GPU failing?

hoardofbaboons · November 24, 2024

Hi all,

I seem to have a problem with a rather ancient machine (Dell XPS 8500 transplanted into a SAMA IM01 case with a EVGA's GTX 960, which I got for free) and before I just replace the whole platform maybe y'all could share what you think. It was transplanted two years ago and it's been working perfectly fine. The main purpose is media PC with occasional 1080p gaming (Need For Speed and Ace Combat 7), currently hooked up to a 75" Samsung QN90C. Not sure if important, but the connection on the PC side is through DP and then through DP-HDMI converter -- this is the only way to get 4k@60Hz with this card.

More context: this GPU always overheated because EVGA's firmware kept the fans from spinning much due to how noisy they were, but MSI Afterburner was super helpful and aside from occasional brief hiccups, gameplay was more or less smooth.

In the past few months, the following happened (very intermittently):

1. This happened once: In the middle of playing Ace Combat, gameplay froze into random yellow blocks, after about a minute went to windows without any rebooting.

2. On two occasions the PC woke up and the picture was very strange. Extremely grainy and stretched horizontally, no readable fonts, all smudged like dirt. I think the TV may have been contributing by trying to correct some low res signal. Pulled video out cable, reconnected, all normal after that.

3. PC woke up without any video out, fixed same as in (2) above.

Sadly, I can't be trying different HDMI inputs on the TV side, because the bastard has to be taken off the wall mount just for that. This is windows 10 pro and I am positively unable to see anything related in the event viewer. Yesterday disabled Fast Startup for the heck of it, no issues since, but it hasn't been long enough, given how intermittent the problems are. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Zenny232323 · November 24, 2024

Well, since you've been using it likes this for 2 years, I would assume that, yes, the GPU did indeed fail.
Would you happen to have a CPU with intergrated graphics?
Try running the tv off that if possible.
Also try a different GPU port, could be a bad port.