Graphics card becomes unstable and eventually fries windows

InsaneXade · 25 Mar 2017

I'm an advanced pc user, not only do I use them but I also can repair 95% of their problems. But there's always that 5% I cannot fix and my mom's computer has me at my wits end. At first I assumed it was her 1 year old graphics card, a 510, I think, so I recogmended that she upgrades it from a low end to a medium end card, still Nividia, because I just don't like AMD cards.

Anyhow, the new card, which is a 710 has the same problems. It starts randomly crashing with the typical messed up graphics. Sometimes it will recover but most of the time it locks up the pc requiring a forced shutdown. Web GL errors is normally the first sign of an impending crash but it crashes at any time. The screen becomes black at random times. I have checked and rechecked the connections and when I upgraded her card I switched to a new slot so it would get more air. The longer windows 10 is installed, the more unstable it gets until all it does is kick up a blue screen error on boot, saying it cannot load.

I've reinstalled windows 5 times, even switching hard drives and hard drive cables, hoping to fix her problem to no avail. We check daily for driver updates, thinking it's a driver problem but I'm not 100% sure about that. I've redid my windows media USB disk so it's up to date. It'd very frustrating for her. She will be in the middle of a game and suddenly BOOM! the graphics card crashes. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Caledon Ken · 25 Mar 2017

Hi InsaneXade. Welcome to the Tensforums @InsaneXade

Have you checked if there maybe a newer BIOS for the device?

Have you reviewed current BIOS settings.

At a minimum I would reset existing BIOS with the changing of the card. Let it redetect all devices. Before loading defaults I would document current settings.

The cleanest way to rest is either with jumper or CMOS battery removal.

Ken

InsaneXade · 25 Mar 2017

well, it was doing this before the upgrade.....but I did not do that when I went from amd to nividia. My own scratch built computer never had an issue with switching graphic chipset makers. I've swapped back and forth a number of times with the same exact motherboard and never once had a problem. but I'll try that and see. Mom's is an AMD processor motherboard, the same as mine (I prefer intel but amd was cheaper) so maybe her board might be slightly different than mine, despite both being MSI boards

alphanumeric · 25 Mar 2017

Are you installing the graphics driver manually or letting Windows update do it?

alphanumeric · 25 Mar 2017

Power supply meets the requirements fore that card?

InsaneXade · 25 Mar 2017

yes, the psu is a very powerful one and meets the requirements hands down.
I am manually installing the graphics card directly from the site because windows only does a generic card that has a max 800x600 and a black border all around the screen. The black border is also on the MSI screen and for the life of me I cannot remeber it having this issue until the pc became unstable the first time around. The newest windows 10 reinstall I only installed the bare bones driver installation. No physx or any other bells and whistles. I did this once before and it had no effect but that was on a custom reinstall after using the gpu driver remover.

I pulled the cmos battery and the power plug for a while. Let's see if that had any changes.

alphanumeric · 25 Mar 2017

I'm running a GT640 here. I just wait a little after a clean install and Windows installs the NVidia driver for me. Usually happens in about 5 minutes. I'll be doing my usual settings changes and my screen will flicker. Then after a reboot I get my full triple monitor setup with the correct resolutions.

InsaneXade · 25 Mar 2017

I've waited over an hour for it before and hers won't do that. This is cvery weird, She will be playing bubble witch 3 on facebook when she evither gets the web gl has encountered a problem message or the card crashes. Near the end, before the bsod loop, it can be sitting idle and it does that. I just don't get it. I have a Nvidia gforce gtx 650 with an AMD 6 core processor and it doesnt do that. I can play bubble witch 3, 3d model on both Blender and Marvelous Design plus have second life nd firefox open with multiple tabs open and still not crash my graphics card. MD might crash sometimes but that's only if I do something it doesnt like, grabbing a button with a move tool instead of the button tool for example. I did once have a graphics card problem while playing champions online, but that was actually programmer error, despite them being unwilling to admit it. After the CO crew updated a few things on their end the instanced mission crash went away.

My card is older than hers now and it is more stable. What gives? Is there another possible cause to this besides the obvious driver crash? it's unlikely the gaming PSU is too weak for the graphics card but at this point I'm willing to consider anything.

alphanumeric · 25 Mar 2017

AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz, NVIDIA nForce 630a / GeForce 7025 chip-set , NVIDIA Geforce GT 640 2 GB PCIe. When I used to game on this PC I installed the NVidia drivers manually with no issues. I have no idea what version they were though. I don't game on this PC now that I own an XBOX. And even when I do, I just use what Windows update installed.
If you have clean installed since installing the new Video card, and are still getting issues, Its either a hardware issue, or driver issue. I'd use a slightly older driver if possible and see what happens.

clam1952 · 25 Mar 2017

Maybe check the temperatures of the GPU and CPU under load, as it's happening with two cards I would say it's something else causing the crash, anything helpful in event viewer?

Graphics card becomes unstable and eventually fries windows

[SOLVED] Graphics card becomes unstable and eventually fries windows