# Video Card Diagnostics??



## croix

Can any one tell me if there is a tool that I can use to run diagnostics on my video card? 

I have been having issues with BSOD's and some program crashes, and I used memtest86, and I had no errors. I also ran a few disk checking programs, and no problems there either. The only other thing I have on the system is a CDRW drive, and I havent had any issues with burning or any burning program crashes.

So Im thinking that my issue is going to be my video card, but I dont have another one laying around to test with. Is there a tool that can test my video card, along the lines of what memtest86 does for RAM?

Thanks, 
Colin


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## UncleMacro

Unless you are getting corrupted screens, then it seems like you don't have enough information to point to the video board yet. I'm not aware of any thorough video board tests for 2D mode. You can run some 3D benchmarks like 3DMark to stress the video board but that's mostly 3D and you just have to look at the output and see if it's corrupted. There are some simple tests in DXDiag (Direct X Diagnostic program) which check the 2D and 3D functionality which I've seen die on bad video boards but it doesn't really check that much. If you want to run it then just click "Start", then "Run", then type in dxdiag and click ok. Go to the "Display" tab and there are a couple of test buttons you can push. They are far from thorough.

You really haven't exhausted the easy testing which looks for other sources of your problem. If you're just getting crashes running non-game programs then it could still be your motherboard, CPU, or power supply. To test those possibilities download Prime95. It stresses your CPU, RAM, and motherboard. If your machine can run it for a few hours without errors then it's a good sign that those parts are solid. Just run Prime95 then click "Torture test" under the "Options" menu, select "Blend", and then press "OK". Run Prime95 and 3DMark simultaneously to really stress your machine.

You can also try Sandra. It has some benchmarks which stress invidual parts of your machine. You might be able to find something weak by stressing invidual components.

Other than that, I'd just borrow a friend's video board and see if the crashes go away.


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## croix

DX Diag ran with no problems for me, but Prime95 failed out. This is the result of the torture test.

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+
CPU speed: 2082.29 MHz
CPU features: RDTSC, CMOV, PREFETCH, MMX, SSE
L1 cache size: 64 KB
L2 cache size: 512 KB
L1 cache line size: 64 bytes
L2 cache line size: 64 bytes
L1 TLBS: 32
L2 TLBS: 256
Prime95 version 23.8, RdtscTiming=1
Best time for 384K FFT length: 33.011 ms.
Best time for 448K FFT length: 38.393 ms.
Best time for 512K FFT length: 41.072 ms.
[Thu Feb 24 10:22:16 2005]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4999993301, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.


anyway to tell from this what is causing teh problem? It fails out almost instantly, no longer than 2 minutes.


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## UncleMacro

People who have overclocked too far tend to get that error. It's usually RAM or CPU but sometimes it's motherboard problems. Your CPU seems to be at it's stock clock rate so I'm guessing you're not an overclocker. But if you are, this error just means you went too far with something and need to scale back.

Assuming you're not overclocked, you might try running the Prime95 torture test but this time try all three different tests. The first test (small FFTs) barely uses RAM so if it gets an error then your CPU is probably at fault. The second test cooks your CPU without using that much RAM. The third is the stress everything test which you've already failed.

The problem is that it's not always that simple to narrow it down to the specific component. You can exclude everything except RAM, CPU, and motherboard. There is also a small chance it's your power supply and it could be bad CPU cooling. Since you've already passed MemTest86, it's probably not your RAM but that's not absolutely guaranteed. The reason Prime95 is used as a torture test is because it stresses everything at once, especially the blend test.

Once you fail Prime95, you make sure your CPU cooling is working properly (fan turning, heat sink seated properly) and then start slowing your CPU or RAM down until it passes. If you have a motherboard which allows overclocking, then you can use it to slow your RAM timings down and underclock your CPU until it passes.


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## croix

heres the bsod that i got while running test 1 in Prime95

Stop: 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0XBF801ADB, 0XF41D7550, 0X00000000)
WINK32K.SYS - ADDRESS BF801ADB BASE AT BF800000, DATESTAMP 41127907


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## UncleMacro

As far as I can tell, that error doesn't really give you any specific idea of the problem. It just means you bombed out of the test - hard. Given that you've passed MemTest86 and failed at the Small FFTs in Prime95, I would guess that your CPU is running too fast or too hot. It's still possible it's your RAM and there's a small chance it's your power supply.

If I were you, I would try to underclock my CPU and relax my RAM timings until it passes the blend test in Prime95. If you know your way around motherboards and BIOSes then that's not particularly difficult assuming you have the right kind of hardware. But if you don't know tons about hardware and motherboards, then that's not really an option. If you're not already up on overclocking (you need the same know-how to underclock), then you might be better off taking this subject up in this forum on motherboards or in a forum specific to your brand of motherboard.


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## TKD2

I noticed one pointer in that output - the tests were passing when the FFT length was equal to or smaller than the size of the CPU's L2 cache. 
That is to say, when the Prime95 instructions are sitting entirely within the CPU itself there is no problem. From that we can deduce it's either the memory or the system chipset which is causing the problem.
Memtest86 passes, hence we're left with the board.

I would imagine this is most likely down to a bios setting, such as shadowing or the like.
What mainboard do you have croix?

EDIT: My mistake, i just noticed a post i overlooked.
_Stop: 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0XBF801ADB, 0XF41D7550, 0X00000000)_ 
This occurs when a program references an incorrect memory address - so we're back to the memory


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## croix

k I took out one of my 512 ram chips, and i still failed out during tests. switched to the other one, and same thing. took out my processor, put in another one that i had laying around, and it turned on, but i could get no video. so i put the old processor back in, and now i cant get into windows unless its in safe mode. i get the same bsod as above everytime now.

just says a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down. if this is the first time, blah blah blah

and then the stop code at the bottom. 

****, someone help, now i cant work at all.

** edit***
ok, i was running prime95 in safe mode and i got a bsod, this time with page fault in non paged area

thats a ram issue correct? so what are the chances of both of my sticks of ram being bad? becuase i fail out even when only one of the sticks is in. they are both new, i got them both from Crucial.com.


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## croix

OK, i said screw it and tried to use system restore to go back a few weeks to get this right ( it ran fine since Dec 12th, the day i built it. Only this week has it been messing up)

well, system restore will not finish, i get a BSOD before it can restore properly.

Heres what I get.

Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL
Stop: 0x000000D1, (0x404E3945, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x404E3945)


I think I can say this no longer needs to be in this forum. Can I get a mod to move it where it needs to go? Maybe change the title if necessary?

Thanks
Colin


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## UncleMacro

> thats a ram issue correct? so what are the chances of both of my sticks of ram being bad? becuase i fail out even when only one of the sticks is in. they are both new, i got them both from Crucial.com.


MemTest86 is considered to be a very thorough test. If you can pass a couple of hours worth of it, the RAM is usually good. If they can still pass MemTest86 individually and together then this problem sounds more like a motherboard problem. If it has problems with two different CPUs (with one of them presumably being older and slower) and your RAM is still passing MemTest86, then you would figure it's probably the motherboard.

You may have to send a Private Message to a moderator to get them to move the thread to a motherboard forum.

BTW, I found another place with a CPU and memory tester (although it sounds less like either of those are your problem). You can download it from here.


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## TKD2

Which mainboard do you have croix?

If both sticks individually don't make any difference then we're pushing further toward the mainboard now.
If you can give me the model number of it i'll do some research into any possible settings/configuration problems there may be with it. I'm pretty good at that sort of stuff you see :tongue:


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