Can't tell if my graphics card is dying..

[coltyhuxx]

It's a Raedon 9800...


Yesterday I booted up the PC and there were some missing blocks of pixels as well as verticle 1" wide yellowish bars going up and down the screen. I didn't leave the computer on long -- maybe ten minutes while I was trying to update my drivers.

Next, I unplugged my PC and checked the vents. Sure enough, the vent by the graphics card and soundblaster was totally caked up with dust. Thick build up and the card was fairly hot (even after only a few minutes of being on).

I cleaned it up as best I could without having compressed air on hand. I fired it up later and it seemed to run fine. Then after an hour or so, little pixels started to become discolored. I turned it off. I'm going to bring some compressed air home today and clean the whole thing out, but it looked pretty good after the first cleaning session.

Have any of you had experience with your card over heating? Do you think it might be permanently damaged, or are they fairly resilient?

Any help would be appreciated...

 

[VioletArrows]

In my experience (been through three), graphics cards are finicky pieces of shit that will also not hesitate to drag the motherboard down with it (two did this). What you described is exactly what happened to my first graphics card. I bought a computer off some jackass, noticed it was doing funny things on screen after about 2 weeks, open it up, it's filthy, clean it out, and it still does it for about a week until it finally died.

 

[Richard Longfellow]

If it's still doing it after you clean it, then yeah the silicon is cooked. Remember to open your case and clean it every 6 months to a year. You should go ahead and clean the CPU cooler and case fans too. Then download Speedfan or PC Wizard 2008 so that you can keep an eye on your temps. Lesson learned.