I have a Windows 8.1 PC with ATI graphics (78xx series) card with up to date drivers. It's driving an old Iiyama 22" 1920x1080 50Hz LCD panel over a new DVI cable. I have two HDD, a little SSD for the OS and a couple of big magnetic discs for storage.
When playing games, my I sometimes see artefacts before the game crashes. Sometimes Windows crashes too. It happens on DirectX (up to date and under 9, 10 and 11) and OpenGL (both pre-v2 version and later).
After ensuring vents were clear, heat was under control and cleaned contacts etc, I returned the graphics card to the people I bought it from (Scan), who ran it under load (3DMark benchmark) for 24 hours without a fault being found.
Drivers are up to date and the windows dump crash report (when it takes out Windows) says that an unknown hardware fault occurs.
The rest of the machine runs fine when under load - I run artificial intelligence algorithms (no GUI) on it that run the 3 of the 4 processors at 80% and 10 of the 12GB of RAM used for 2-3 days without a problem. During that time, there's also high disk access against the magnetic discs.
If the monitor goes into standby, it sometimes omits a high pitched buzz sound after a while. I've replaced cables and isolated power.
Is it possible that a fault in the monitor is causing the graphics card to crash?
The only test I can't easily do is borrow another monitor, because I would need to borrow it for a period of time.
Edit
A co-worker has suggested I try a VGA cable, which is not plug-and-play. It's a good idea, I'll try that tonight (if the GfX card has a VGA out) and report back. VGA cable made no difference.
Tried 3DMark (it was version 11) to reproduce the test that Scan computing did, and found that it was still crashing.
Tried the onboard adapter - not powerful enough to run the same games but showed that there wasn't a problem in OpenGL.
You might also want to make sure it's actually outputting 50 Hz, and not 60, though, again, that shouldn't cause this particular kind of crash
Tried that, definitely outputing 60Hz.
102 Answers
The solution was:
After performing a CC Clean of the drivers (back to Windows default, all folders removed etc), I used the Catalyst Control Center driver update tool to check for the best driver and download it. Problem persisted. CC Clean again.
For fun, I then used Windows Driver Update (Control Panel->Devices->Display Driver->Properties->Update Driver) and that downloaded a different version of the driver - which is actually the latest.
Cause
The ATI Control Centre driver check update tool was not downloading the latest driver for my card, it was downloading the previous one. Have raised a bug report with the ATI CC team.
Thank you everyone for your help, I am somewhat flabbergasted that the Windows Driver Update would get a newer version than the ATI CC tool.
I suppose it is possible a monitor could cause a crash with a driver, but its very unlikely. Most graphics problems are driver and graphics card hardware issues.
Obviously, the first thing to try would be a different monitor. If you still have issues with a different monitor, then its the card or driver. If the problem cleared up (which I highly doubt), then it would be the monitor.
You said you are using the most up to date driver. Newer isnt always better. Its not uncommon for newer drivers to introduce bugs. Try downloading and installing an older driver, preferably one that has WHQL certification.
Check the cards temperature. Perhaps its overheating. If possible test the graphics card in another machine. Perhaps it isnt getting enough power or airflow.
PS:
I also want to add that you said you see artifacts. Artifacts are commonly due to a card overheating and/or failing. Since the card was supposedly tested, then it sounds like overheating.
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