Video card problems?

[Tuck]

My temperatures seem pretty normal, but occasionally during COD BLOPS play, I lose my video signal. The machine keeps running, but the video just craps out. "No signal."

I assume this is a video card issue. Is there any saving it, or is it time to replace?

It's an EVGA Geforce 8800GT. It's a little over 3 years old, as is my home built machine. The drivers are up to date.

If it is the card, can anyone recommend a reasonably priced new card? I'd really rather not put a $300 card into this machine.

[Duke{CLR}]

Have you tried posting on the EVGA forums? They have a lot of a lot of people there that live for this kind of thing.

EVGA GeForce 6, 7, 8 and 9 Series

[Raijin]

i would be willing to go out on a limb here and state to me that it sounds like the crad is fine when your not in game and all is good? ...and if thats the case and when you get into any kind of graphic intensive related programs that utilize more then 75% of the card that is where you start noticing these incurrsions, if so i would say remove the card and dissasemble the fan and heat shroud ...give it a good cleaning and apply new thermal compount like artic silver or arctic ceramic compound and put it back together and give it another try ...sounds like it just needs a good cleaning

[Donziboy2]

Does the sound work and game keep playing?

If so its drivers.

[WalkinTarget]

Sounds like the classic cold solder joint issues that have been affecting 8800 cards for quite some time now. I've got a few cards that I tried to fix, but not a lot of luck. Yes, you bake them in the oven. It won't last for more than six months in most cases.

Google '8800 bake in oven' and follow the hilarity as thousands of gamers bake their beloved video cards in Mom's oven. You even find people buying 'dead' cards on Ebay, baking them, then reselling them as working cards to some poor schmuck.

[Tuck]

i would be willing to go out on a limb here and state to me that it sounds like the crad is fine when your not in game and all is good? ...and if thats the case and when you get into any kind of graphic intensive related programs that utilize more then 75% of the card that is where you start noticing these incurrsions, if so i would say remove the card and dissasemble the fan and heat shroud ...give it a good cleaning and apply new thermal compount like artic silver or arctic ceramic compound and put it back together and give it another try ...sounds like it just needs a good cleaning

Thanks.

[Tuck]

Does the sound work and game keep playing?

If so its drivers.

Yes, the sound keeps working. It's just the video that craps out.

BTW, I updated my video and sound drivers just before installing COD BO. But keep in mind it was doing it before the update, too, when playing COD 4. So far it's only done it during game play. When my wife is Facebooking, no problems.

All in all, this error has only happened maybe 6-8 times over the past 6 months or so.

[Tuck]

Sounds like the classic cold solder joint issues that have been affecting 8800 cards for quite some time now. I've got a few cards that I tried to fix, but not a lot of luck. Yes, you bake them in the oven. It won't last for more than six months in most cases.

Google '8800 bake in oven' and follow the hilarity as thousands of gamers bake their beloved video cards in Mom's oven. You even find people buying 'dead' cards on Ebay, baking them, then reselling them as working cards to some poor schmuck.

Yeah, I read about that I think I'll pass on that, though, and just get a new card.

Can anyone suggest a new card for this machine? PCI-E. I wouldn't want to spend much more than $100.

[Raijin]

well if your in a pinch with money these would probably be your 2 best bets

Newegg.com - XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Newegg.com - XFX PVT98GYAF3 GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

keep in mind the 9800 gt is the updated version of the 8800gt and is basically the same card

where as the ati card is a whole new package and would require you to strip your machine of your nvidia drivers and install ATI which isnt so bad as i have moved from nvidia to ATI and must admit they run better with the error on noise from the fan as they over amp their fans, which isnt a bad sign as they keep the gpu's cooler but with added noise

[Donziboy2]

I actually have an odd problem sometimes.

Everyone once in a while my screen goes blank for a second then comes back on some games if ive been playing for hours.

If i drop out of the game ill get a message saying something on the lines of nvidia driver stoped responding. Every once and a while the screen goes blank and the game keeps goin, I actually had this problem in ARMA 2 when i was in multiplayer flying an apache threw some mountains, my gunner was able to guide me threw to a safe landing sit and i proceeded to tab out of game and close it. Then i started game and came back in.

Now i know how pilots feel when they do there blind flight test, only with no instruments.