9600se gone bad ?

[Brozen]

my vid. card is about a year old. about month ago when i was playing WOW. The grapfics all of a sudden started freaking out, i left the game and restarted its stopped. then 2 hours later it started again. My pc had never done this before in any other games to that point. i pulled my pc apart and pulled the video card out blow the AGP slot out for dust and reinstalled it then checked the drivers they were up to date. after playing other games it stated to do the same things(all my other games) streaking line, colors out of place, and flickering little shapes, all around bad graphics. but the game is still playable for the most part.. i guess my question is...... do vid card just start to go bad over time?

and i've never overclocked it, i've played with the setting any any times, reinstalled the drivers, reinstalled 9.0c direct X, and 1.1 net framework

any help....????

Hillary vs. Newt..?? in '08

[ski]

Make sure the video card is fully seated, its fan is running, its fan and heatsink are dust free, and its heatsink is securely mounted.

If those are ok, then remove the computer's cover, and run an external fan.
If that works, then make sure the inside of the computer and all cooling fans are dust free.
If there's no dust and the problem still happens with the cover replaced, then the system probably needs either additional or more powerful cooling fans.

If the external fan does not fix it, the see if the card works ok in another system. If it does, then your MB's AGP slot may be defective.

If the card has the same problem in another system, then it may be bad.

[saphalline]

do vid card just start to go bad over time?

They do indeed. Just like any component, they can die at random. Pending the test of overheating per ski's instructions, it could have died. If that is the case, it sounds like one of the RAM chips went bad on you. At that point, you gotta ask yourself...

How long is the warranty on your particular vid card?

[Brozen]

after pulling the side off the case off and running a external fan and trying diffrent games like Battlefield 2 demo (sweet game!!) and Brothers in Arms. I did not see any graphics issuses. i have room for three more fans i guess i should get those. What do you guys think about a after market heatsink/fan for the video card itself, cause the ATi card only came with a small heatsink?

[saphalline]

I would actually recommend a case mod at this point. Cut a hole in your side panel right where the vid card is. Put the center of the hole level with the height of the vid card, and size it for an 80mm or 120mm fan. Put the fan in, cover it with a fan grille, hook it up, and there you go! One case fan = problem solved!

[ski]

As an alternative option to saphalline's excellent suggestion, I once jury rigged a video card cooling fan by duct taping it on top of a small box, and then duct taping the box to the inside of the case to cool a video card's fanless heatsink. Did the trick.

Or you may be able to just attach a fan directly to the vid card's heatsink by inserting the fan's screws between the heatsink's fins.

[saphalline]

Or you may be able to just attach a fan directly to the vid card's heatsink by inserting the fan's screws between the heatsink's fins.

Hmmm... quite possible since I've seen many active heatsinks with this specific "solution" to cooling. Mostly old Pentium heatsinks and a few modern vid card heatsinks.

But I'm thinking a more robust cooling solution is in order since the problems you cited sound like your vid card's RAM is the part that is overheating, and not just the chip. One way or another (modding or duct tape or something else) you need to get a fan blowing over the whole vid card.

[Brozen]

i may hve spoke to soon it worked fine that night the next day i was looking online for a heatsink/fan for the vid. card and i noticed it was doing it again. now when i'm on my desktop its almost not noticable a little line here a little line there. i had the fan on high a nd i touched the heatsink it was cool. so.... i'm guessing i'm SOL........