How do I test my graphics card?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yep. They're relative though, so you have to compare them to other results that either ship with the program or are available online. In passmark you can download baselines from their database to compare to - it gives your results in bar chart form with numbers.

When I clicked "compare online" I didn't see my card.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Second time I got numbers:

furmark.JPG (58.78 KiB) Viewed 5298 times

Submission failed.

[PsychoSerenity]

Well it looks like it works.

The frame rate is slow but then I don't know how that card would normally compare with that test. If that's the temperature it's reaching - 90°C, that's a bit worrying. Make sure it's clear of dust and has good airflow, otherwise it might be limiting itself to protect from overheating.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have a "Photo Frame" light on. (This is Gateway FX.) I wonder if it's trying to read that slot and using up cycles doing it?

[klr]

Odd. Not a problem I've come across before, and I wouldn't expect it to be a problem with the graphics card, but if it had a fault it could be. My normal suggestion for testing graphics cards is swap it with another one, but you have to have another one spare for that.

The combination of programs you're trying to run together should not stress the graphics system to breaking point. It's not as if they are high-end games or suchlike.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Odd. Not a problem I've come across before, and I wouldn't expect it to be a problem with the graphics card, but if it had a fault it could be. My normal suggestion for testing graphics cards is swap it with another one, but you have to have another one spare for that.

The combination of programs you're trying to run together should not stress the graphics system to breaking point. It's not as if they are high-end games or suchlike.

Can somebody recommend a thorough, and free, system checker?

[PsychoSerenity]

I'm not sure such a thing exists. Most tools are quite specific because anything more would be a huge amount of software, and could never properly account for the variability in system set-ups. You normally have to narrow down problems from available clues and test one thing at a time.

Is this a problem that started recently, without any system change you are aware of? Does it happen every time? Does it happen more when working with larger images than smaller ones?

[klr]

I'm not sure such a thing exists. Most tools are quite specific because anything more would be a huge amount of software, and could never properly account for the variability in system set-ups. You normally have to narrow down problems from available clues and test one thing at a time.

Is this a problem that started recently, without any system change you are aware of? Does it happen every time? Does it happen more when working with larger images than smaller ones?

Damn straight - on all counts.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It's kind of a chronic problem right now, slowly degrading over the past month. Virus checkers don't show anything. No flags in Device Manager, but slower than normal and some problems take forever to load. It gets bad enough I reboot and pick up some performance.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Oh, and I get this every few days.

[PsychoSerenity]

I would say it's most likely your hard-disk that's dying.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I would say it's most likely your hard-disk that's dying.

Yep, that was predicted back when I blew the power-supply. Next month I get a new one and fix it up.

Can you partion a 3T drive and clone C: to that partition? I have a 3T internal with space for this.

[PsychoSerenity]

I would say it's most likely your hard-disk that's dying.

Yep, that was predicted back when I blew the power-supply. Next month I get a new one and fix it up.

Can you partion a 3T drive and clone C: to that partition? I have a 3T internal with space for this.

It sounds plausible, but I have no experience of doing anything like that.

I was also wanting to say I have seen similar symptoms before that have been completely fixed by a fresh install of windows, so that's certainly worth a try before ditching the HD, and there's also CheckDisk which might be able to find and fix some problems - though if the disk is physically on it's way out this may only be a temporary improvement.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have recovery disks. But would I loose my installed programs?

And would running chkdsk help?

[PsychoSerenity]

Yeah I think recovery disks normally reset everything to the point they were made - but I'm not sure, I've never really used them and I think there may be different sorts including ones that can fix system errors without resetting everything. You'd have to look into what you've got.

CheckDisk can in theory attempt to recover data from, and prevent future use of, damaged sectors on the hard-disk, - so definitely worth a try.