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WhippersnapperUT99
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2017
- Messages
- 10
--------------------- Status: Resolved ? -----------------------
I brought my computer over to a friend's house. He's basically an expert on computer hardware and troubleshooting. We reinstalled drivers cleanly and tested with his GTX 760 and it ran it just fine. We benchmarked the GTX 760 and it gave something like 50 FPS on the basic Heaven Benchtest (whereas my GTX 560 gives about 2 FPS). We swapped cards in and out a few times and uninstalled/reinstalled drivers one or two times and concluded that my GTX 560 is the problem. Apparently it's also responsible for the slower boot time - he thinks Windows is getting some sort of error having a problem when the drivers try to access the video card. The rig booted up quickly, like normal, with the GTX 760 and also just via the built-in video on the motherboard (which, amazingly, I didn't know was an option). Looks like I'm in the market for a new video card now.
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k, overclocked to 4.2 Ghz/core
RAM: 2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM running at 1600 Mhz.
PSU: 550W Antec Basiq
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit
Main Drive: 128 GB Kingston Hyper X
GPU: Geforce GTX 560, 2 GB RAM, eVGA brand (all I really know about it as I didn't build the rig, no overclock as far as I know). Drivers recently updated to NVidia 382.53
First Sign of a Problem
I've been using this Geforce GTX 560 card for several years and haven't had any problems with it, and it's played some demanding games like Skyrim and Planetside 2. Two days ago, sometime after bootup, I saw a few screen glitches, like a couple little boxes suddenly showing up and flickering on the screen in random places, about 20 of them.
Initial Response
So I rebooted and everything seemed OK. About 20 minutes later I went to go play Planetside 2 and the graphics wouldn't render properly - it's like I saw planar sheets coming down from the sky when I looked around. I thought I might try updating the driver since it had been over a year. (In retrospect, this was probably a troubleshooting mistake.) (Updated to NVidia 382.53) I also used the DDU tool to completely remove the old driver. I also swapped in some older RAM (4 x 2 GB low end Brand X stuff) that the computer had run on just fine for years and it had no effect.
Symptoms:
Extremely low FPS in games - When I load Planetside 2 I don't get those sheets, but the FPS is very low and that's after putting it on the lowest settings. It also performs very poorly in Skyrim which seems to take a long time to load now. I also only does about 3 FPS in Heaven Benchmark on its default settings (and the stuff it's rendering it would normally fly through).
It's almost like the video card lost its processing power or some of its pipes and is now a very weak card. I removed the card and cleaned some dust off with a lens wipe. It didn't seem too dirty and it had no effect.
Also, my system boot up time has increased from 30 seconds to 100 seconds (for being able to use Windows). During the boot, the system posts, Windows says it's loading, then the screen goes blank for about 80 seconds. Then I can start using the system.
I can use the computer. I'm using it right now and can even play Sins of a Solar Empire, but any graphically intense FPS-type game seems to be a problem.
Diagnosis?
Does it sound like a dying video card?
Could it be a Power Supply issue manifesting itself as a video card problem?
Could it be some sort of Drivers or Direct X problem?
What would explain the increased time to load Windows? (30 seconds before, now 100)
I can handle having to replace the video card if it's dead. I'm fine with that and it's an easy fix, but the uncertainty is killing me and I'd hate to shell out $100 - $150 for a new video card (that's not at a hot/Slickdeal price) only to find out that something else is wrong (like a problem with the motherboard or PSU).
If part of the Video Card were Broken, say cooked pipes or bad RAM, would it "throttle down" and try to get the job done using whatever working transistors were available? If one half of the card were fried, would the other half keep working? People talk of "dying video cards" but normally in terms of artifacting.
Heaven Beanchmark data:
I ran Heaven Benchmark and it seemed like my system could barely run it on High quality with everything else turned off, and even though the CPU was hardly being used (video card bottle neck?) my system was slow when minimized. I took some screenshots as it was running and the data for two of the shots is:
• FPS 2
• GeForce GTX 560
• Graphics 50 MHz
• Memory 135 MHz
• Processor 101 MHz
• Temperature 28 deg C
Shouldn't the Graphics, Memory, and Processor all be at much higher speeds? According to CPU-Z fir 3D applications it should be core 865 MHz, Shaders 1730 MHz, and Memory 2004 MHz.
