Possible Graphics Card issue

[greshoff]

Hi,
My computer running Windows 7 has suddenly started freezing. No new software, drivers or hardware have been installed. Once frozen the only thing I can do is power off and restart. However on restarting there are a series of blue lines running vertically down the screen and the computer doesn't go any further than the windows logo. If restarted again it says that windows needs to be repaired using the windows disc. I tried this but it couldn't be fixed.
I restored an image I had made and it was back to normal. This has now happened 3 times and I want to try to find out what is causing this to happen.
Is it hardware related, graphics card or software related? I don't have a spare graphics card to try.
Thanks for any advice

Specs
CPU - i5 Ivy bridge
Graphics card- gforce 8600gt
Motherboard- gigabyte- Z77-D3H
Boot drive - Crucial- mx200 ssd

[kalniel]

If it's back to normal after restoring an image (albeit temporarily) then something is happening to the data to change it permanently. That could be software related, if you've got something trashing your data - do a clean install of Windows rather than restoring from an image to check. If it's not software trashing data, then it's hardware and your SDD might be on the way out.

[greshoff]

Are there tools available to test SSD's? I remember thee used to be tools for testing hard drives

[kompukare]

If it's back to normal after restoring an image (albeit temporarily) then something is happening to the data to change it permanently.

Could be something (Windows or a driver) which updates helpfully itself without asking. Had that with a USB Wifi dongle on Win10. No crash or BSOD just connection issues after a restart although still convinced there's something wrong with the Win10 LAN stack in general though.
Mind you, wasn't the 8600GT one of the infamous Nvidia solder defect cards? Certainly 8800GT and 8400GS were.
Anyway, that's pretty slow card and probably no better than iGPU on your chip.
Not that GPU Passmark is a meaningful benchmark, but gives the following scores:
GeForce 8600 GT = 254
Intel HD 4000 = 452
Obviously, only some Ivy Bridge i5s have HD4000 and HD 2500 is slower, but really I doubt you'd be missing much by ditching that card especially if you are running dual channel memory.

[greshoff]

Just had the issue happen again when attempting to wake up the computer. Display remained black and again had to turn off the computer by pressing the power button.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Try the IGP??

[greshoff]

What is the IGP??

[Dayks]

What is the IGP??

It is the integrated gpu on your i5, connect your monitor to your computer using the video connections from your motherboard not the 8600GT (and if that is what you were doing try it the other way around).

[Dashers]

Having vertical lines before the Windows boot process indicates this is a hardware problem.

It sounds like your graphics card has gone wrong - I've seen similar issues with cards that have overheated (usually as a result of poorly applied custom cooling). I would do as suggested in this thread, and remove the graphics card and use the on-board graphics or borrow a known good card to see if it resolves the issue.

I'd check the PSU next, followed by RAM.

[greshoff]

Thanks for the replies, I removed the graphics card and am using the integrated gpu and so far have not had a recurrence of the issue so it does indeed seem to have been caused by a faulty/dying graphics card

[Dayks]

Thanks for the replies, I removed the graphics card and am using the integrated gpu and so far have not had a recurrence of the issue so it does indeed seem to have been caused by a faulty/dying graphics card

Glad your computer is working properly again (and hope it continues to do so.), sorry about your graphics card.