I have a PC problem I need help please

okay I can play games and stuff for like 20 mins before the screen changes to the main color on the screen. it looks like someone went on ms paint fullscreen and just changes the whole screen to one color does anyone know what that means? I just got a new videocard returning the old one that was busted, did I seriously get another broken one?

AMD FX(tm)-8120 Eight-Core Processor

GeForce GTX 660

ASRock 970 Extreme4

Are you sure your video card isn't overheating? Make sure the fan is working, make sure there isn't a huge clot of dust in it, etc. Secondly, when was the last time you updated your graphics drivers? Do you only have the problem when playing games and not when watching DVDs/BDs as well?

It only happens during games and I have the kind of power supply that's at the bottom and it's blowing onto the videocard but the whole computer have 7 fans in it and it cools my entire room I don't see how overheating could be a problem and I honestly don't know how to check if the drivers are updated lol

@Sammo21 said:

Are you sure your video card isn't overheating? Make sure the fan is working, make sure there isn't a huge clot of dust in it, etc. Secondly, when was the last time you updated your graphics drivers? Do you only have the problem when playing games and not when watching DVDs/BDs as well?

Follow this man's advice.

I remember having a similar problem with a video card I bought a couple of years ago, however my card would do the "one color" thing as well as awful jaggy pixelated effects as soon as I started up my PC, so I knew it was a faulty card. If you're experiencing issues only when playing games or something, then it could be a power issue, driver problems, or overheating.

When I can get the game to close by button mashing alt f4 or getting the manager to open everything goes back to normal so I think it's overheating but I don't know how to fix it my box is a power supply at the bottom blowing into the pc not out

@RobotSquad:

Don't take this as me being a dick, but that doesn't matter. I'm speaking in reference to the video card's fan. I have several fans in my case and a situation just like what I was asking you happened to me and it still cause my video card to overheat while watching movies and playing games.

Do you have a second video card to test?

What kind of PSU do you have? Have you checked your event viewer to see if there are any logged crashes at those times?

What is a PSU lmao, and I used my brothers old video card and everything worked just fine should I flip my powersupply over and screw it down?

@RobotSquad:

PSU is the power supply. Is the PSU actually made for the bottom of the case or is it like that just because? :p I'd check your video card's fan first, then check your event viewer in windows (assuming that's what you use) to see if there are any errors around the time you know the issues started, and then go from there. Fans or not, when was the last time you cleaned the inside of the tower?

whenever it happens the video card driver is failing and I can flip the power supply over it's just I have to take a screw out of the power supply to do it the bot actually supports the fan blowing into the ground with a filter to stop dust from gettin it the power supply is supposed to be in the other way tho, will flipping it cause any problems within the computer?

@RobotSquad:

Flipping the PSU? I don't think so, but you'll want to make sure it is still screwed in if possible. Not really sure why flipping the PSU would effect a driver issues with the card. Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly.

the power supply and video card are about 4 inches apart in my pc

@RobotSquad: Sure that part makes sense, I just don't understand what physically flipping the PSU would do to effect the driver (software) for your video card. That was the part that's confusing me. Is this a case that's specifically made to house the PSU at the bottom?

yes it specificly says it's a bottom loader

Want a picture of how my PC is set up? to see if you see any problems because something is clearly messed up

@RobotSquad: wouldn't hurt and I'm familiar with that case style, just not how physically flipping the PSU would effect your video card driver at all.

Did you find out when was the last time you updated your video drivers?

nope I have no clue lol

@RobotSquad:

Go to the AMD website and download the lasted driver for the model of your card and see what happens.

@Sammo21: +1 For trying to help out a duder.

@RobotSquad: Like gunnikr said, if you aren't sure then I would go download the latest driver. If you have steam installed I believe it will also find and offer to download the latest driver as well.

Did you ever check to see if your video card's fan is operating properly while powered on?

I put my finger in until I heard a whizz

The last time you updated your video card driver, did you make sure to fully uninstall the previous drivers/preform clean installation?

I didn't remove them before I put the video card in because it was the exact same card D:

The pictures of my PC are in my profile and idk where to get drivers lmao

So if it is spinning for sure then its a bad unit or you need to update your drivers. Check your other components quick to in case you bumped somehting putting the card in and taking the other one out.. Make sure everything else is in place and tight. Cables and such...

