GPU woes

[Ammon]

As i was discussing in guild, my graphics board is dying a slow and painful death.
Whytee has given me his mobile number for if it finally gives up the ghost before i can replace it.

Some of the graphics artifacts that show on screen are quite distracting, in fact i ran "to" one thinking it was the ground frost on megaera , many thanks to the nearby priest who pulled me to where the ice really was
the plan so far though, hope the board survives until i can afford its replacement,. swap it out asap and keep raiding

just means i won't be on a whole lot outside of raid time with that little sword of damocles hanging overhead.

[Shadowsong]

We've had a chat in gchat last evening about it (I was on my priest, Darkstar).

It is unfortunatly a common problem for GPU's these days, which is usualy caused by microfractures in the soldering.
I've had my fair share of dead GPU's as well, Geforce 6800, 7900, 8800, and a few from familiy members (laptop versions, but same problem).

I got a video (2 actualy) of me repairing my 6800 by using a snack oven. In case the card totally dies and you haven't got a replacement, you can always try to bake it.
I've done it a couple of times to extend the life of my GPU's a abit (eventually it will die permanetly and you will need to replace it, so far I've managed to bake a card about 4 to 5 times
before it dies permanently).

In case you want to try it out, here's a link to my YT video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUIZAUOSMjA

There are some things you can try to extend the life of your GPU:
-Keep the PC on 24/7, sounds strange, but the warmth (or heat) of the GPU actualy can keep it alive. The fractures start to form because
of the heating up and (drastic) cooling down of the card (happens when you shut down the PC regulary...like me).
-Downclocking, decrease the clock speeds a bit, so the card will remain a bit more stable a little longer, it will cost a few FPS, but
better a few less FPS than a totally dead card (you said it was stock-speed, but still try to underclock it a bit).
-Decrease game setings a bit, so the card has to endure less stress and may remain a bit more stable.
-(optional) get a back-up card, even a el-cheapo budget card will do, so you can at least have an image on screen while you wait for
the arrival of a new high-end card. You may have to put every setting on low, but it's better than a black screen

Good luck!

[Ammon]

My pc hasn't been shut down for the past four days because sometimes it won't past post.
the screen looks kinda wierd, with odd crashy characters and lines showing much of the time at boot.

hell it even appeared as "unknown vga device" last week in the windows device manager, i was like wth!, its a geforce gtx480, NOT an unknown board.
I'm pretty sure its the cause of the Bsod's i've got, error #124