Getting graphicalartifacts, is it the videocard?

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WHOAguitarninja

Weaksauce
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Jun 2, 2006
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Beautiful, aint it? Thats basicalyl what I see when I try to run ANY 3d app, even simple screensavers. It started earlier today when my computer decided to shut itself off (which has never happened before), and when I booted, it locked at the very first screen and i heard what sounded like a machinegun of bootup beeps. They just kept going. I turned it off again(it was still frozen when I did), and since has booted up without issue, EXCEPT that in the next bootup it informed me that the videocard(6600gt) wasn't getting enough power and underclocked itself. Curious to see how much impact this had on performance, I started it up and noticed all the graphical errors. Thinking it was overheating, I set it to be clocked at the absolute minimum possible speed and it still has these errors. I'm not sure this is from overheating or what.

The computer is a dell dimension 8400 with a 6600gt for a videocard. I've been looking into upgrading the card recently (just turned 21 and wont get anything from my dad till august, so this could be the ideal time for me), but if I did, what sort of power supply would I need to run the newer cards (w 3.0ghz processor, 2GB DDR2 ram@533)?

Most importanly though, does anyone think they know what is going wrong? Is it more likely the card or the power supply that has fried? The computer runs fine as long as I'm not running 3d apps, 3d ones make it go crazy though.
 
I would but many of parts arent from dell(videocard included), so it's not in their warranty. Is it possible for a power supply to cause this sort of problem? I wouldn't think so but I can't be sure.
 
I have read that it is possible for a PSU to cause graphical glitches when it can't supply the video card with enough juice. Can you put your video card in a different pc to test it?
 
try to find the old free version of everest, will test your system and let you know how much output your power supply is handling, a quick email or manual consultation will tell you what power output is needed to run your card (example, 5700 ultra i had from bfg, was doing crazy graphical issues, called them, had me check the 12v power, said it should stay above 12, the crappy psu had it like just above 11), swapped to good psu and things were skippy again.

if psu issues aren't your problem then its time to rma the card, i've had glitches due to both psu and actual gpu death.
 
Okay I ran this everest program and it's giving me a "full system report". Looking under Windows Video I see no listing for the power received. Is there something else I was supposed to do?

Thanks for the help.
 
i can't remember where its at (i formatted since i had it) does anyone use it? if not i'll poke around and see if i can find where my installer went, its in there somewhere, i think after you run the test you can look at the full report and its in the list somewhere
 
try reinstalling windows, and this should clear out any crap drivers you may have in there. Download the newest drivers and install them fresh.
 
I used Driver Cleaner, with no success, but I'd be surprised if it were a driver issue since it came out of nowhere. I made no hardware or driver changes to bring about the error. I really suspect it's the power supply since after it did the machine gun error beep on startup, and I booted it up again, it told me that the videocard wasn't getting enough juice and was going to downlock itself.

However, I helped it out and downclocked it ALL the way and it still looks messed up so I'm a bit puzzled. Video and and 2d things still look fine. Anything 3d, including simple screensavers, looks garbled and weird though.
 
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