Hi folks, I have developed an issue, I suspect GRAPHICS card, as the symptoms so far are a sort of sparkling CUBE effect on the monitor once Windows boots to the desktop, followed by a complete lock-up of the mouse, keyboard, etc just a couple seconds later. The only way out is the reset button of course. The sparkling effect seems to be getting worse every time I attempt a boot and actually the last time I tried I got a black SCREEN instead of the desktop. As of right now I can boot in safe mode only. I'm running slightly overclocked (4.4) through the gigabyte "turbo boost thingy" just to be on the level, but the thing is this machine has been running this way for 2 1/2 yrs now almost 24/7 without a glitch. I don't think it's a heat issue as I've blown everything out (regularly but also) since the problem developed last evening.

PC is self- built:
i7-2600K, h2o cooling
GA-Z68XP-UD3
EVGA GTX-580
8Gb DDR3 1866
256Gb Crucial M4 SSD (x2)
1 Tb WD Caviar
27" LED Monitor

I have Windows installed on one of the SSDs (C:) along with most of my programs, and most of my work folders are on the 2nd SSD (D:) and consist of a lot of PhotoShop, gmax, and geotif type FILES related to flight sim development. The WD conventional hard disk is a backup basically of my work folders and FS related downloads.

My immediate concern is that I can't see the 1 Tb WD Caviar hard drive in Windows Explorer and I don't know if that's due to running in safe mode or if the drive has possibly shelled out and may be actually the cause of the problem.

I guess that is my question, is the absence of this drive normal in safe mode or is it likely related to or causing the problem?

Thanks much,
JimMissing a drive in safe mode isn't normal, is it shown in device manager or disk management?
Try booting to normal mode without the drive attached just to eliminate it, but I suspect the graphics card is at fault here. However, it's also worth resetting to defaults to remove the overclock to eliminate that as the fault, too.Thanks for your reply Calum

Yes after collecting my thoughts a bit it certainly doesn't make SENSE that I'd be seeing the SSD on drive D: but not the conventional HDD on E: in safe mode. If safe mode were to disable drives it seems it would disable all but the Windows drive, plus data recovery would likely be a primary concern in safe mode so it makes no sense at all that safe mode would disable drives period. The drive does not show up in the device manager incidentally and my CD ROM/DVD drive is now showing up as E: This board has an onboard caching SSD that is tied in with the conventional HDD through "Intel rapid storage technology" which I believe runs on startup, so that may be a possible explanation why the drive has gone AWOL in safe mode?

I may have gone "henny penny" a bit on this thread, lol. I will try unplugging the drive and resetting defaults and see what happens. ATM I'm tying up some loose ends on the net and double checking some backups while I've got it running so I'll attempt some rational troubleshooting tomorrow and report back.

Thanks,
JimWell, moving the monitor over to the 2nd plug on the vid card has allowed me to boot normally, the conventional HDD is now showing up as D: again, all data seems to be intact (whew). Where do I go from here? Am I good to go at this point, or from your experience is it just a matter of time until the other side blows too?

JimGood to hear things seem normal on the other output. See how you go, one output failing isn't always indicative of a pending failure of the card but if it's still in warranty I would want to get it replaced anyway.No it's long past warranty I'm afraid, but so far so good nonetheless. I "stress tested" it running FSX flat out for half an hour or so last evening without a glitch and everything seems normal. If it packs in this afternoon I don't really feel like it owes me anything because it really has been a great card and it's had a fair amount of heavy use. What I hate most is when something goes wrong like this and you can't figure out which component to replace, at least in this case it should be fairly safe to say "vid card" which is a huge relief. Good excuse for an upgrade anyway, no?

Thanks again for your input, it's much appreciated

JimAh, figured with it being EVGA you might have the 5/10/lifetime warranty

Sounds like it should be OK at least for now anyway, probably just an output gone bad rather than the card.