Graphics card errors and how to fix them

The graphics card is one of the hardest-working parts of any gaming or workstation PC — and one of the most common to fail. The good news: most GPU problems are repairable, and some you can sort yourself.

Artifacts and visual glitches

Strange colours, flickering textures, lines or blocky patterns are "artifacts". They usually mean overheating, ageing memory (VRAM), or a driver problem. Start by updating (or cleanly reinstalling) your graphics drivers, and check the card's temperature under load.

Crashes and black screens while gaming

• Overheating — dust-clogged fans or dried-out thermal paste
• An underpowered or failing power supply
• Driver conflicts after an update
• A loose card or power cable

Cleaning dust from the card and case fans fixes a surprising number of "random" crashes.

Loud, grinding or dead fans

GPU fans wear out. A grinding fan is on its way out; a dead fan means the card will overheat fast. Fans are replaceable — you don't need a whole new card.

No display at all

If you get nothing on screen, it isn't always the GPU — it can be the monitor cable, the motherboard, RAM or power supply. Try the motherboard's own display output (if it has one) to narrow it down.

"Buy a new one" is often the wrong advice. Fans, thermal pads and even VRAM can be repaired at board level for far less than a replacement card.

When to get it looked at

If cleaning and driver reinstalls don't help, or the card runs hot, artifacts or won't display, we repair graphics cards at board level across London — fans, thermal work and component-level fixes, usually the same day.