All of the other functions of my computer seem to be OK so far other than the unusually long boot time.
I brought my computer over to a friend's house. He's basically an expert on computer hardware and troubleshooting. We reinstalled drivers cleanly and tested with his GTX 760 and it ran it just fine. We benchmarked the GTX 760 and it gave something like 50 FPS on the basic Heaven Benchtest (whereas my GTX 560 gives about 2 FPS). We swapped cards in and out a few times and uninstalled/reinstalled drivers one or two times and concluded that my GTX 560 is the problem. Apparently it's also responsible for the slower boot time - he thinks Windows is getting some sort of error having a problem when the drivers try to access the video card. The rig booted up quickly, like normal, with the GTX 760 and also just via the built-in video on the motherboard (which, amazingly, I didn't know was an option). Looks like I'm in the market for a new video card now.
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V LX
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k, overclocked to 4.2 Ghz/core
RAM: 2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM running at 1600 Mhz.
PSU: 550W Antec Basiq
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit
Main Drive: 128 GB Kingston Hyper X
GPU: Geforce GTX 560, 2 GB RAM, eVGA brand (all I really know about it as I didn't build the rig, no overclock as far as I know). Drivers recently updated to NVidia 382.53
First Sign of a Problem
I've been using this Geforce GTX 560 card for several years and haven't had any problems with it, and it's played some demanding games like Skyrim and Planetside 2. Two days ago, sometime after bootup, I saw a few screen glitches, like a couple little boxes suddenly showing up and flickering on the screen in random places, about 20 of them.
Initial Response
So I rebooted and everything seemed OK. About 20 minutes later I went to go play Planetside 2 and the graphics wouldn't render properly - it's like I saw planar sheets coming down from the sky when I looked around. I thought I might try updating the driver since it had been over a year. (In retrospect, this was probably a troubleshooting mistake.) (Updated to NVidia 382.53) I also used the DDU tool to completely remove the old driver. I also swapped in some older RAM (4 x 2 GB low end Brand X stuff) that the computer had run on just fine for years and it had no effect.
Symptoms:
Extremely low FPS in games - When I load Planetside 2 I don't get those sheets, but the FPS is very low and that's after putting it on the lowest settings. It also performs very poorly in Skyrim which seems to take a long time to load now. I also only does about 3 FPS in Heaven Benchmark on its default settings (and the stuff it's rendering it would normally fly through).
It's almost like the video card lost its processing power or some of its pipes and is now a very weak card. I removed the card and cleaned some dust off with a lens wipe. It didn't seem too dirty and it had no effect.
Also, my system boot up time has increased from 30 seconds to 100 seconds (for being able to use Windows). During the boot, the system posts, Windows says it's loading, then the screen goes blank for about 80 seconds. Then I can start using the system.
I can use the computer. I'm using it right now and can even play Sins of a Solar Empire, but any graphically intense FPS-type game seems to be a problem.
Diagnosis?
Does it sound like a dying video card?
Could it be a Power Supply issue manifesting itself as a video card problem?
Could it be some sort of Drivers or Direct X problem?
What would explain the increased time to load Windows? (30 seconds before, now 100)
I can handle having to replace the video card if it's dead. I'm fine with that and it's an easy fix, but the uncertainty is killing me and I'd hate to shell out $100 - $150 for a new video card (that's not at a hot/Slickdeal price) only to find out that something else is wrong (like a problem with the motherboard or PSU).
If part of the Video Card were Broken, say cooked pipes or bad RAM, would it "throttle down" and try to get the job done using whatever working transistors were available? If one half of the card were fried, would the other half keep working? People talk of "dying video cards" but normally in terms of artifacting.
Heaven Beanchmark data:
I ran Heaven Benchmark and it seemed like my system could barely run it on High quality with everything else turned off, and even though the CPU was hardly being used (video card bottle neck?) my system was slow when minimized. I took some screenshots as it was running and the data for two of the shots is:
• FPS 2
• GeForce GTX 560
• Graphics 50 MHz
• Memory 135 MHz
• Processor 101 MHz
• Temperature 28 deg C
Shouldn't the Graphics, Memory, and Processor all be at much higher speeds? According to CPU-Z fir 3D applications it should be core 865 MHz, Shaders 1730 MHz, and Memory 2004 MHz.
All of the other functions of my computer seem to be OK so far other than the unusually long boot time.
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