Graphics Card error?

[I_smile]

I genuinely have no idea what's happening to my PC. I'm assuming it's a graphics card error of some sort but I have never seen this before. For some reason whenever I highlight anything on the screen it goes black but when I restart it gets fixed but the issue happens intermittently.

 

I gotta know if I need to replace my old workhorse because I do a lot of film editing/graphic design work.

 

Thanks in advance!

[cobalt77]

What happens if you press F5 on the desktop when you get the black highlights?

[I_smile]

1 minute ago, cobalt77 said:

What happens if you press F5 on the desktop when you get the black highlights?

The whole background goes black but the icons are still there. It's like I've just put a black wallpaper on.

[Boomwebsearch]

30 minutes ago, I_smile said:

I genuinely have no idea what's happening to my PC. I'm assuming it's a graphics card error of some sort but I have never seen this before. For some reason whenever I highlight anything on the screen it goes black but when I restart it gets fixed but the issue happens intermittently.

 

I gotta know if I need to replace my old workhorse because I do a lot of film editing/graphic design work.

 

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like a GPU driver issue, could you please include the specifications of your computer (include if you have overclocked any components)? Did you change any components or install new software/drivers recently before this issue began occurring?

[I_smile]

23 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

Sounds like a GPU driver issue, could you please include the specifications of your computer (include if you have overclocked any components)? Did you change any components or install new software/drivers recently before this issue began occurring?

I recently did a clean install of the drivers as the issue has been happening for a few weeks. Other than that the last thing I installed was Adobe CC over a year ago. None of the components have been overclocked. The only things I keep installing are the GeForce Experience game ready drivers whenever they come on the app. The computer is around 5 years old at this point as well.

 

Specs are I7 6700

16gb ram

4gb GTX 745 OEM Model

[cobalt77]

1 hour ago, I_smile said:

The whole background goes black but the icons are still there. It's like I've just put a black wallpaper on.

Not the result I was hopping for, if it restored back to normal I would suggest it was your thumbnails cache playing up and to clear it using Disk Cleanup (a utility built into windows). But it is going to be something else, as Boomwebsearch pointed out it could be the GPU driver, also this sort of thing turns up with system file corruption and other issues going on with the windows install.

Time to use some command line tools, do back up anything you don't want to loose, the likelihood of problems is low but better safe than sorry (they are Microsoft tools on a Microsoft OS, just saying):
Press the start key (aka windows key) and type cmd, it should give you the Command Prompt page, left click on Run as administrator.

Type or copy paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

sfc/scannow

Press enter, this last one will check your systems files for corruption, the 3 above it are to make sure if SFC finds anything that it can recover it rather than giving an error.
Close the Command Prompt and restart your computer. If sfc/scannow didn't find any errors (and correct) then it would point strongly towards an issue like drivers.

 

 

[I_smile]

1 hour ago, cobalt77 said:

Not the result I was hopping for, if it restored back to normal I would suggest it was your thumbnails cache playing up and to clear it using Disk Cleanup (a utility built into windows). But it is going to be something else, as Boomwebsearch pointed out it could be the GPU driver, also this sort of thing turns up with system file corruption and other issues going on with the windows install.

Time to use some command line tools, do back up anything you don't want to loose, the likelihood of problems is low but better safe than sorry (they are Microsoft tools on a Microsoft OS, just saying):
Press the start key (aka windows key) and type cmd, it should give you the Command Prompt page, left click on Run as administrator.

Type or copy paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Press enter and let it run, when finished paste in:

sfc/scannow

Press enter, this last one will check your systems files for corruption, the 3 above it are to make sure if SFC finds anything that it can recover it rather than giving an error.
Close the Command Prompt and restart your computer. If sfc/scannow didn't find any errors (and correct) then it would point strongly towards an issue like drivers.

 

 

No errors but I did another reinstall of the drivers and hopefully it'll look work this time. If not, well, I guess it's time to get me a new pc :D