Big problem here, worth its own thread I think.
Built my computer almost 2 months ago. After 1 month, started having problems.
Suddenly crashed one morning. A "stop error", displayed a blue error screen (not BSoD) for a fraction of a second, then restarted completely. I thought it was a 1-time thing, so I continued as normal. It happened again about 20 minutes later. After the second time, I could not get the comp restarted completely again. It would begin to start up, then display the error (never long enough to read it) and restart again. The farthest I got was to my desktop for about 5 seconds. After about 5 times, it went to the Windows login screen, then did nothing. It displayed the Windows logo, but the user profile didn't show up.
I tried reformatting, but when I had my Windows disk in, and I had booted from it, it crashed again as it was loading the files in preparation for installation, so obviously it was not something a format would fix. However, I decided to try something else just to see what effects it would have. I used dban on it, and over the course of 2 days I zeroed the drive. It didn't crash during that. After that finished, the computer worked normally for almost a whole day, before crashing again. Earlier this week, due to a suggestion by a relative who is much more computer-savvy than I, I took out one of my memory sticks in case that was the issue. I let the comp run overnight without it. The next morning, the computer had crashed at some point throughout the night, but for once, for whatever reason, the blue error message stayed on the screen. It said
"Video driver failed to initialize."
If my understanding of that is correct, the problem is either with the drivers I'm using for my video card, or the video card itself is defective. Is that a correct interpretation of that error? As of this moment, I can use this computer several hours per day, with it functioning relatively normally, but I never know when it is going to crash.
I downloaded some older drivers for my card earlier today, and it has crashed since then, so I'm guessing it's a problem with the video card itself. But I really don't know, and I don't want to spend $200 on another video card when it might end up not fixing the problem. So, does anyone have any ideas?
Other notes:
-I know it isn't a temperature problem. I have some temperature probes and the temp. display hardly ever goes above 35, even when I'm playing games. Also, almost every time it's crashed was when I was just on the Internet or something. It's only crashed once while I was playing a game.
-When it crashes, it seems to do so in "waves." For example, it hasn't crashed all day, yet a few minutes before I started typing this message, it crashed 3 times in a row.
-Even though it left the blue error message up once, every time after that, it once again only displays it for a split-second. I have no idea if removing the memory stick had anything to do with that, it may just be a coincidence.
-I have opened my case up to make sure wires were tidy and not touching my video card or motherboard, if that matters.
I know this post is really long, but that's the nature of my problem (and why I didn't think it fit in the Single Questions & Help thread). A thousand thanks to anyone who takes on the task of reading it.
OP here, forgot to mention, my card is a GeForce 8800 GT.
Can you RMA the card?
I think, but I don't know for sure if the problem is with the card. From my current situation, are you pretty sure that's it?