Display Driver Reset Blue Screen

[jim]

Okay, interesting one :/

So I decided to push my gaming system to its limits, and booted up Theme Park Inc. Next thing I know, it's bluescreened with the above error "Display Driver Reset", then something about a timeout. Can't remember exactly.

I reboot, try again, same thing. I reboot, and this time it crashes just when I'm on the desktop.

So I boot into safe mode, and that's fine. Can't run any applications though, so it's hard to test the card. Uninstall graphics card drivers in safe mode, reboot PC into normal mode.

Windows installs default drivers, asks me to reboot. So I reboot. It crashes again, with the same error, on the desktop, before I can even install CCC.

Then I tried to reboot it again, and this time it's crashed on the black "Starting Windows" screen with no message - just completely stalled.

Am I just going to have to crack it open and start swapping components?

[kalniel]

Reset BIOS/CMOS first, but yeah, you could have pushed past the limits and fried something, most likely graphics card. Test another card or test that card in a different computer if you can.

[jim]

Do you reckon it could be caused by overheating?

If so, what software can I use to check it? I need something that writes log files, since it tends to crash unpredictably and so I can't just alt-tab to check temps.

[kalniel]

From what you were describing it sounded like you couldn't even boot up, but you can actually run for a while sometimes?

GPU-Z and rivatuner have monitoring options, but if the stability is worse than it used to be then something has changed - could be something as harmless as dust, or you might have actually damaged something electrically or caused a soldier join to become fragile etc.

Or you could have just corrupted drivers or something related deep in windows - so you could re-install windows and then use the driver CD etc. just as you did first time around.. but it's probably easier to rule out the hardware via replacement/testing in another computer.

[jim]

From what you were describing it sounded like you couldn't even boot up, but you can actually run for a while sometimes?

GPU-Z and rivatuner have monitoring options, but if the stability is worse than it used to be then something has changed - could be something as harmless as dust, or you might have actually damaged something electrically or caused a soldier join to become fragile etc.

Or you could have just corrupted drivers or something related deep in windows - so you could re-install windows and then use the driver CD etc. just as you did first time around.. but it's probably easier to rule out the hardware via replacement/testing in another computer.

Yeah, I couldn't boot up - but since the crash kept getting earlier and earlier in the boot process, I figured that it might be heat.

I took the side off, set a fan blowing into the side of the PC, and now I'm back into Windows. Then I put the side back on, played DiRT 2 for a bit, and after 20 minutes or so it crashed.

I've currently got the side off again, with a fan blowing directly at the card, and just playing Theme Park Inc (requires 4MB graphics card, so not challenging!) got one of the cores up to 83C, which seems far too high to me. Even now, Aero desktop with the side off and fan going, that core is idling at 63C, whilst the other one sits at 51C. I can believe that with the side of the case on, that would be pushing 90-100C, maybe more with a more graphically engaging game.

I'll pull the card out and see what it looks like, maybe there's something obvious physically.

[jim]

Well, I've pulled it out and put some MX-2 on the chips, since the thermal paste looked a bit thin on the ground.

Currently, with the side on, at idle, temperatures just keep rising. At 71C and 57C respectively at the moment... something's up, I'm just not sure what

[jim]

Okay, I found out what was "up", as per the previous post. I forgot to put the backplate on

Problem is, I pulled it out, put the backplate on again, and now it's back to bluescreening all the time. Swapped my 4350 into the PC, and it's working perfectly - no problems at all.

Looking around on the net, a lot of people who've had this problem have also been fine when booting in safe mode. I suspect that when you don't have the right drivers installed, the card isn't pushed very hard at all (i.e. no aero), so it works okay, but as soon as you get the proper drivers going the faults in the card manifest themselves as crashes.

So next question: how much do I sell the card for on the classifieds, bearing in mind the problems.

I can't easily test it further, because I don't have another PSU capable of powering it, so I'm just going to have to sell it as is.