Ever seen an error like this?

[Nikomus]

I think it's hardware related, so it's going here. Also, this seems to be the go-to board for advice.. Below is supposed to be a desktop.



It's from the system I put together about a month ago, with the specs over to the side <<< I know it has some cooling issues, and I'm going to reseat the heatsink this weekend. I have a temperature monitor on at all times though, and don't push it above 40°C. I've found no real correlation between activity/temperature and this happening. The system also restarts, and sometimes goes to the "Windows is about to die but is putting some information together to quickly for you to read" blue screen.

I'm hoping some work over the weekend will stop this happening, but I thought I'd ask if people had seen this before. Many thanks,

Niko =)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It could be a problem with your graphics card although I could be wrong.

[Nikomus]

Excuse to buy a new one? Well don't mind if I do... When it's showing this screen by the way, the rest of the computer appears to be operating normally, but is completely unresponsive.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Excuse to buy a new one? Well don't mind if I do... When it's showing this screen by the way, the rest of the computer appears to be operating normally, but is completely unresponsive.

I would first try another card to see if the problem persists.

Can you borrow a graphics card off a friend??

[Nikomus]

I'm not sure, but I could ask around. I'm going to be taking it all apart anyway on Saturday, so I'll see what that does. The graphics card is the only surviving component from the previous system, and it had previously been working fine. Thanks for your input Cat.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My HD3870 is still working after I dropped a heatsink on it!! A resistor got knocked off it and I managed to get it soldiered back on.

[Nikomus]

Good to know they're well built! I could pick up my old card the next time I go home... An ATi X300 SE with no green!

[chuckskull]

I once had a problem almost identical to that, the RAM on my graphics card had fried itself. So I'd go with cat's suggestion of trying another. Probably worth giving safe mode+new drivers a go, but I'd put my money of hardware failure.

[ArtAddiction]

Updated the bios? I had a similar or same problem (about a year ago, so not quite sure) & it turned out that the mobo had the first bios version installed, not the up to date version which included cpu and memory compatibility support.

[dirky]

If you can try using a different input dvi instead of vga or vice versa. To rule out the cable it might be an idea. But chances are its graphics related

[watercooled]

I'd also say it's most likely your graphics card but don't go spending money for a replacement until you've tried a different one.

[Nikomus]

I've updated Catalyst, but it was only slightly out of date from ATi spamming updates. The motherboard BIOS is the latest available. I've switched to the other DVI output, incase that does anything while I wait for another card from somewhere to test. As the errors/crashing happen completely at random, I don't yet know if any of these changes have worked...

[TAKTAK]

looks like a vRAM overheating issue to me.

Have you managed to get into windows at all since the issue arose? If you reboot immediatly does the issue still persist throughout POST etc?

if so, hold a fan near the vRAM on the card (well... near ish...) just to see if it is an overheating issue.

If not then try a different card just to make sure that is definitely is the card.

[Nikomus]

I can get into Windows fine, and it functions normally for hours at a time, but will suddenly do this, blue screen or freeze at random. GPU-Z reports my graphics card core at 38-40°C at all times, because I'm not really using it. I've not got round to re-mounting my CPU heatsink better, so I haven't been playing games or anything too taxing.

I've got the error logs from a blue screen it did last night, if anyone understands those. Googling the BCCode 3b brings up mostly forum posts with people complaining of Windows Vista/7 64bit video card problems.

Some of the memory chips on my graphics card are on the bottom, which is pretty close to my heatsink. Would it be worth switching it down a PCI-E lane? or would Windows not appreciate the first slot not being populated?

Cheers for your help once again guys, one day I might know enough to help someone else!
Niko =)