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Not even the best of graphics cards are immune to corruption, no matter how good their build is. The symptoms of a video hardware or graphics card error can appear in many ways, such as frozen screens, distorted images, or even system crashes. If left unaddressed, these errors can cause serious damage to your computer’s hardware and data. In this article, We will share the common reasons behind graphics card errors. We will also provide step-by-step instructions, useful tips, and common troubleshooting methods, to quickly diagnose and fix these issues.
Why Do Graphics Cards Get Corrupted?
There are several physical and logical causes of graphic card corruption. We’ve given the most common reasons below:
- Insufficient power supply: Graphics card won’t be able to function properly if it doesn’t get adequate power supply. The GPU may crash, freeze, or display visual artifacts during video playback because of corruption.
- Overheating: This is one of the most common reasons why graphics cards get corrupted. If a system has poor ventilation, dust buildup, or fans that don’t work properly, then it can increase graphics card’s temperature and corrupt it.
- PCIe power connectors aren’t connected properly: A PCIe power connector is a cable plug that supplies additional power directly to the graphics cards. If this connector is loosely connected or damaged, then power won’t get supplied to the graphics card, leading to video stuttering or glitching.
- Improper display settings: Incorrect video resolution, bit rate, or HDR setting can cause variety of issues with video playback like flickering, blurry video, or unstable video display.
- DisplayPort cable or HDMI is damaged: If your system’s DisplayPort or HDMI cable is damaged, then it won’t carry signals to and from graphics card and the monitor. This can cause visual artifacts to appear on the screen and may even lead to distortions.
- Hardware acceleration issues: GPU decodes and renders video perfectly in media players and on browsers with the help of Hardware acceleration. So, if there are some issues with hardware acceleration settings not working properly with system’s graphics card, then there’ll be problems with video playback as well.
Symptoms of Graphics Card Corruption
- Fans run loudly, showing that the graphic card is getting heated, and the motherboard is cooling it down.
- The screen goes blank whenever you try to play the video, but the computer remains operational.
- The display driver gets crashed each time you play the video.
If you are also facing such symptoms, your graphic card will betray you soon. Because it is not easy to recognize the cause behind such problems, so, you should go ahead with troubleshooting fixes that can remove the symptoms and allow you to run any video without any interruption.
How to Diagnose if Graphics Card is Actually Causing the Problem?
Before attempting to fix the graphics card, you need to check if the issue affects the whole system or a single video or application.
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Multiple videos have playback issues. | Problem with the GPU or graphics card. |
| The screen flickers on different monitors. | Issue with monitor, cable, or GPU. |
| Videos have display artifacts during playback. | Issue with the graphics card or GPU. |
| GPU crashes due to overheating. | Poor ventilation or dust buildup in the system. |
| Problem started after the recent driver update. | Graphics driver is either corrupt or incompatible. |
| Video doesn’t play in a media player. | Possible codec issue or issue with media player settings. |
| A single video doesn’t play anywhere. | Video file is corrupted. |
How to Fix Graphics Card Errors?
We’ve talked about some effective solutions to fix hardware and graphics card errors and improve the system’s overall performance.
Method 1. Run a Physical Check
Most often, problems with running a video smoothly occur due to a poor graphics card. But other hardware components can also bring the same problem. For example, lower-grade RAM cannot run a high-definition video, and an older-generation processor loads the files slowly. You should run a physical check routinely and change the faulty hardware components.
Method 2. Clean and Cool Video Card
To fix video hardware and graphics card errors, the cooler and cleaner the video card, the better. A buildup of dust and debris can lead to overheating and performance issues. To clean your video card, first, unplug your computer and remove the card. Gently clean with a soft brush or compressed air, taking care not to damage any components.
To cool your video card, ensure proper airflow in your computer case and consider adding additional fans or upgrading your cooling system. Keeping your video card cool and clean can improve its lifespan and performance.
Method 3. Update the Graphics Driver
An outdated graphics card driver can cause a lot of problems during video playback and may even degrade the system’s performance. Updating it can improve performance and may resolve video playback issues. Follow the steps to update the graphics driver:
- Right-click the Windows icon and click the option Device Manager.
- In the Display Adapters category, choose the chipset driver and right-click it. Then select the option for Update Driver Software.
- To search for the update, you can either search automatically for updated driver software or browse the setup you have downloaded from the CHIP maker website.
After installing the updates, you need to restart the computer and rerun the video.
Method 4. Uninstall the display driver and download the latest one
If much time has passed since you updated the display driver, the chances of it malfunctioning increase exponentially. You should either update the older driver or uninstall it completely. Go to the display driver maker website and download the latest version of the driver. After installing the driver, restart the computer and rerun the video.
Method 5. Reduce overclocking of Graphics Card
Overclocking is done to increase the processing speed of the graphics card to boost its performance. This causes graphics card to overheat frequently and may also lead to frequent system crashes.
So, it would help if you underclocked the GPU and video RAM. Each graphic card supports some software to manage its functionalities and set its operating range. You can select the range to a lower level and rerun the video.
Method 6. Update the Motherboard Chipset driver
Among the available chips on the motherboard, the CHIPSET is the most important because it runs the computer to maximum efficiency. The makers of the CHIPSET update the drivers routinely to make it adaptive to new changes.
If the graphics card is not showing the images correctly, your first reaction should be to update the CHIPSET driver software. It can easily remove many small issues. Simply visit the official page of your motherboard/computer manufacturer search for your computer’s model. Then go to Driver/Downloads section and download the latest version of chipset that’s compatible with your system.
What If the Video File is Actually the Problem?
When you have checked all the hardware resources related to the graphic card and found that everything is okay, you need to check for the video file’s faults. This is probably the case when there’s an issue with only one particular video file. Sometimes, corruption in graphics card affects video rendering, exporting, and even interrupts the video recording in the middle. The video being rendered or recorded can get corrupted because of this. In such a situation, Kernel Video Repair can help in repairing corrupt video files. It restores the damaged video data with the help of a healthy reference file and recovers it easily.
Conclusion
Resolving video hardware and graphics card errors requires technical expertise and careful diagnosis of the problem. It is crucial to update drivers, monitor hardware performance, and more. But check once to see if the issue is common for multiple videos, or if the issue occurs with a single video or media player. If the issue is limited to only one video, then you must repair corrupt video files after successfully fixing graphics card errors.
People Also Ask
A. To reset your graphics card hardware on Windows, use the keyboard shortcut Win + Ctrl + Shift + B. This simple solution will reset your graphics card driver back to its default settings and provide a hassle-free experience.
A. The general cause of GPU errors are:
1. Poor ventilation
2. Blown capacitors
3. Device overheating
4. Insufficient power supply to GPU.
A. Yes, resetting your graphics card is typically safe to do. It can help to troubleshoot common issues like screen glitches, stuttering, blue screens, and game crashes.
