July 26, 2013

Graphics Card Installed, Problems Continue!

Right, this is getting really annoying.  After dinner, I sat down in front of the open side of my computer and gently installed the eVGA GT630 I purchased last week.  At first, it looked like everything was going smoothly... the drivers installed without freezing, which just confirms that indeed, the PSU was the problem.  Great!  Reboot when prompted, and voila!  Windows boots up...

...Blue Screen of Death.  "Machine_Check_Exception."  Again.

Now I began to invent curse words.  If you ever hear me say "serathilk", you know I'm really pissed.  I rebooted in safe mode, removed drivers, and tried again.  After a couple of tries (with BSoDs) , install happened, rebooted, and the screen came back up in 1440 x 900 resolution!  Yay! 

Then it BSoD'ed again.  The only thing I can figure is that, somewhere, my motherboard hates the GT630.  Or everything hates ME, one of the two.

I've sent a support request to eVGA, maybe I'll hear from them this weekend.

I really wanted to play Kerbal Space Program this weekend, too.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:08 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 177 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Have you tried running MemTest86 and prime95 for a while, just to make sure your RAM, CPU and motherboard are still working correctly? Maybe also run a complete SMART test of your harddisk (it could be corrupting your data...)
All of these aren't directly related to the new graphic card but strange things happen from time to time.

Posted by: christoph at July 27, 2013 06:36 AM (lj3PR)

2 Hard to do when you BSoD all the time.  And why would any of that only show up with the new graphics card installed?

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 08:00 AM (HY5zN)

3 I don't know why it would only occur with the new graphics card. Nonetheless if I was in your situation this would be part of my procedure - just so that I could be fairly certain it's not one of those other components that's faulty.

With regards to BSoDs: MemTest86 is directly bootable (from CD/DVD, floppy disc or flash drive); the hard disk check can be done from any live linux distribution that has smartctl installed (e.g. clonezilla, if I remember correctly). prime95 will probably also run in Windows' safe mode (if that keeps BSoDs from appearing).

At least it would interesting if your system also randomly crashes or reboots when running an OS other than Windows.

Posted by: christoph at July 27, 2013 09:56 AM (lj3PR)

4 Not a chance in the world am I going to install Linux for this... I'll buy a new computer first.

I've put the old GT240 back in, and once again, no problems exist.  It's like nothing was wrong.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 10:19 AM (NvF/3)

5

Regarding Memtest, there are lots of Linux distros that have LiveCDs.  Put it in, boot from it, no installation.

 

But it sure sounds like a bum video card.

Posted by: RickC at July 27, 2013 10:26 PM (WQ6Vb)

6 EVGA gave up on it a long time before I did... I've got a RMA and shipping label to use to send it in for replacement.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 27, 2013 11:23 PM (NvF/3)

7 Probably for the best.  Out of curiosity I did a quick web search for machine check exceptions and video cards, and it seems to generally be either overheat situations or bad vram.  Overheating at boot seems really unlikely unless you changed your desktop wallpaper to be Unigine Heaven or something.

Posted by: RickC at July 28, 2013 10:50 AM (WQ6Vb)

8 Nothing that fun, I'm afraid... just a lovely little picture by Weee.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 28, 2013 02:28 PM (NvF/3)

9 I was joking.  Unigine's a GPU benchmark program.

Posted by: RickC at July 28, 2013 07:14 PM (WQ6Vb)

10 I know.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 28, 2013 08:22 PM (NvF/3)

11 Have you heard from EVGA yet?
I got tired of the integrated graphics on my PC this weekend, so I went out and got a 650ti boost.  I went from ~25fps in WoW on a setting somewhere between the lowest two presets to 70-100fps on Ultra.  Pricey, but awesome.  Only drawback is the card is a little loud when you're gaming.  I am considering an aftermarket cooling solution for that.

Posted by: RickC at August 05, 2013 02:57 PM (A9FNw)

12 Rick, it just made it to EVGA's California HQ this morning... one week via UPS. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at August 05, 2013 06:16 PM (6j8A+)

13 Hope the new one works right for you!

Posted by: RickC at August 06, 2013 08:15 PM (WQ6Vb)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
29kb generated in CPU 0.0305, elapsed 0.1486 seconds.
47 queries taking 0.1273 seconds, 288 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.