Who died... the video card, or the monitor?

So - I was on Steam, about to start up TF2 for the first time in a while when POOF! my screen was sprayed with a splash of red pixels. I stared at it for a second. Then I panicked, thinking my Dell monitor was having issues. Then I calmed down and thought through the parts in my computer. My video card was made by Asus - it's a Geforce 9600 GSO that cost me $50 and has an aluminum heatsink.

I shut off my computer, then turned it back on - only to be greeted by a "no DVI cable" message from my monitor (with no red pixels)

I think it's my video card, but I've never actually had one die on me before.

Anyone else have experience with dying video cards?

That's called artifacting, usually caused by software errors (restart would fix), overheating, or damage to the VRAM.

My guess is that you've been overclocking, right? You might've done it in :(

For monitors, you either get black (dead pixels) visual weirdness a lot worse than that. I've never heard of red pixels although that could be your monitor. I have, however, heard of artifacting being every color of the rainbow.

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Originally Posted by TychusFindlay

That's called artifacting, usually caused by software errors (restart would fix), overheating, or damage to the VRAM.

My guess is that you've been overclocking, right? You might've done it in :(

For monitors, you either get black (dead pixels) visual weirdness a lot worse than that. I've never heard of red pixels although that could be your monitor. I have, however, heard of artifacting being every color of the rainbow.

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That's the weird thing - I've never overclocked the card. It doesn't seem like it's ever run hot either.

I'm guessing it's the card because (after restarting) I can't see anything on the integrated video OR on the video card when it's plugged in. The computer still boots though - as I can hear windows making it's usual "finished booting" noise.

the machine's still fine - I'm using the integrated video now that I removed the card - I had to hook up an old monitor though. it's the only other monitor in the house and it's VGA cable is built into the monitor (no way to test my 22" dell :( )

I am 98% sure its the video card, and they do die even without overclocking (or overheating). Overheating is the most common cause of artifacts, and they usually overheat because of dust buildup. If youre fine with integrated graphics you can probably pick up a DVI-VGA adapter for a few bucks so you can use your dell monitor.

check the dvi connectivity on the card, check for any kind of damage on the card

Does the computer beep? If so, look up your motherboard's codes and it'll tell you what is wrong.

Well, the mobo doesn't beep at all... I've decided to give up!

It's a freaking old Socket 939 mobo - I was considering a new build anyway.

I needed something VT capable anyhow.

Thanks anyway guys!

If I still needed the video card, I'd throw it in a toaster oven, and reflow the solder. But that's too much work - I'm going to give a vapor-x radeon a shot

If there's a problem with the hardware it should beep. What I mean is, disable you integrated, put in your VC, and then see if it beeps.

I dunno WHAT happened to my video card, but it's working again - I'm not sure if it'll last though...

I ordered my new machine anyway (deal on newegg - got a phenom x2 + 4gb ddr3 1333 + USB3/sata 3 mobo for $165, and $145 after rebate)

- Oddly, I had decided to wait on the video card, to see if this one was dead or not (figured a radeon 4250 would run sc2 pretty well, even if this card was dead)

Funny true story: My FX5800 died one day so (after testing for a few days) I bought a 7800GT. A few years later, when that had a problem, I switched to my FX5800 again which had somehow began to work properly after not being used for awhile :D I was sure the graphics card had had problems before though. It was exhibiting all of the problems of overheating/overclocking.

Lol that's awesome - i've heard of people cooking 'em in ovens to re-melt the solder under the BGA chips (GPU and/or Ram)

it's funny how one tiny thing going wrong can break a card :P

I kept the card in the crawl space (where your insulation is) as it was the only thing I had at the time that could serve as my own personal closet that no one would bother.

Maybe it gets hot enough in there to fix cards :D

It was the monitor 100% sure. I once had the same exact problem and as you I thought the card was dead. Brought my card to have it repaired and the sons of bitches broke the card by pulling one of its pins that the FX5600 had.
I noticed that but with no way to prove it, my gpu was there because I told them its broken so they said it was broken when i got it there and they offered to sell me a new gpu.

Anyways I refused returned home and started up the PC (had an onboard graphic card) and nothing. So it ended up being the monitor and after repairing it it all worked great, but I was left with broken graphic card and had to purchase a new one.

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Originally Posted by dustinbrowder

It was the monitor 100% sure. I once had the same exact problem and as you I thought the card was dead. Brought my card to have it repaired and the sons of bitches broke the card by pulling one of its pins that the FX5600 had.
I noticed that but with no way to prove it, my gpu was there because I told them its broken so they said it was broken when i got it there and they offered to sell me a new gpu.

Anyways I refused returned home and started up the PC (had an onboard graphic card) and nothing. So it ended up being the monitor and after repairing it it all worked great, but I was left with broken graphic card and had to purchase a new one.

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lol - that sucks. Well, my dell monitor is working as well as the video card - but now i'm counting on one of them to die eventually. At least they gave me some warining :P

Stop giving tech advice, please dustin. Last time you said "100% sure" quite a few people came in and proved otherwise.

Besides, how do you know the graphics card wasn't the original problem? From what I could discern from your post, it seems like paranoia. It could very well have been the graphics card ... and then the monitor.

The symptoms he has described are textbook examples of artifacting (i.e. graphics card problems) so, even if your story were true, it's not "100% sure".

So, please, stop, just stop.

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Originally Posted by TychusFindlay

Stop giving tech advice, please dustin. Last time you said "100% sure" quite a few people came in and proved otherwise.

Besides, how do you know the graphics card wasn't the original problem? From what I could discern from your post, it seems like paranoia. It could very well have been the graphics card ... and then the monitor.

The symptoms he has described are textbook examples of artifacting (i.e. graphics card problems) so, even if your story were true, it's not "100% sure".

So, please, stop, just stop.

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Because the same thing happened to me, as described in my above post.
I said I'm 100% sure, doesn't mean I'm necessarily right.