PLEASE HELP. Video card faiilure? Need to do important work today!!

[IceHot]

Hi all,

So I believe I may have cooked my video card but I would like some help to make sure.

I bought diablo 3 on Friday. I played for about 2.5 hours when I realized I had forgot to turn my fan speed up on my GPU. (evga geforce 280 GTX. Sucker always ran hot.) I checked the temperature and it was at 99-100C. I quickly exited diablo 3. Turned the fan speed up and put the open side of the case right against my air conditioner. I watched as the Temperature of the card plummeted to 25C while idling. Reloaded Diablo 3. Checked the temperatures every 10 minutes. It never got about 75C. Figured under full load that's fine. I went to bed around 2:00am Saturday morning. Loaded diablo 3 around 11:00am Saturday morning. Turned the fan speed and air conditioner up. Temperatures seemed fine 70-75C. Played til 3pm in the afternoon. Played without a problem. Decided when I got back around 7:00 to wait for a buddy before loading diablo 3. Played CS:GO (yup, have beta key.). Did the same thing. Turned the fan speed up. Turned the air conditioner on. All of a sudden in the middle of the game the computer locked up and I got pink pixels filling the screen! I had to hold down the power button to turn the computer off. Turned back on fine. Figure it glitched. Started playing again, keeping an eye on the temps as always. BOOM same thing. Reseated the videocard thinking maybe the moving it around knocked it loose. Go to play diablo 3 with my friend a few hours later. 10-15 minutes in same problem. This time though when I went to start up the computer wouldnt load. I get to the windows login screen. When I go to login it says "loading windows" and after a few seconds the computer screen flickers blue dots and looses signal with the computer. Green light turns orange. I thought maybe the updated drivers I got for Diablo 3 were causing it. Start up in safe mode (no problem doing that and still isn't now.) Rolled back the drivers. Didn't really work. Let it sit from 2:00am sunday morning til about 10:00am this morning. Tried it again. Through magic (as I have no idea what I did) I was able to load the computer normally. Started playing diablo 3. Checked the temps every 2 minutes as I was very nervous. Temperatures looked fine. But as always about 15 minutes in the computer crashed. Same thing. Pink pixels all over the screen. Went to start up. Won't start up unless in safe mode where it loads fine.

Everyone tells me the card shouldn't be "fried" if I can get on in safe mode. Is it possible that when I ran it hot for the 2-3 hours it killed it's ability to operate under any load? Any idea's suggestions or hope would be great. Please don't suggest trying another video card as I do not have access to one. I just moved 2 months ago and have no one to ask for help.

I really need a card ASAP as in today as I need to be able to do work from home. (Im a mechanical engineer and have a huge deadline to hit and I need a decent video card that can hadle dual screen display while I use 3D modeling software such as Solid Works.) As well as work I'd like to be able to play all and any PC games without having to worry about settings.

If you do have suggestions please list bang for buck cards as well as a little better than that? I don't wanna spend much more than 200 if I don't need too 250-300 is max price.

SYSTEM SPECS:
Windows 7 professional x64
6GB Corsair Dominator
NVIDA Geforce 280 GTX (dead?)
750W power supply (6 pin, 6+2 connector for video card)
EX58 UD5 gigabyte motherboard
750GB hard drive


Thank you in advance for your help!

[RickyTick]

For a video card in that price range, your probably looking at a GTX 560 Ti or a Radeon HD 7850.

I would try working with the drivers. Maybe try a driver cleaner and then re-install the latest WHQL driver from Nvidia.

[IceHot]

What about the 5500ti? Is that a decent replacement card? It's possible I just buy that and use it for 15-20 days til I can order a new one. I did try installing the old ones and updated drivers. I've tried so much. Any more detail on exactly how to fix it? Next chance I get I am going to plug the "broken" video card into a friends computer and see if it works. If it does with no issue then I know it's software.

[IceHot]

This is the error. I just got another video card for the time being. Anyone familiar with this?

Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Files that help describe the problem
WD-20120603-1206.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml

View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer.

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 117
BCP1: FFFFFA8007BC74E0
BCP2: FFFFF8800498F6C0
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1


Thank you in advance!

[RickyTick]

You might give this a try.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/179159-troubleshoot-application-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

[IceHot]

Hey,

I tested and tested and tested the card. was not able to get it to work right. Finally took it to the IT guy where I work. He didn't have the correct connectors but pointed out it might have a warranty. Checked out the warranty. LIFETIME. So I sent it in for replacement. Thanks for all the help.

Just out of curiosity though, is the 550ti a good replacement for the GTX 280?

[RickyTick]

No, you need to step up to the 560Ti.