VGA suddenly acting up...

[wjogert]

Suddenly, after years of use, my video card has started acting up. I've never actually had a VGA "die" while in typical use... only after overclocking, improper handling, or abuse.

2D works absolutely fine. Desktop, primary applications, photo editing, movies, etc... all display fine.
3D gets loaded with bars, pixel dots, and artifacts. Reminds me of typical VGA RAM failure, except for 2D working fine.

The card is an ATI FireGL - X2, 256Mb AGP-PRO (based on 9800-PRO GPU). It has a TT GIANT-2 heatsink (massive, w/heat-pipe and fan) , and chassis temps never exceed 40C, so I don't think the card has overheated. Card has not been oc'd.

This is my CAD workstation, but wife often plays SIMS2 on it, which is not a graphically demanding game. She has recently started playing Guild Wars on this machine too, and while FireGL is not a great gaming card, I doubt that has anything to do with the failure.

I DID reload the ATI drivers. That made no difference.

I'm gonna try a few more tests this weekend, but thought I'd ask for comments & suggestions from my experience peers.

 

[Abit667]

Did you check to see that the fan on the heatsink is still working properly? It is clogged with dust? Try cleaning it out and making sure the fan is spinning as fast as it should be. Also, maybe it became unmounted somehow, make sure it's still making good contact with the core.