Gone to Plaid
Posted in Tech by lunarskye | Tags: Graphics Card, Newegg, Nvidia, Tech
Over the past few days my computer has, seemingly randomly, been freezing up and displaying quite a wide array of colored lines and patterns when it feels like it. See the included picture of my Vista welcome screen, which strangely enough looks like an awesome arrangement for bath/shower tiles from further away!
Amusing as these random images are, at first I totally freaked out thinking it was my monitor. However, I quickly realized I was still able to do system restores and navigate my way around the screen whilst squinting through the jaggy lines. So that left my NVIDIA 7600 GT as the most possible culprit, which I’ve never had issues with before. I know they burn out with age and use though, and I’ve had it since I got my desktop over two years ago. So I guess it’s looking to be time for an upgrade. *sigh*
I went ahead and cleaned the case out, cleaned the gold contacts on the card, and uninstalled/reinstalled the card’s drivers. After the second time reinstalling drivers, everything seems to be happy. I’m hoping it doesn’t crap out completely, but if so, I found a pretty good deal on Newegg for a 9500 GT under $70. Kind of makes me wish I waited on spending $70 the other day on a 1TB internal SATA hard drive. . . but that deal was too good to pass up, and I neeeeed space.
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Yamagata002 says:
I just noticed the “Welcome” text on the screen.
At least graphics cards are cheaper then I thought they would be, but then again I don’t necessarily pay attention to that stuff all the time.
Josh Romero says:
Heh, now that Yamagata mentions it I too see the “welcome” text. You really can squint your way, eh!
That really sucks. But those images are funny! And interesting looking. Reminds me too much of an NES game. Ahhh, those were the days.
And I agree, the 1TB drive was too good a deal to pass up! Then again it’s no use if you don’t have a computer to use it on.
But I’m glad it turned out just to be the card and not something more serious.
Good luck on getting a new card and/or having the cleaning up do the job. Although I think you told me over IM that it messed up on you the other day . . . >_> TECHNOLOGY! So great but so annoying!