Geoforce 8600 crashes the whole PC (both Win and Linux)

Hi all, I have a desktop PC with an AMD dual core processor, ASUS M2N4-
SLI motherboard, Nvidia Geoforce 8600 GT and an HP 22207h 22 inch
monitor. I run both Ubuntu 64 bit and Windows XP 32bit. Lately I have
been experiencing quite a few problems with my video, both in Windows
and Linux, whereby I start seeing little green or red dots all over
the screen, and after a few seconds then the whole PC freezes. If I
reboot, I still see them when the bios boots up; the only way to get
rid of them is to switch everything off, wait a few minutes and then
switch back on.
Any ideas what it might be? I updated all the drivers, but the fact
that the very same problem happens in Windows and Linux, and doesn’t
disappear after a reboot (i.e. I still see these dots even before any
operating system has booted up) makes me suspect it may be a hardware
fault with the video card or the motherboard.
Thanks!

In article ,
wrote:
Hi all, I have a desktop PC with an AMD dual core processor, ASUS M2N4-
SLI motherboard, Nvidia Geoforce 8600 GT and an HP 22207h 22 inch
monitor. I run both Ubuntu 64 bit and Windows XP 32bit. Lately I have
been experiencing quite a few problems with my video, both in Windows
and Linux, whereby I start seeing little green or red dots all over
the screen, and after a few seconds then the whole PC freezes. If I
reboot, I still see them when the bios boots up; the only way to get
rid of them is to switch everything off, wait a few minutes and then
switch back on.
Any ideas what it might be? I updated all the drivers, but the fact
that the very same problem happens in Windows and Linux, and doesn’t
disappear after a reboot (i.e. I still see these dots even before any
operating system has booted up) makes me suspect it may be a hardware
fault with the video card or the motherboard.
Thanks!

Definately sounds like a hardware related problem.

Try opening the case (when the system is off) then starting the system to
see if the fan on the 8600GT (if there is one there) is still spinning. If
opening the case doesn't 'fix' the problem, perhaps try to direct some
airflow into the case (table-fan for instance, pointed at the open case).

Alternatively, you could install many of the available utilities to check
the temperature of the GPU; for instance RivaTuner, or even NVidia's own
utility.

If you have another card available, try installing that.

Good luck.

Regards, Patrick.

Overheat.

Seems to be the latest trend.

Bye,
Skybuck.