bassmanret on 13/12/2011 at 13:31
Hey,
I'm fairly sure my GeForce 275 GTX died this morning, or at least was showing its first signs of eminent death, but am looking for confirmation.
I was playing The Witcher (1), when the screen went completely green for about 15-20 seconds, then completely black. At some point during this, I heard a slight crackling, sizzling noise. Then, a message came onscreen that my monitor was shutting down. My PC seemed to still be running, all fans and lights working as usual. Then, I smelled a burnt smell similar to a burnt match. I immediately crapped myself and held in the power button until the PC turned completely off.
I opened the case, and carefully examined everything inside the case with a very bright flashlight. I saw no evidence of anything fried, melted, discolored, or damaged in any way.
After about 10 minutes of searching for problems, I reluctantly tried turning it back on, and it booted up with no problems whatsoever. In Windows Explorer, I checked that all hard drives were accessible, all devices were "working properly" in device manager, and I could connect to the internet. I did not try starting up any game, though.
Lastly, I shutdown (with no problems or hiccups) and unplugged the power cord.
So, this is a definite symptom of a dying graphics card, right? Could it be anything else? I'd just hate to drop the cash for a new card, then find out the problem is actually something else, so I'd like to be sure. I thought it was an excellent card up until now.
Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome!
Ladron De La Noche on 13/12/2011 at 17:35
It's possible there is a problem with the Graphics Card or the Power Supply Unit. You have to find the problem component and replace the part, whether it is the PSU or GPU. Run any graphics intensive game again and max the graphics, everything. Keep the computer case open and observe. I've read many times of the burning smell symptom and it usually turns out to be a blown PSU. If you have extra working parts to swap in and out that would be very helpful in finding the problem. Best of luck and let us know if the issue has been resolved.
GeForce 275 GTX Spec Power Requirements (
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_275_us.html) link
Thermal and Power Specs:
Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) 105 C
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W) 219 W
Minimum Recommended System Power (W) 550 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin x2
Use HWmonitor to check GPU temps and PSU voltages. (
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html) link
Volitions Advocate on 14/12/2011 at 02:42
Ladron is right.
I've had both a PSU and a GPU burn out on me. The GPU didn't have much of a smell unless i smelled it up close, whereas the PSU was strong enough for most of the room i was in when it went, They both have that capgun kinda smell to me. Or like when you drop a power adapter that is plugged in into water.. (shutup!)
My money is on the PSU, but you can't know for sure until you do some troubleshooting.
When my GPU went my computer wouldn't even POST.
bassmanret on 14/12/2011 at 09:45
Thank you both for the replies!
I played around a bit, and found that the PC seems fine in all respects except when I try to start any game, I get:
- black screen (no more green screen, no more "zaps" nor burnt smells)
- "monitor is shutting down" message
- even though the PC seems to be running fine, I have no monitor. Ctr-Alt-Del nor Alt-Tab do anything. I seem to have no choice except to force a hard shutdown (hold in the power button).
- after a hard shutdown and reboot, I seem to be able to do just about anything (email, browsing, documents, etc.) except play games.
This seems to me to be a GPU problem, as it seems that as soon as I do anything requiring the use of the GPU, I lose the monitor, no?
Alternatively, it occurred to me that the problem could possibly be in the PSU-to-GPU connectors (2 x 6-pins) to the card. Rereading the info at Ladron De La Noche's link to HWmonitor, it looks like it can check this, so this will be my next step after work tonight.
Again, thanks!
bassmanret on 17/12/2011 at 14:30
Update:
I've determined that the GPU is in fact dead. I installed a new PSU and the same "monitor shutting down" problem occurred, most recently during startup, not only when trying to start a game. I've ordered a new GeForce 560 Ti 2GB card, and am using an old GeForce 8400 GS I had lying around (for just such an occasion) until the new one arrives.
On the positive side, now I have no choice but to finally play my backlog of games purchased from Good Old Games instead of my newer games. Started Evil Genius, and am liking it so much I may just put Witcher on hold when I get my new card and continue with it.
I may just be lucky, but out the half dozen NVIDIA cards I've owned, this is the first I've ever had "die" on me.
From all similar cases I've been able to find through various searches online, the one unique symptom that I experienced was the "green screen" prior to death. I don't know for sure, but perhaps this symptom indicates that the problem is the GPU and not the PSU.
