Is my graphics card on the way out?

mwddrwg

Hi all,


Just a quick question (I hope!). I have a 6-year old desktop with a dedicated graphics card. Exact specs of each component not available to me at the moment but I think it's an Intel quad-core with 4GB of RAM and 1GB Nividia graphics card.


It's hooked up to a quite elderly Viewsonic 20" monitor via VGA. All was fine until this weekend. Have upgraded it to Windows 10 since day one release.


Has started to reboot itself at random times during internet surfing with no error message, just a blank screen. The last time is crashed it restared, showed the Packard Bell welcome screen (with instructions for entering the BIOS etc) but then nothing, just a blank screen. Hard disk looks to be spinning and oddly I can see the PC on my laptop's network list.


Was wondering if this means that the monitor or the graphics card is on its way out as it appears to be booting, just not displaying the desktop (other than the initial logo when switiching on).


Any advice appreciated. Sorry for the essay, as it turns out :rotfl:

pappa_golf

no this will be a simple driver problem* , try going into safe mode and removing the vid driver and reboot , in fact IF you get into safe mode , it will prove that the driver is corrupt , as it will be using the basic VGA driver


* or a non video driver fault

mwddrwg

Not sure I can get into safe mode though. The options on boot-up are the usual F2 for BIOS, F8 to show boot order etc, and then nothing but a blank screen. I've checked that it can see the main hard drive and that it's trying to boot from there so hard drive seems to be healthy. Is there a way to get into safe mode from initial boot sequence? Thanks

JJ_Egan

Similar problem to one i just had .
Not booting to win 10 and unable to enter BIOS . But confusion arose as clearing BIOS/CMOS would enable a boot eventually to win 10 .But it then would not reboot to desktop .
Updated drivers swapped out video card same result . swapped ram swapped motherboard and cpu with the same problems .
Eventually upon trying a second hand tested video card problem solved . My initial video was faulty and likewise the second one i tested .I would try a known working video card first and also check the settings if you can enter the BIOS as well .

psychic_teabag

Does your bios provide any kind of hardware self-test, or anything ? I'm sure lots of things could cause random crashes, eg bad memory, or psu struggling, or overheating.

A virus could explain random reboots, though perhaps not the failure to progress past the bios screen.

GunJack

alternatively, if you also have on-board gfx chip, remove the gfx card and use the onboard chip. If it's 6-y-o, it may well be a driver issue in W10, I'm having odd issues with audio and wifi card drivers, bl00dy W10 is a pita :mad:

mwddrwg

psychic_teabag wrote: »

Does your bios provide any kind of hardware self-test, or anything ? I'm sure lots of things could cause random crashes, eg bad memory, or psu struggling, or overheating.

A virus could explain random reboots, though perhaps not the failure to progress past the bios screen.

Don't think it's a virus as I scanned it thoroughly the other day to check due to the random crashes and it came out clean. Am usually pretty stringent on this issue so it's unlikely.
It's had a new PSU about a year ago so again, unlikely to be the issue.
Will check if the BIOS can provide such a self-test - does have an option to view 'System Health' and this was OK last night when I checked.


Thanks for your suggestions

mwddrwg

GunJack wrote: »

alternatively, if you also have on-board gfx chip, remove the gfx card and use the onboard chip. If it's 6-y-o, it may well be a driver issue in W10, I'm having odd issues with audio and wifi card drivers, bl00dy W10 is a pita :mad:

Great idea to test without the graphics card. Not sure if it has an onboard GPU though so will check. Just found it strange that it's worked with W10 perfectly until now, even did the November update seamlessly as far as I could tell. Will investigate when I get home later.


Thanks to everyone who has replied

psychic_teabag

I think I'd try the standalone memtest86 tester - not only because it tests memory pretty thoroughly, but it eliminates all windows issues (since it boots directly from bios), and it runs for quite a long time so would act as a soak test in case it is a temperature thing, for example.

But it would just be running in VGA mode, so if it is a video card problem, it may not push that hard enough to break it.

mwddrwg

psychic_teabag wrote: »

I think I'd try the standalone memtest86 tester - not only because it tests memory pretty thoroughly, but it eliminates all windows issues (since it boots directly from bios), and it runs for quite a long time so would act as a soak test in case it is a temperature thing, for example.

But it would just be running in VGA mode, so if it is a video card problem, it may not push that hard enough to break it.

Sounds like a good option but where do I get hold of the memtest86 tester? Is it embedded in the BIOS or am Ì being thick?

forgotmyname

Safe mode will be F8 after the boot option, or your initial F7 boot option may include safe mode.

Seems win10 maybe difficult to start in safe mode with F8, usually MS options are click start.. how when it wont start and they wrongly suggest that if you dont get a startup screen then it cannot be fixed anyway.

Another backwards step for win 10.