Was listening to the Adam Carolla podcast while doing some work and the whole display corrupted, sound got stuck in a loop and the computer froze up.
Even after turning it off, removing and reseating the video card (Geforce 9800 GTX) and memory I still get corruption:
There’s a photo of the boot screen showing the corruption (there’s some reflection on it too — ignore the white square in the middle which is a ceiling light). I’m pretty sure this is caused by the video card, but if someone else recognizes it as another problem let me know.
This is my main work machine and I can’t really have it down for an extended period of time so I’m packing up the card and bringing it back to NCIX Burnaby which is only a few blocks away.
Posting this from Mel’s computer, for those wondering how I got online. Mine’s better though, and has all my software and data. And it’s MINE.
Update: It’s covered under manufacturer warranty, not NCIX’s since it’s not OEM and is past 30 days. I’ve contacted Galaxy and they’ve sent me a form to fill out and estimate it could take 7 days to get a replacement.
Update 2: I’ve got another card in there now to use and it works fine, so it’s definitely the card. I agree with Rog, the memory on the video card fried. Whatever it is, I should be getting it replaced under warranty.
Good that you’re getting a replacement.
A common cause of videocards flaking out like that is overheating, which I’d especially suspect if it was fine the first month and is less than a year or so old. I’ve never bought a Galaxy card, so no idea what the fan is like on those. I do know the 9800 GTX can get pretty toasty. Hopefully you get no troubles with your replacement card.
Oh and to answer, corruption like that is generally AFAIK a problem in RAM, usually the videocard’s memory but can possibly be system RAM or even a burned out BIOS. Have you tried another videocard in it (got a spare cheap card handy?)?