PC lockup on streaming video, now with sparkly green dots

[cellular]

Last week I had a random lockup (1st time) where I was watching youtube and the pc freezes and weird discolouration/dots pop up all over the shop. Have to hard reboot but all ok so shrugged it off.

Now the GF tells me it happened to her last night and this morning I got it again....
Sound like the video card on it's way out?


edit: Should note that I've been playing The Witcher 2 with no problems this whole time, seems to be to do with streaming through the browser

[cellular]

So no-one's had a similar experience to this before?
I've built my own and fam's rigs for years but never had an issue like this so would appreciate any advice.

[Frog]

Youtube for me was displaying green static, but an upgrade to latest drivers fixed that (gtx580).
If I play video on youtube, the first one plays Ok - but subsequent video's download so slow- they are unwatchable - regardless of video size

[D_W_Y]

just because a game is working fine doesnt mean applications will have zero problems. I'd try swapping out the gpu and leaving it for a day or so see if it happens.

[cellular]

Thanks for the replies
I have the latest drivers (at least they stopped the 'driver not responding' crashes I was getting, common with the 560 Ti apparently) but I just find it weird that such a GPU heavy game like W2 won't have any issues but simple video streaming does?

Don't have a spare GPU (got a 9700pro in the cupboard hah) so guess if it keeps happening I'll just take it back - only 6 months into the 1 year warranty

[Bold Eagle]

Get some baseline data so more informed input can be supplied. It sounds like a Video Card dying but.......very coarse observation.

What is this PC you are referring to (please list the parts)?

What are the baseline temps of these parts?

The info you have provided so far allows for wild guesses at best.

[outbackozzie]

I had a similar problem once, and it ended up being the main memory. I'd be running a memtest recovery cd.

[cellular]

Originally Posted by Bold Eagle

Get some baseline data so more informed input can be supplied. It sounds like a Video Card dying but.......very coarse observation.

What is this PC you are referring to (please list the parts)?

What are the baseline temps of these parts?

The info you have provided so far allows for wild guesses at best.

ummm my specs are in my sig mate, unless there's more info I can give? No overclocks or anything, running as stock
As for temps;
cpu is ~ 33 idle, 55-60 load
gpu is ~ 30 idle, 60-65 load

Originally Posted by outbackozzie

I had a similar problem once, and it ended up being the main memory. I'd be running a memtest recovery cd.

hmmm forgive my ignorance but a quick google tells me about memtes86 which sounds like a bootable cd that tests memory? Does it basically give a diagnosis of the memory's current state?

[Frog]

Yes memtest is a bootable cd you have to create
Also ms make a memory tester
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp#top

[cellular]

So it's still happenning on and off, decided I'll take it back to Netplus for a replacement (1 year warranty and only 8 months old). Spoke to guy on the phone about it and he said no worries bring the card in and they'll have to have a look and send it off if faulty.

My problem is he said it will take a MINIMUM of 4-5 weeks, no replacement card in meantime or anything..... wtf does this sound right to ppl here?

[cellular]

k so guessing from the no replies to the above that I'm an idiot and that's a normal practice used buy pc shops

Happened again last night but got a screeny for y'all this time (locked up solid and had to hard reset)


any thought?

[mike-s]

as others have suggested, memtest86 is the go, I searched around for video memory test options and the only things i can find are these two.

If you have multiple memory sticks, have you considered paring it back down to run one at a time to see if you can isolate the problem?

[Psychotria]

That screenshot is very familiar to me because I saw it many times only 3 or 4 weeks ago -- EXACT issue. Was running ASUS 560TI in SLI (factory clocked at 900MHz). Decided it might be the SLI so tried each card separately; i.e. not in SLI. Same problem. I tried underclocking and I think that made a difference but by that stage I'd bought a GTX580... never did work out the problem with the ASUS card(s) :-(

[cellular]

Originally Posted by mike-s

as others have suggested, memtest86 is the go, I searched around for video memory test options and the only things i can find are these two.

If you have multiple memory sticks, have you considered paring it back down to run one at a time to see if you can isolate the problem?

I'll give that a try this evening thanks mike

Originally Posted by Psychotria

That screenshot is very familiar to me because I saw it many times only 3 or 4 weeks ago -- EXACT issue. Was running ASUS 560TI in SLI (factory clocked at 900MHz). Decided it might be the SLI so tried each card separately; i.e. not in SLI. Same problem. I tried underclocking and I think that made a difference but by that stage I'd bought a GTX580... never did work out the problem with the ASUS card(s) :-(

hmmm interesting, so what did you do with the old 560Ti's? RMA'd?

[Psychotria]

Originally Posted by cellular

hmmm interesting, so what did you do with the old 560Ti's? RMA'd?

Actually, I still have them