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Get your AMD driver here.

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Get your card driver here

People have been saying it's overheating D:

if the fan is working and there is no dust crammed in there then the chances of it overheating have dropped a lot.

Sounds like it might be but I would update everything first just to check for sure.

Good luck

The PSU fan blowing hot air into your case is supposed to be sucking air. Are you sure it's blowing and not that heat is just rising? The cases with the PSU on the bottom usually have the mounting holes upside down, and the exhaust for PSUs are out the back, not the top/bottom. There's no reason the PSU should be blowing hot air into your PC.

I just flipped the psu over and now it's blowing into the ground but i tried playing metro 2033 and it turned the entire screen white

is it because I'm playing all of my games on max graphics?

@RobotSquad said:

It only happens during games and I have the kind of power supply that's at the bottom and it's blowing onto the videocard but the whole computer have 7 fans in it and it cools my entire room I don't see how overheating could be a problem and I honestly don't know how to check if the drivers are updated lol

Hang on a minute... the fans in your PC are cooling YOUR ROOM? Shouldn't.... shouldn't that be the other way around?

Are all your fans mounted so that they blow outward? Ideally you want a couple sucking in air from the outside and a couple pushing out hot air to ensure consistent airflow over your components. Might not be the cause of your issues but it wouldn't hurt to check in addition to updating drivers and whatnot.

there are so many fans inside of it my room is cold as shit there is a front mounted one that blows out and all the ones inside are blowing in

one of the main problems is I'm new to PC gaming so I'm dumb and idk most of the stuff that i need to do

Sounds like you are overheating. I also noticed that your PSU is 600w. Can you give more detailed specs? It's possible that your videocard is also getting an insufficient power supply.

@beeftothetaco: what else do you need to know? as I said i'm new lol

Alright I've tried everything suggested except I don't know if the videocard is overheating

@Sammo21 said:

@RobotSquad:

PSU is the power supply. Is the PSU actually made for the bottom of the case or is it like that just because? :p I'd check your video card's fan first, then check your event viewer in windows (assuming that's what you use) to see if there are any errors around the time you know the issues started, and then go from there. Fans or not, when was the last time you cleaned the inside of the tower?

Well, he shouldn't have his PSU exhausting into the case, period. So flipping it over would be wise, it should be done eventually anyway. That fan exists to exhaust heat from the PSU out of the rig, not into it lol. I have a bottom mounted PSU and it should always be faced so as to blow air out of the case, not in, especially with the layout of bottom mounted cases (usually that PSU fan would be pointing straight up at the video card if it was pointing up, and if the PSU is under enough load it can put out enough hot air to affect the GPU.

@beeftothetaco said:

Sounds like you are overheating. I also noticed that your PSU is 600w. Can you give more detailed specs? It's possible that your videocard is also getting an insufficient power supply.

A 690 will run on a decent 600W psu, unless he's running SLI or some really power hungry tech he should be fine.

@RobotSquad: Here's what you should do. Go to either ATI or nVIdia's website, whoever your card comes from, and download the latest drivers for you. They both have tools to detect your card and will give you the correct drivers for you. Test a game.

If that doesn't work, you're almost certainly overheating your card. It used to happen to me in Borderlands when I was running a 5770. The screen goes a single color and the game crashes completely.

Download MSI afterburner. It will show you data on how your video card is running. Temps, load, clock speeds, that sort of thing. It only gives a short window, but if you are able to alt tab as soon as your issues arise, you should be able to see any issues pretty clearly. But before you test this out, force your fans to run at about 70%. 100% is probably overkill (I know I'd be worried to run mine at 100% for more than a few seconds, sounds like a banshee's scream because I've got 3 fans on my GPU).

Then, as soon as you've applied that setting, run a game, and see how it fairs. If it crashes, look for two things when you alt tab. A) look at the graphs that MSI Afterburner and look for abnormally high temperatures and B) look for a notification right above your taskbar saying something about drivers recovering. It may be that you are having a TDR issue.

