is around 20-22...

could it be that the 4 DDR dual channels cause the high temperature of the MB? I don't run anything that require CPU load to explain these values....

 

[Lior .B.]

OK I lowered the MB temperature to 33-34 and it froze again so I took your advice and put a general home use fan in front of the video card and it hasn't froze yet but this is a just for a test. I'll try to add a fun to the chassis (which is not in front of the video card) and see if it solved the problem.

Thanks Robert! it really could be that the card just overheated!

Edit: OK it seems it was a fault memory. I have replaced all the modules and the computer hasn't froze for the last hours.

 

[Brolan]

Bad power supplies cause all sorts of freaky problems and they fail frequently. My first move on a computer with known problems is to swap out the power supply for a known good one. 80% of the time the problems go away.

Make sure you get one large enough to support your current graphic cards. Modern graphic cards consume a great deal of power.