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    Artefacting - signs of a dying graphics card?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by cathy, May 3, 2009.

  1. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later since my notebook has one of the infamous defective 8600M GPUs. After 13 months my GPU has started showing artefacts under normal usage.

    I was playing TF2 for about 3 and a half hours, and then it started artefacting. The temperatures were pretty normal at 86 C (it's usually 82 - 86 C under full load), and I didn't overclock it. In fact it was slightly underclocked at 470/635.

    So does this mean that my GPU is going to die soon? What should I do? How do I prove to Apple that my GPU is defective? =/
     
    cathy, May 3, 2009
    #1
  2. maditude

    maditude Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you still under warranty? My 8600 died last summer -- symptoms: screen went crazy in the middle of an intense game of TF2 -- a couple of checkerboard areas, on-screen text was turned to some crazy looking font. And when I finally got out of the game, windows locked up. When I power cycled, there was no video, not even to an external monitor.

    Luckily, I had a great warranty from PowerNotebooks.com -- and they replaced it right away, with out any hassles.

    So anyways... does this mean your GPU is going to die soon? I don't know, but if I were you, I would start making CERTAIN you have good, usable backups -- even if Apple does replace your GPU, it will take time, time that you won't have your laptop.
     
    maditude, May 3, 2009
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  3. NJoy

    NJoy Няшka

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    yepp, it is dying and Maditude gave you a good advice to backup your data and call Apple.
     
    NJoy, May 3, 2009
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  4. ichime

    ichime Notebook Elder

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    TF2...great game :D I play it a lot myself.

    But yeah, if you are getting artifacts when you are doing your normal routine of things, it could be 1) bad driver or 2) dying/faulty GPU. And if you haven't updated your driver recently, then it's probably the latter.
     
    ichime, May 3, 2009
    #4
  5. krabman

    krabman Notebook Deity

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    Yep, try a driver update or re-install, a corrupted driver can cause this type of thing. My first step though would be to back up in case your on borrowed time.
     
    krabman, May 3, 2009
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  6. StormEffect

    StormEffect Lazer. *pew pew*

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    If you are worried, set up an appointment at the Genius Bar in an Apple Store. Have them check the GPU, if it is faulty, they should replace it for free, even if you don't have Apple Care. This is thanks to the money Nvidia set aside to fix their faulty 8600m GT shipments.
     
    StormEffect, May 3, 2009
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  7. cathy

    cathy Notebook Evangelist

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    Come to think about it, I recently updated my drivers to Nvidia's latest 185.xx drivers. I'll try rolling them back and see how it goes.
     
    cathy, May 3, 2009
    #7