How To Fix Graphics Card: Common Reasons And Easy Troubleshooting Steps

Graphics card failures affect your gaming and work performance in frustrating ways. Your computer screen freezes or displays odd colors when you need it most. You can solve many of these issues at home with simple fixes rather than paying for costly repairs. This guide teaches you how to fix graphics card problems through clear steps that work for desktop and laptop computers alike. The solutions help you save money and time while you get back to your important tasks.

Part 1. Why do Graphics Cards fail?

Your graphics card might give you a severe headache, but there's always a reason for it:

1. Poor power supply units fail to send electricity correctly to your graphics card.
2. Factory defects present in new graphics cards cause hardware issues right out of the box.
3. Dust buildup blocks airflow paths inside your computer and traps heat around sensitive components, which damages your graphics card as time passes.
4. Outdated drivers create conflicts between your graphics card and software, which results in crashes or visual glitches even when the hardware works well.
5. Overheating happens when your graphics card runs at high temperatures for long periods, warps the circuit board, and melts solder points.
6. Physical damage can cause graphics cards to fail through improper handling during installation or when you move your computer without securing it correctly.
7. Overclocking pushes your graphics card beyond factory specifications. This shortens its lifespan through steady voltage stress and heat production.

Part 2. What are the symptoms of a Bad Graphics Card?

Before a graphics card goes bad, it will show clear signs to warn you. Below are a few of them.

Screen Artifacts

You might first notice strange colored dots or lines appearing on your screen during gameplay that weren't there before. Later, your images and vidoes start to look distorted with unnatural colors or pixelated sections appearing randomly. The problems come and go at first, making you wonder if your eyes are playing tricks. Your graphics card sends these warning signals whenever it works with heavy visuals. The artifacts usually become more common as time passes, eventually showing up even on your desktop background.

System Crashes

When your graphics start to fail, your system freezes or restarts while playing games or streaming videos. This happens with no warning - one minute, you play, and the next, you see a blue error screen with odd messages about display drivers. It feels awful to lose progress on your game or work project because of these sudden crashes.

At first, these problems look random and rare. Soon, they happen more often, mostly when you're doing something graphics-intensive. Your system stops working right when you need it most, which makes even short gaming sessions feel like a gamble.

Display Issues

A failing graphics card often shows itself through strange visual problems on your screen. You may notice flickering or brief blackouts that come and go. The screen resolution suddenly drops, and everything looks fuzzy despite your previous settings.

If you use multiple monitors, each screen might show different problems, making your setup less usable. Text becomes harder to read, and colors don't look right anymore. Some shades might appear wrong or missing entirely. What used to be a clear, crisp display now causes eyestrain and makes using your laptop much less enjoyable.

Performance Drops

You may also witness games that once ran smoothly but now stutter, like dropping frame rates during action scenes that used to play perfectly fine. This choppy performance ruins the gaming experience you once enjoyed.

Also, programs that need graphics power will take much longer to open than before. Once they're running, they respond slowly when you click or try to do anything. Your computer runs hotter during normal tasks, and the fan makes more noise as it tries to cool things down. These problems usually worsen over time as your graphics card continues to deteriorate.

Part 3. How To Fix a Video Card: 7 DIY Methods

Graphics card problems often seem intimidating, but they can be solved with simple troubleshooting steps. You don't need technical expertise to perform most of these fixes on your own.

Let's find out how to fix graphics card on laptop and desktop PCs.

1. Check If the Graphics Card is Active

Sometimes, what appears to be a graphics card failure is actually just a disabled device. Your computer might have accidentally turned it off through a system update or power management setting.

To check if this is the issue, open the Device Manager, expand Display Drivers, and right-click your graphics card.

Also, make sure your graphics card is set as the main display adapter if you have multiple options.

For desktop computers with both integrated and dedicated graphics, check that your monitor cable connects to the correct GPU port. Many people accidentally plug their monitor into the motherboard port instead of the graphics card port, causing the system to use integrated graphics, which disables the external GPU.

2. Check GPU Error Codes

Windows Device Manager provides valuable information about graphics card issues, like showing specific error codes and status messages.

Open Device Manager > Display Adapters, and if you see a yellow exclamation mark next to it, this tells you that there is a problem with the card.

Right-click the problematic card and select Properties. Now, check the General section for specific error messages. Common error codes are "Error Code 10" (GPU cannot start) or "Error Code 12" (not enough resources).

To fix these codes, try disabling and re-enabling the device through Device Manager. This sometimes resets the hardware and resolves minor conflicts. If this doesn't work, enter BIOS settings and adjust PCI resource allocation to provide more resources for your graphics card.

3. Update the Graphics Card Driver

Outdated drivers cause many graphics card problems. Driver updates fix bugs, improve performance, and add compatibility with newer software. Therefore, keeping your drivers current often solves display issues without any hardware changes.

To update your GPU drivers, visit your graphics card manufacturer's website, download the latest one, and run to install it.

If you are using integrated GPU, right-click the Start button, select Device Manager, find your graphics card under Display Adapters, right-click it, and select Update Driver.