If you notice high temps despite the fans running at very high settings, you've got a bit of an issue. If your issues are fixed, you probably need to clear the dust from your video card's fans. If you notice the notification about your drivers crashing and recovering, I would suggest using Afterburner to underclock your GPU by setting the numbers for your clock speeds to be "-100" each.

Try again. This might help stability as some cards come overclocked from the factory, but this can be unstable despite being advertised as stable. My GTX 680 from Galaxy is one of the fastest factory overclocks you can get for that card, and it's apparantly a bit TOO overclocked, because it was discontinued. Underclocking slightly fixed my issues of the driver crashing due to instability, and it may be that you are suffering the same issue.

Here's what happened when Metro 2033 crashed if anyone knows what I should do please lemme know one sec since it crashed flash won't work now lol

That sure looks like overheating..

..also I know nothing about computers.

everything is brand new I don't understand

@RobotSquad said:

Are these stats while you were playing a game? Looks like it isn't over heating to me. You may have gotten a bum card. You could try to return it for a new one. Also, it sounds like your case sucks ass. The PSU should not be on the bottom unless it is exhausting where the heat won't travel back up through the case.

This is the second time I returned it there is no way they had 3 bum cards packed new to fuck me over

and the case has a filter covering the fan so dust doesn't get in

@RobotSquad: Do this, completely uninstall that MSI crap and just install the drivers from the NVIDIA site. You should test the card out without Afterburner being installed. It could be causing issues with the card's fan not turning on completely or handling settings wrong.

@TyCobb: 310.70 isn't updated?

@RobotSquad: What I am saying is uninstall the MSI crap. MSI only made the card, they didn't make the actual drivers that powers the card. NVIDIA makes those. I think it would be wise to get rid of any Manufacturer bullshit off your machine. This not only gets rid of possible issues, but removes stuff that you don't need.

Also, the fan on the PSU, is that blowing air towards the card? That could be your problem right there. If the PSU is blowing air towards the card then you need to replace your case. Nothing beats cooling something off with a fresh supply of hot ass air You never did answer me if those stats were from you playing a game or just sitting idle at the desktop. That makes a huge difference.

While a 600 watt power supply might be enough to run a 660, a -bad- power supply won't. There are a lot of 1 star reviews on it on Amazon and a few mention sparking/rattling after a few months.

A lot of companies will label their power supply as the max it can do under load for a short period of time. A good 600 watt power supply should be able to do 600 watts all day long while being very close to 12v/5v. A crappy 600 watt power supply will start dropping voltages like crazy once they start getting a heavy load. If you have a multimeter, plunk it on a 12v rail when you've got your system playing games and I'd bet you'd be lucky to see 11 volts.

The power supply is the heart of your computer, and it's always good to spend some money on it. After all, a bad power supply doesn't just make your system crash-tastic, it can take out components with it. It'll also make troubleshooting your PC a pain, as it'll cause all sorts of weird problems that you can't pinpoint. Failing hard drives, wonky video cards, computer randomly rebooting, or not booting at all.

I suggest Corsairpower supplies. They're just rebranded Seasonic power supplies, which I also recommend, but you can find Corsair power supplies easily in just about any computer store. Yes, you're paying twice as much, but look at it this way, you'll have to replace crappy power supplies often. I've got Seasonic/Corsair power supplies that are on 24/7/365 for 5+ years now.

Edit: Upon closer inspection of your pictures, you might want to take a look at how your ram is installed too. I don't know which asrock board you've got there, so i can't look it up and say for sure, but it looks like you've got two modules of ram in an unoptimal configuration. Generally, many motherboards have the slots set up like this:

Bank0 Bank1 Bank0 Bank1

You want to populate the slots of each bank fully before you move on to the next. Hence the color coding. Every board is different, so maybe it states differently in the manual, but you should fill blue and blue or white and white.

Also, upon closer inspection... the amperage on the 12 volt rail on that power supply is kinda low. It probably works just fine and dandy on a computer with a less power hungry GPU. But on your computer, once your GPU and CPU start sucking down power, I'd bet your power supply can't keep up. It can push +17/+19 -max- and most likely for short periods of time.

I have a ATX12V eagle power supply