![]() 08/31/2014 at 17:49 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
I think my RAM and video card are failing. The screen will scramble, showing a bunch of lines and the computer would freeze.
![]() 08/31/2014 at 17:53 |
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are you getting any POST beeps when you try to boot? You can start by unplugging the hard drive and boot, then the RAM and boot and so forth. Depending on the beep combination it'll tell you where the fault is. *hopefully* its not the mobo but that is the best excuse to get a new computer
![]() 08/31/2014 at 17:59 |
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No beeps. It boots fine. The freezing happens once I'm already on Windows (I have XP), doing various shit like using the net, playing freecell, etc.
The GX270 does have capacitor problems (VERY common on these models!)
![]() 08/31/2014 at 18:07 |
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take a close look at the capacitors. I had something very similar happen and it was a bad capacitor in the video card.
![]() 08/31/2014 at 18:07 |
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If you're seeing artifacting, it's the graphics card. Do you have any others lying around? Bad RAM would be likely only if you were using onboard/integrated graphics.
Honestly though, if you're seeing artifacting and freezing, it's likely cracked/cold solder joints under the core, not bad capacitors. In my experience, failed capacitors will cause complete failure, it wont partially work for any length of time.
I've brought RAID cards and graphics cards back from the dead by replacing components or doing re-flows, but if the problem happens once, you can pretty much guarantee that it will come back again, no matter what you do about it. For graphics cards, you can reflow them, use better thermal paste, and a way beefier cooler, but in time, the problems will return. I have a pair of ATI 4850s that were both re-flowed and the coolers were replaced. One of them will have the occasional glitch if it's on for more than a few hours at a time.
![]() 08/31/2014 at 18:16 |
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yeah if it's just randomly freezing and stopping I'd said the hard drive - plop it in another computer to check it for bad sectors or issues.
As previously mentioned if you're getting bad artifacts then your video card has propperly pooped the big one.
We have a lot of XP machines that get to the splash screen then crash right there (such a tease) until it's been replaced. Granted out systems are sitting in 160° boxes all day with barely any ventilation so parts failure is pretty common.
![]() 08/31/2014 at 20:45 |
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Does your computer share RAM with an onboard video card? Try removing one stick of RAM at a time and see if it gets better.
![]() 08/31/2014 at 23:32 |
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I'm already doing this, and it did get slightly better with only one stick of RAM vs both.
With both sticks in, I can't even get Windows to completely load (will crash during the XP startup).
I ordered a new video card, and I'll buy new RAM soon.
![]() 09/01/2014 at 08:15 |
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Does it make any difference which stick of RAM is in? Does the system have a pre-boot diagnostic you can run? They usually include a video and memory test.
GX270? Is that a Dell? F10 on boot is usually boot to diagnostic.
![]() 09/01/2014 at 10:20 |
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Yes, it does make a difference which stick is in.
Yes, the GX270 is Dell.
![]() 09/01/2014 at 13:36 |
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sounds like you may just have a bad stick of Ram. I would just replace that before the video card. Unless of course you want a better video card...
![]() 09/01/2014 at 20:26 |
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I have been wanting a better video card, even before this shit happened.
The stock Intel 82865G graphics is limited to 64MB (shared memory with the regular ram), which isn't even enough to watch YT!
I figured it would be nice to have dedicated vRAM (the card I bought has 128MB)
And I am shopping for RAM.