Video Card Dead? That's unpossible! Help Shroomy!

[Shroom Man 777]

Behold!

Shit screencaps! Watch at your own peril!

My video card is shot. I mean, my computer is 8 years old or so since we got this during that bygone time when Pentium 4 was hot shit and Windows XP was still warm from the oven or something. Now, it's nigh-ancient and even a tiny nudge to the CPU can make it bluescreen.

AMYWAY, right now I has monitor problems. At one point, the computer wouldn't even start up and I had to replace the video card by scavenging a card from a less-old PC. The cannibalized card now allows me to turn on my PC and for a while, it was all fine and dandy, but NOW it's fucking up AGAIN and my visual stuff is shit (as you can see in the screencaps, rite?). I tried using the old card, but the PC won't work at all with the old card.

Now, I've already replaced video cards and it still won't work. I am reasonably sure that this is due to a hardware problem. Nevertheless, since patients must be honest and completely truthful to their doctorbs and other healthcare workers, I will honestly say that I have pornoes a lot in the past and right now my Online Armor isn't working. Still, despite this, I am reasonably certain that this is a hardware problem... but one that is more profound than just swapping video cards.

What do I do, mangs?!

[Bounty]

Are you the thing isn't just overheating?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Check for dust. (After turning it off), and clean it off with a fan and some tissues.
If the videocards fan is busted, then it's pretty much done for.

[Shroom Man 777]

Are you the thing isn't just overheating?

The problem began yesterday and continues still. Maybe I should vacuum cleaner it?

[Bounty]

Make sure the fans are working, and open up the case to see if it isn't clogged with lint.

Also, are you sure it's not the monitor or the video cable?

[Zixinus]

How about the motherboard? Could it be that mobo is hafl-dead and screwing up all and any signals?

Also, how is the video cable? No nibbles from pets or anything? Doesn't have a dust colony?

[Archaic`]

I've had two very similar issues to this with old computers. If you're lucky, it's just a dust issue, and the case, motherboard and video cards only need a good clean. Doesn't sound like it's likely to be that easy though. Potentially, you've lost a couple of capacitors on the motherboard from overheating, and that's pretty much going to take it out of commission just from the age of the computer. There's a chance your power supply might be having problems and frying things as well, which would actually be easier for you to fix of you've got a power supply to cannibalize from that other one. For that matter...if the other PC is less-old, why are you cannibalizing from it and not from this old one?

Honestly though, with the time and/or cash necessary to bring it back to full working order, you may as well buy a barebones new PC, keeping your existing monitor, etc, and just port your files over.

[Shroom Man 777]

It's not the monitor nor cable since I've tried switching monitors and the problem persists. And, yeah, I think it's probably high time that I get a new goddamn PC and just be done with this.

The other PC did not last as long as my ancient fossil. Hell, my fossil has outlived the other not-as-ancient Pentium 4 and the Dual Core we had for a couple of years (that broke).

[phongn]

Inspect the capacitors on the motherboard for leaks, cracks and bulging - that PC is from an era where there were a whole lot of shoddy capacitors on the market.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Erm ... Shroom. It might be high time to get a relatively cheap netbook for a substitute (if you don't play games).

[Shroom Man 777]

My dad has a bitching netbook, maybe I SHOULD get one of those. Yeah.

Any hope of getting a new nifty cool-ass PC for videogames and shit is precluded since if anyone gets a new PC, the family will just shove it full of business backup files that'll turn it as slow as shit anyway.

I am sads.

[Edi]

Inspect the capacitors on the motherboard for leaks, cracks and bulging - that PC is from an era where there were a whole lot of shoddy capacitors on the market.

QFT. And even if the capacitors weren't shoddy to begin with, at that age they start to act up, especially if the machine has suffered from overheating.

Sounds like the mobo is going even if the graphics card is okay (which is not guaranteed). If the dust cleaning isn't helping any (pressurized air is your friend here), time to get a new PC ASAP and save everything you need from this one to a USB stick or external HD.

Trying to fix it is not worth either the time or the effort. I've had one experience of soldering new capacitors and coils onto a lightning-blasted motherboard and it's not actually something I'd recommend to anyone. It didn't get me a whole lot of extra mileage out of the machine, but enough that I saved several hundred euros by getting a core2duo machine when they came out instead of older shit.

[Shroom Man 777]

Thank goodness the HD with all my shit is easily detachable and we can easily stick it into an external HD case thing.

Time to give the old girl the appropriate funeral rites.

[Zixinus]

I've had one experience of soldering new capacitors and coils onto a lightning-blasted motherboard and it's not actually something I'd recommend to anyone.

Soldering those fuckers back on? Holy hell, I didn't think it was possible without messing up the circuitry.

[Edi]

I've had one experience of soldering new capacitors and coils onto a lightning-blasted motherboard and it's not actually something I'd recommend to anyone.

Soldering those fuckers back on? Holy hell, I didn't think it was possible without messing up the circuitry.

It is if you're careful and know what you're doing. Not sure with the newer motherboards, though and it's generally not worth the expense. Though with that particular motherboard, it was a miracle anything worked. It was a complete mess:

• One of the two processor slots was fried
• It had several capacitors bulging this way and that, yet functioning
• Survived a lightning strike that put the computer out of commission for three days before it started up again
• Survived a fried power source
• There were scorch marks from the heat on the bottom motherboard where the two problematic coils were mounted, meaning the heat had penetrated through the circuit board to turn it a fried brown on the other side, never mind the topside
• The wiring on those two coils crumbled into dust on touch when I examined them
• I needed a hammer and a nail to clear out some of the mounting holes, they were stuck with gunk from the old coils

I pulled the coils out of an old broken graphics card because they were the same size and wiring as the old ones and soldered those on. They lasted around 30 days and by that time they were as bad as the old coils: Enamel burned off by the heat, copper wiring blackened and turning crumbly and the components around them were getting scorched every time the machine was turned on. No wonder it died.

It was, unsurprisingly, an Abit board, a BP6 IIRC. Made back in the days when Abit boards were virtually nuke proof compared to some of the other stuff on the market. The only reason I did manage to get it repaired because I was working at a computer repair shop at the moment and the equipment was on hand. The expressions on the faces of my coworkers when they saw the extent of the damage and the condition of the coils were something to see.

[Stark]

It's pretty amazing that the board could take a hit that so heavily damaged the coils and still work once everything is replaced. Have you done any surgery on boards with newer capacitors? I've never worked with anything but the old fibreglass ones, which are easy to diagnose as 'broken'.

[Edi]

The capacitors on that one were of the kind that bleed gunk all over the place if they burst, not the solid kind of ones, which I expect are the fiberglass stuff. I'm not too current on the materials they use in the components.

I haven't worked on any more recent models.

As for amazing, yep. I've seen far less damaged boards completely fried and dead, but that one just chugged on and even worked for a month after the repairs before it finally died for good. The guys at the shop had been there for years and each and every one of them was going "Are you fucking serious?!" when they saw the condition that thing was in. Said they'd never seen the like.