VOGONS


First post, by MrSegfault

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Hello.
I recently have purchased a graphics card from eBay for a new build I'm working on and so far I've been having a bad time with it.
It's a used Nvidia Geforce 7900GT and the issue that I'm having with it is that it is drawing random colored pixels on the screen that change whenever there's some movement going on. They even appear on the bios screen.
I tried doing some search on this issue and all that I could find about it was that the graphics card's V-RAM is corrupted due to overheating. Is my graphics card failing? What can I do to prevent this from happening again to another card?

Here's a screenshot of what I'm facing here.
fhUuQFq.png

Reply 1 of 4, by Archer57

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Likely yes, but i'd call it "failed", not "failing". Just to be sure though - try on another system.

Also it can be VRAM, but IMO it is more likely to be GPU. Pretty much all GF7,8,9, late GF6 and early GT/GTX2xx cards are defective (search "nvidia bumpgate") and are likely to fail because of this sooner or later.

This is also a common scam - GPU which failed like this can be heated up to make it work briefly, then it can be sold as "tested, working" and when it fails... "well, tough luck, it is old hardware and it can die at any moment". So have to be careful buying this cards used.

Again - this are just guesses based on experience, do not assume it is 100% the case - i may be totally wrong. But IMO this is very likely...

Reply 2 of 4, by MrSegfault

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Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-30, 02:04:
Likely yes, but i'd call it "failed", not "failing". Just to be sure though - try on another system. […]
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Likely yes, but i'd call it "failed", not "failing". Just to be sure though - try on another system.

Also it can be VRAM, but IMO it is more likely to be GPU. Pretty much all GF7,8,9, late GF6 and early GT/GTX2xx cards are defective (search "nvidia bumpgate") and are likely to fail because of this sooner or later.

This is also a common scam - GPU which failed like this can be heated up to make it work briefly, then it can be sold as "tested, working" and when it fails... "well, tough luck, it is old hardware and it can die at any moment". So have to be careful buying this cards used.

Again - this are just guesses based on experience, do not assume it is 100% the case - i may be totally wrong. But IMO this is very likely...

Wow, That's pretty disappointing. I bought this card because I wanted to play directx 7 and 8 games without graphics issues and without using dgvoodoo2.
Are there any other cards that can do this and won't fail on me?

Reply 3 of 4, by myne

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Run mats/mods.

Finding the right one is the hard part.

In the short term, try a thorough wash, and dry.
And if that doesn't improve anything, try underclocking.

It's not uncommon for components to fail at x and be ok at x-y

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Reply 4 of 4, by Archer57

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MrSegfault wrote on 2025-06-30, 02:28:

Wow, That's pretty disappointing. I bought this card because I wanted to play directx 7 and 8 games without graphics issues and without using dgvoodoo2.
Are there any other cards that can do this and won't fail on me?

On pci-e that's harder, probably best bet are early GF6, but also just buy something from GF7 series which is less desirable/not expensive and hope for the best - it'll last for some time, especially with good cooling.

But honestly for such old games AGP system may be more suitable, in which case GF FX or radeon 9nnn will work well, though some of them can have their own issues like on some radeons with BGA memory it is quite failure prone (but memory is, at least, possible/practical to replace, unlike GPU).

Do troubleshoot your current card before just assuming it is dead despite of what i've said, you never know - may end up being something fixable. At least thoroughly inspect it to see if there are any failed/leaky caps, those can be an issue too.