[SOLVED] Onboard video card dying, or something else?

I've just checked that the sticky posts here have at least one diagnosis tool I haven't checked yet, for CPU errors, I'm going to check it out now.






I've had a few episodes, today and yesterday (about four, total), of the screen completely going crazy along with the sound.

Pretty much like the google results for "video card failure".

REISUB didn't work. Does it imply that the problem probably isn't limited to the onboard video card, or a video card failure could cause such havoc that would render the whole system unresponsive as well? (Every time)

It's very unlikely a software issue, as I had a dual boot with Debian and an "abandoned" Ubuntu, that I was attempting to use for a while to check if it would happen again, and it indeed happened very fast, ruling it out (and possibly damaging my SDD as well, with the need for a hard-reset :-/ ).

Memtest+ didn't accuse any error.

I've removed the processor (from the motherboard), cleaned the fan, and put it on again to see if it could "magically" solved it. But I think it's unlikely it was overheating, I usually take steps to avoid it, cpulimit and other tools like that, always paying attention to fan noise, managing it so that it's never loud.

I'd possibly test with an "off-board" if I had one, and after checking if it wouldn't be actually just putting more hardware into risk of permanent damage.

Might poke around in dmesg to see if anything was logged I guess.

I've had similar issues using the nouveau driver for an older nVidia integrated GPU. Odd that several distros had the same result. Is there anything special about the system? 1GB or less ram? early generation Atom CPU?

After reading the sticky topics here, I looked at the motherboard more carefully, and I've noticed that some of the capacitors seem a little bit bulgy. Not "OMG, it's obviously bulging", for my layman eyes, but not quite flat.

A few years ago there had been a power surge, and indeed I replaced the PSU after I noticed more obviously bulged capacitors on it. Perhaps the same power surge did the initial damage and it gradually got worse.


I wonder if putting a different video card there would "save" the motherboard or just endanger the video card for nothing.



One year ago or so I had the same screen corruption, no-REISUB issue, but I thought it was just due to using the semi-discontinued mplayer, which was apparently the trigger. I never used it again, and it never ocurred again until the day before yesterday. But perhaps it those were just early occurrences of the same thing, even if really triggered by mplayer.

Originally Posted by Shadow_7 I've had similar issues using the nouveau driver for an older nVidia integrated GPU. Odd that several distros had the same result. Is there anything special about the system? 1GB or less ram? early generation Atom CPU?

4 GB of ram, some old Intel integrated GPU, like from the mid-early 2000s. The CPU was also intel.

Originally Posted by rokytnji Might poke around in dmesg to see if anything was logged I guess.

I'll just take a brief look, but I don't really hope to find anything. When it happened, last year or the year before, couldn't find any clues in any log.




I wish I was any good at soldering and this sort of stuff. Not that it's a huge loss, it's a low-end computer, but I feel that disposing of it is kind of like crushing a car for recycling because of flat tires.

Sounds about the time of this little piece of corporate espionage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

I had a bad cap on an asus rt-n16. One of my old motherboards had a similarly spec'd cap that I replace it with. $80 saved.

If the bad caps are on the motherboard, a new video card wont save it.

The capacitor that I thought was leaking has the leakage much in the same aspect of the ones in the picture of this wikipedia article, just not as much leaking.

And what I thought were initial bulging probably really was, according to the photos with the ones with "swollen tops".

Thanks. Maybe someday I'll replace the obviously leaking one and even the suspicious ones. Perhaps after I take some basic course on how to do this kind of thing, training on less expensive items first.

Mine still looked shiny / brand new, but bulged at top with a small pinhole (blue smoke genie be gone).

Originally Posted by the dsc I wish I was any good at soldering

it really isn't that hard.
admittedly, not the really small parts like chip pins (i think you need an extra small soldering iron and a magnifying glass and a really steady hand for that), but i have replaced capacitors in consumer electronics with a totally inadequate soldering pistol more than once.
it doesn't look nice, but the basic rules are so simple that anyone with the vaguest grasp of how electricity flows can do it.