4. Reinstall the Driver

When driver updates don't solve the problem, a complete reinstallation often helps.

Start by uninstalling your current graphics driver. Open Device Manager, find your graphics card under Display Adapters, then right-click it, and choose Uninstall Device.

After the uninstall finishes, restart your computer. Windows installs a basic display driver to keep your screen working. Now, download the latest driver package from your graphics card manufacturer's website. Run the installer and select the clean installation option. After installation is complete, restart your computer to finalize the process.

For persistent problems, try using a driver cleaning tool before installing new drivers. This utility removes all traces of graphics drivers for a truly clean installation.

5. Resolve Overheating Issues

Overheating ranks among the most common causes of graphics card failure. Modern GPUs generate significant heat, especially during gaming or rendering tasks, and result in visual artifacts.

How to fix GPU artifacting? The first step to fix this involves adjusting your fan speeds to improve cooling performance. For this purpose, monitor your GPU temperatures using the MSI Afterburner utility. Most cards operate safely below 85°C under load. If temperatures exceed this regularly, you can use the same utility to increase the fan speed to help dissipate heat more effectively.

If the problem persists, try underclocking both the GPU core and memory by 5-10% in MSI Afterburner. This reduces performance but often stops artifacting by placing less stress on damaged components.

Laptop graphics cards present unique challenges due to their integrated design and limited cooling capabilities.

Manage heat by using your laptop on hard, flat surfaces that allow proper airflow. Cooling pads with additional fans help maintain lower temperatures during demanding tasks like gaming.

Also, check your laptop's power settings and always create a high-performance power plan when connected to AC power. Although it may use more energy, it prevents artifacting. Some laptops throttle graphics performance on balanced or power-saving modes even when plugged in.

6. Check Power Supply

If you are wondering how to fix GPU crash, the power module is where you should be looking. Graphics cards need stable, sufficient power to operate correctly, so check it first. Make sure all power connectors attach firmly to your card, and there is no visible damage to the power cord or the pins. If you find issues, replace the cords.

Graphics cards also crash due to instability caused by overclocking. To fix this, roll back any overclocking and memory allocation you applied to your graphics card using the MSI Afterburner utility. Even factory-overclocked cards sometimes need to run slightly below their rated speeds for stability.

For persistent crashes, try increasing your graphics card power limit slightly through the same MSI Afterburner utility. This gives the card additional power headroom during demanding tasks, preventing crashes caused by power limitations.

Furthermore, close any background applications that are making the GPU work harder, especially while you are working on something that needs more computing and graphics power.

7. Repair Graphics Card

You may need to repair your graphics card because of the degraded thermal paste between the GPU and heatsink or soldering to reflow loose connections. It's possible that bulging capacitors or burn marks on other elements need to be replaced as well.

If you don't know how to repair a graphics card, you better leave it to professionals; otherwise, there could be irreversible damage to the video card and your system or suffer an injury due to electric shock or cuts. Physical repairs require technical skill but sometimes extend the life of an otherwise functional card with minor faults.

However, you can do minor repairs at home. First, make sure the card sits properly in its PCI slot on a desktop PC. Remove the card, clean the gold contacts with isopropyl alcohol, and reinsert it firmly. Secure the bracket with screws to prevent the card from working loose during operation.

Also, ensure all case fans work correctly and air flows in the correct direction. Generally, front fans should pull air in while rear and top fans exhaust hot air out.

You can also check your computer case for dust buildup. Dust insulates components and blocks airflow, causing temperatures to rise. Shut down your computer, open the case, and carefully clean dust from fans and heatsinks using compressed air.

To improve cooling on a laptop, blow compressed air into the laptop fan vents to clean them while the system remains off.

8. Consider Replacement

When troubleshooting steps fail to resolve persistent problems, replacement becomes the most practical solution. If your system with integrated GPU or the external graphics card is under warranty, visit the store and ask them for a replacement. In case the warranty period is over, contact another professional to repair the integrated GPU in your laptop or the external GPU.

If budget constraints prevent immediate replacement, consider used or refurbished cards from reputable sellers. These offer good value but come with shorter remaining lifespans compared to new hardware.

Part 4. Experience Seamless Enhancement with HitPaw Online Video Enhancer After Fixing Graphics Card

HitPaw Online Video Enhancers use AI and your graphics card for processing to enhance video quality, such as upscaling or removing compression artifacts. If your GPU is failing, you may not get the best results.

After fixing your GPU issue, you can improve the quality of your video without any glitches. Simply upload your video from your PC to HitPaw Online Video Enhancer and use any of the AI models to enhance it by removing artifacts in people's faces, brightening the footage, adding more color, upscaling the resolution, or getting rid of noisy elements.

Part 5. FAQs of How to Fix Graphics Card

Conclusion on How to Fix Graphics Card

Graphics card problems disrupt your computing experience, but most issues are easy to fix. This guide showed multiple approaches to how to fix graphics card issues through software adjustments and basic hardware maintenance. Start with simple driver updates before attempting more complex solutions like cooling improvements or physical repairs.