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Question: Is my graphics card worthless now?

Info:

So I had neglected to clean out the inside of my case for a little while and It got pretty chocked with dust. While I was on my computer just now suddenly a bunch of lines appeared and it crashed. On reboot the screen had dozens of blue vertical lines kind of methodically placed across sections of my screen. It seem to me that the card over heated, but I wanted to check see if anyone has any other Ideas before I go dish out a lot of money for a new GCard.

I'm currently running a Geforce 8800GT. It is almost 2 years old but still was SOOOOOO powerful. I hate to see it go. :'(

Narcolapser
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  • my card is doing that too. did the lines show up after Windows booted or did they just show up on the BIOS screen? (i'm assuming you're using Windows) – Nate Koppenhaver Aug 31 '11 at 22:32
  • it was windows, Ubuntu, and bios. if the video was coming out of my graphics card (in contrast to the other card that was not mine that i tried and worked fine) it was garbled. – Narcolapser Sep 05 '11 at 00:28

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The best way to test if the Video card is to replace it with another and see if the system show the same symptoms you complain of, even if it's a cheap video card, as long as you know that it works. This guide has a few symptoms to look at for Video Card failure. In my experience, with what you have described that would be my first guess.

Also while you're out buying a new video card, get some canned air and clean out the system every once in a while. It'll save you in the long run :)

James Mertz
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  • If this doesn't help - and if you've exhausted all possibilities - there is an [extreme option](http://superuser.com/questions/129644/graphics-card-failure-anything-i-could-try/129651#129651) involving baking the graphics card. – sblair Sep 04 '10 at 01:14
  • Ya I didn't believe in that either until i saw [this](http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792.) post and [this](http://superuser.com/questions/129644/graphics-card-failure-anything-i-could-try) one as well. – James Mertz Sep 04 '10 at 01:19
  • So, i put in a different card from help desk. that worked basically just fine (i just booted up, didn't try anything beyond that, but my GT couldn't even do that while looking normal.) so it must be the graphics card which is both good and bad. atleast it is only the Gcard not the card, mobo, and proc. and not somethng more expensive like the proc. so I'll count my blessings. – Narcolapser Sep 07 '10 at 21:57
  • Also, I'm going to try and bake the card tonight. If the card is toast I've got nothing to loose! So here's hoping. it would be nice to get a few more miles out of it. ^_^ – Narcolapser Sep 07 '10 at 21:58
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    HOLY CRAP IT WORKS! O_O EPIC WIN! – Narcolapser Sep 10 '10 at 16:59