Graphics card strobing ONLY on Windows 7 login screen...?

esuhl

I've just bought a second-hand graphics card on eBay.

I installed the latest drivers, run some stress tests, and it seems to be working okay... except on the Windows 7 login screen, where (~40% of the time so far) the display flickers and strobes.

The strobing hasn't appeared (so far) during the boot process or when I boot into Linux, and disappears after I log in to Windows. It's just the login screen.

When the problem occurs, I can log into Windows and everything works fine. But if I log out and return to the Win7 login screen, the flickering/strobing returns again.

I notice that the monitor flicks off (then on again) when I log out -- as if the resolution or refresh rate is being changed...(?) Is it possible that the settings for the login screen are somehow messed up? Can I change them?

I'm just wondering whether I've bought a card that's about to fail, or if I need to change the display settings of the login screen somehow...?

Any tips? Thanks in advance!

esuhl

Hmmm... Now its strobing on the login screen every time. And sometimes, when a UAC elevation prompt should causes the screen to dim... it goes completely black. And nothing seems to fix that other than a reboot.

I'm guessing it's a faulty card. :-(

dekaspace

Could be the monitor could be the card, could be loose power connectors.


Difficult on next steps, if its a small card or you have reasonable knowledge it may just be a case of taking the back off and blowing any dust out and putting new paste on and putting it back together.


Quite often with things like this the heatsink (the metal casing) can either get nudged out of position so the chip isn't passing heat good enough, a fan cable has come loose, or even a damaged fan.


Do you hear the fan when its on? Assuming its not a card from past 2 years which only turn on fans when it reaches like 55 degrees run HWmonitor which tells you the temps of your components and speed of fans, if fans are showing as 0% and its a older card either the sensor, or the fan or the cable is dead, if fan is on check the rpm and the temps, many modern graphics cards should be 30-50 degrees idle.


Final thing it may be the screen you are using, monitors are generally ok but tvs can't handle the resolution changes quickly and your pcs boots in low resolution and then goes to the preset one when in Windows, if your tv can't handle it it may show a black screen or go dead for a few seconds, this can also mess with Windows.

AndyPix

Try changing the Theme.
Iv seen this before when the installation takes the default resolution and dpi from the currently installed graphics hardware, and then when that is changed these issues arise...


Have a fiddle around with the theme and size settings (100%, 125%) and ill try to find the registry fix for you

Le_Kirk

I would uninstall Linux and install Windows 10!

esuhl

Cheers, all.

I've removed the card and cleaned the excess dust off the fans and heatsink fins. And I've cleaned the gold contacts with isopropyl alcohol. I've reseated the card, checked the power connectors, and tried using a different HDMI cable in the second HDMI socket... But the problem persists.

Both fans spin up. And when I ran the stress test, the card never got above 80 degrees C. Apparently the card's rated maximum temperature is 98C. It idles at around 30C.

I even ran a CPU stress test at the same time as the video stress test (to check that the PSU could cope with the load), and it ran fine.

dekaspace wrote: »

Final thing it may be the screen you are using, monitors are generally ok but tvs can't handle the resolution changes quickly and your pcs boots in low resolution and then goes to the preset one when in Windows, if your tv can't handle it it may show a black screen or go dead for a few seconds, this can also mess with Windows.

It's a monitor that has been working perfectly until I changed graphics cards. :-/

esuhl

AndyPix wrote: »

Try changing the Theme.
Iv seen this before when the installation takes the default resolution and dpi from the currently installed graphics hardware, and then when that is changed these issues arise...

Have a fiddle around with the theme and size settings (100%, 125%) and ill try to find the registry fix for you

Thanks. Changing the theme and size settings hasn't made any difference.

Sometimes now, the login page will appear correctly for 5 or 10 seconds, before suddenly strobing.

I tried downgrading to the previous major version of the graphics drivers, and doing a clean installation to remove any custom settings, to no avail.

I left the PC on overnight, on the strobing login screen to see if it would eventually crash, but it was still strobing and let me login in the morning.

I enabled the 3D text screensaver, and a few times the screensaver has run for a minute or two before the screen goes black and the PC stops responding. When I reboot, I get a message reporting a "Blue Screen" saying that a dump file has been created.

If I uninstall the graphics driver completely, the problem disappears.

Given the slightly random behaviour, I'm still thinking this must be a hardware fault...?

esuhl

I've run another few stress tests (for 10 or 20 minutes), and the card works fine.

But every so often (twice in the last hour) the PC completely freezes and the screen goes black. This is just when I'm browsing the web with nothing else open.

I found this in the event log, but I've already tried reinstalling the drivers several times, so I think I'll have to return it as faulty.

Event_14,_nvlddmkm wrote:

The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\Video7
9753(2068) 00000000 00000000

the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table

DoaM

Is the PSU still OK?

AndyPix

In power management, try setting the card for maximum performance
See if that helps ?

esuhl

DoaM wrote: »

Is the PSU still OK?

I think so. It's a decent 750W Corsair model. It coped fine when I simultaneously ran CPU and GPU stressors. No problems when I use my old video card.

AndyPix wrote: »

In power management, try setting the card for maximum performance
See if that helps ?

Thanks. I tried that earlier, but the PC just crashed again.

Definitely looking like a hardware fault. The card arrived wrapped in bubble-wrap without an anti-static bag, so I wonder if it's been damaged by ESD.