Blocky images & computer turns off - video card issue?

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Hi
Ive been asked to fix two computers by a friend, one is running really slow, but i know they havnt ran disk cleanup, etc, so i think that one will be sorted easily.

The other PC however..........is apparently acting abit odd. At times the screen is going "blocky", and at times turns itself off. Im not too sure about the problem, and cam omly go off what she has told me as i havnt been able to see the pc myself yet. But would this indicate perhaps a video card issue? or could overheating issues cause this problem?

Cheers in advance

 

your best bet is to do a few general maintainence tasks such as updating the bios, updating drivers, running defrag, antivirus/spam software, checking the startup (msconfig) and generally opening up the case and checking everything is ok and giving it a clean. its suprising what a little TLC can can do

grim

 

i've found blocky is either from overheating, failure or driver/software.

is its blocky in games or just running the desktop ?

what are the two system specs ?

grim

 

I have had this exact problem recently. In my case I think my card has failed I am getting a new one soon. Origionally it seemed to be sorted after I formatted my pc (because of a virus) then installed the drivers for the card from the web site.

But the problem has returned, I am not getting blocky images anymore just the random re-boots.

So the problem with your friends card could be PSU failure, card failure or a drivers issue, first get the latest drivers for the card from the web site (in my case it was Nvidia), if that does not work, test your PSU, also check for a virus

I believe the virus I had corrupted the nv4.dll file which is part of the drivers software and even when I reinstalled the drivers it was still causing errors with the graphics only then did I format and re-install but the problem has now returned so I think the card is knackered

 

I am with green on this one. Check your power supply. Pull the old one out and put another one in there and just let it run and see what it does, and while you are doing that make sure the cpu fan stays running too. Don't forget to get those dustbunnies out of it too. Not sure about the blocky thing, never seen this happen before. Usually my screen just went black or flickered before going black. As for the other one once you done your clean disk and a defrag I would run a good anit spyware on it. Spyware will def slow one up too.

 

yeah what Mitz says use a good anti virus prog on it and defrag the comp if it needs it

 

I had this issue at work with one of the users computers. The computer was a GX260 with a built in video card. In this case I had to update the driver and it fixed the problem. However in your case it might be a stand alone graphics card, or built in and it could be many things like whats been mentioned above.

 

Nothing I can add except it may be more than one problem...overheating and a graphics card issue. It's also possible that the graphics card problem is secondary to overheating in the case.

 

Thought id update this

First off, thanks a lot for all the advice given here, its really opened my mind up to other problems i should check, in regards to troubleshooting.......

Back to the problems in hand, there were actually 3 PCs with problems


the blocky images............not blocky at all, what she meant was that bascaly the screen resolution had been changed, took less than 2 mins to complete that one

The slow pc problems were simply, too may processes being run and defragmentation had not been run since the pc arrived home in its brand spanking new box at least 6 months ago

One of the PC's does have a slight overheating problem, due to bad positions of the PC and mega dust. Fan seemed fine, Sorted this for now, said i will call back just to check its running cooler.

There were wireless issues, which the helpful next door neighbour had attempted to fix at an earlier date, and came to the conclusion that he would have to take the PC away to "look at it" to resolve the problem....

Problem resolved, by plugging in the Belkin wireless adaptor

Last problem, my favourite due to the fact ive seem this on so many "helpdesk REAL calls" topics and never believed it one bit.

Pc would not turn on, despite being plugged in.

resolved by switching the ON switch at the back of the power supply


Im chuffed with the results although simple really, i got paid for it, despite insisting i was happy with the experience, also the same person has offered to put a notice up for me advertising my services on the council office board they work at, once i pass my exams
My essentials exam is next month, and im really looking forward to it

 

Good Job Colloghi! You might want to think about another fan inside the case though for the one that over heats if it keeps doing it. Good luck with your exams next month.

 

so after worrying about all these possibly complicated faults they turn out to have the most obvious and simplistic solutions.....isn't that occams razor ? lol

grim

 

You'll find that a HUGE part of IT is fixing little things like this... often, a user won't have described the problem precisely (blocky images), maintenance won't have been performed (mega dust), other "helpful" people will have messed with the PC (wireless), or the most simple things won't have been checked (ON switch). There's a reason why techs ask, "Is it plugged in?" It's hilarious to see a user get upset for us asking that question... then come to find that it WASN'T plugged in. Ah, sweet justice.