City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Nvidia question...

Bluemeanie

By Bluemeanie,
Posted on: 2010-02-05 05:57 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Hey, people,
I think my graphics card ate itself last night. It's about two years old, and I recently put it into a higher than I should have heat environment. I know, I'm an imbecile. Anyway, I started having all sorts of glitchy graphics issues-frozen screen, lines running horizontally/vertically on a forced reboot, etc. I CAN get it going in safe mode, so I don't think the comp itself is screwed.

So my questions are these:
1. The card was an NVidia GeForce 8600GT (256 MB, I think), plugged into a PCIExpress slot. How likely might it be that the SLOT is fried, but the card is fine? I'm hoping pretty unlikely, 'cuz that'd mean a lot more work and a new MoBo install. Any way to test the slot out, other than putting in a new card (that I probably can't return afterwards, if it doesn't fix my problem)?

2. If I'm looking for a quick fix instead of upgrading dramatically (new computer build coming up soon, don't want to break the bank fixing the old one), what kind of card should I get for a similar performance? Quickly looking on BestBuy.com (I'm talking run out and buy one and put it in myself, not waiting on someone to deliver one), I can get an NVidia 9500GT 1GB or an 8400GS 512 MB. Any thoughts or comments on either of these?

Thanks for any help anyone can lend me!

Basically too many 50's to count, but I'm generally a brute/scrapper/tank kind of guy.

 

Posted

First thing that comes to mind, is the fan on the card working?

 

Posted

Not sure-pulled it out of my case last night and left the rig powered down. Lots of dust in the case overall, dust in the fan area. The way it mounted in the case, the fan was pointed downwards (and it was near the bottom of the rig). Difficult to tell if it was still running the fan or not.

On a related note, any good way of getting all the dust out of the case? Seems like the compressed air cans will just blow it all over eff and gone inside my rig.

Thanks!

Basically too many 50's to count, but I'm generally a brute/scrapper/tank kind of guy.

 

Posted

I like to use the compressed air in combination with a vacuum hose held near the edge of the open case which will draw the floating dust into it as opposed to all over eff and gone! Just don't let it go inside the case because if something was loose enough it could get sucked up in there! "Good bye Mr. Capacitor! Hope you weren't important!"

Oooh oooh remember short blasts with the compressed air as opposed to just holding the trigger down. The short blasts are more likely to dislodge stubborn stuck on dust bunnies! Have fun and good luck!

 

Posted

Cards fry MUCH more easily than the slots they go into.

I used to run an EVGA build of the Nvidia 8600, and it died when the fan got so dusted up, it wouldn't spin anymore.

I found that replacing it with a 9600 resulted in performance a bit better than what I had before - roughly the same frame rates on slightly higher settings.

 

Posted

So I dropped by Best Buy to buy a cheapo replacement. Ended up getting a Galaxy GeForce GT220. Not the snazziest or best, but a RAM increase from my old 8600GT. The RAM is DDR2 instead of DDR3, but it has solved my problem and seems to give me the same FPS rates in game as the old card (running a pretty solid 30 fps overall, which I consider to be acceptable on this rig).

So, problem solved! :^) Oh, and the card was $89 retail. I know I could've gotten it cheaper, but I just wanted the problem fixed right NAO! :^)

Basically too many 50's to count, but I'm generally a brute/scrapper/tank kind of guy.

 

Posted

Another concern about using a vacuum is that small static electric charges can form at the tip of the nozzle as air is sucked in and consequently jump to your motherboard and well, that can be bad . Also be sure to hold your case fans stationary as you blast them with the compressed air bursts, otherwise may cause bearing damage. Sounds like if your case has accumulated that much dust, may just be better to spend a little more time to remove the components and clean them individually. Gratz on the temp fix on the vid card until you can make the new build.