GA890GPA-UD3H Gibberish

[Mushki]

Greetings everyone
Firstly, here are the specs of my machine
MB : Gigabyte GA890GPA-UD3H rev 2.1
Processor : 1090T BE
Memory : DDR3-1800 2x2GB GSkill PC3-14400.
GPU : Mobo intergrated
HDD : 2x 1TB WD Caviar 64MB Cache Black
DVD : 2x Samsung sata DVD
PSU : Corsair HX750
Cooler : Corsair H50
OS : Win7 Ultimate 64bit


I've had this system with the FF bios for a little over a year and not overclocked. Its been running like a darling all along until 3 weeks ago. I mainly use it for photo editing. I dont use windows updates and disable them myself in every system i build from day one.

The system just becomes Gibberish and you cant read anything as seen in the pictures below. Even during post.
Its happened a couple of times and i have to like seriously clear and reset cmos a couple of times to get it posting again and load windows.

The first time it happened when i was doing some photo editing, so i immediately hit the power switch for 4 sec.....restart (went on fine into windows)....no error message, worked on it for around 4hrs photo editing again, then browsing, then it happened again. This time around a restart did not help but even the bios screen was gibberish.

Checked around a few forums and realised that i had to reset the machine....removed battery, jumped clear cmos, discharged without power cable and hit the power button, let it rest without battery or power for like 15min, then connected all and still started off as gibberish. Did this a couple of times and after like my 5 or 6th attempt it started fine.

Then happened again after a few days and the cycle keeps repeating.

Ive re-installed BIOS ver FF again, i've intentionally interupted my bios installation by pulling off the power and let the back up bios re-install but after a day or two this crap happens again. i've even tried adding another graphics adapter while this problem was there thinking the mobo gpu has gone crazy but it still gave same error. I've even changed monitors, changed from dvi to vga but still its there.

Any ideas??

rgds
Mushki

[absic]

Hi there,

My first thoughts are: What are your system temps?
I would check that you are not overheating, especially the Northbridge.

[Mushki]

Greetings
Ok i'll check on the system temps once i get the machine to start and post them back here.
However enlighten me....i know we can get temps of processors, internal, gpu, HDD....but northbridge?? how?? what would be the best program to do that. i have everest ultimate but never seen the northbridge temperature field in it. Any other program you have in mind that does this?

rgds
mushki

[jabberwocky]

i just had to fix a laptop for a friend ,that had those same symptoms , after 2 days going through the expected problems and no improvement I took out the memory(ram) and reseated it . the problem was solved .

[Dark Mantis]

The problem that you had there was known as "thermal creep" and is quite common. It occurs as the minute movements caused by heating and cooling act on components and end up disconnecting the device altogether in the worst cases.

[absic]

For checking system temperatures I use HW Monitor which you can download from here: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html The important figures are identified as TMPIN0, TMPIN1 & TMPIN2. Usually TMPIN2 is the Northbridge.

[Mushki]

Greetings
Thanks absic...i'll check on that once i get it started.....still havent. i only work on it in the evenings.

Jabberwocky....i've done the ram thingy, changed slots, used (either of the) only one dimm, even changed ram.....it didnt go through. and yes....did memtest too which came out clean.

absics reasoning that maybe its over heating seems to be something i hadnt checked though i know the cpu is not over heating....but this NB and SB is something i had over looked.

rgds

[Mushki]

Greetings

Ok after like a zillion cmos resets i got it to boot without any gibberish stuff and ran HWMonitor and got the following two screen shots.
Capture01 is the temperature when running no program and Capture02 is after almost 15 minutes of running prime test, you can see that i have circled in red that the processors are running at 100% and temperatures as the stress is going on.

Kind regards

[Mushki]

ok it gets weirder as time goes.
After yesterdays post, the symptoms returned again a while ago. ofcourse i messed around with discharging and got it started. When i logged back into windows, i got the "windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown" dialog box. The BCCode was 116 which is the graphics adapter error.

Now, here is the scenario,  previously when the monitor was all gibberish, i slotted in an ATI 4870 i had lying around and still didnt start clearly, why?? Considering in the BIOS its indicated that the pci slot will be detected first for the graphics. Any ideas??

rgds

[Mushki]

atikmpag.sys
(the ati gpu in my mobo)

This is the culprit after interpreting the dump file.

Reason for its failure (according to my research) is mainly driver but can also be memory or heat or a failing gpu.

Considering i cant seem to get much response on here, I have a strong gut feeling its a failing gpu (artifacts do indicate a failing gpu). Does anyone have a way to diagnose a failing gpu?

rgds

[Mushki]

Greetings

gpu on my mobo failing?? i dont think so.

i ran kombuster for around 2 hours on fairly high settings.....though i was getting barely 2-3 frames per second....but importantly the machine behaved.....now i dunno what triggers this gibberish stuff on the comp.

No one on here really has any idea?? no one can advise??

rgds