Ok so i've had the card for a year or so. It was working perfectly up util 3 months ago, when it started (as the people from whom i bought the card said) overheating.
so i took the cooler off, and found the first good cooler for gf5 that could fit on my gf4 and put it on. it didn't fix a thing.
The symptoms are :
a) garbage display in dos. everything dos - meaning the boot up geforce screen, boot up screen of my sata controller on my mobo, dos games... you get the picture. the only place in dos (not exactly dos though
![:o :o]()
) it displays perfectly is the bios boot up screen.
b) windows display normal. 2d windows games normal (starcraft and diablo as examples)
c) older 3d games normal display (opengl games - quake2 - which i primarily play online and quake3)
d) newer 3d games random weird garbage display - in warcraf 3 i get some weird black dots all over the screen, in doom3 for instance i get some pixels (especcialy the distant ones) to flicker and become transparent
what i've figured out so far is that the problem is with the gfx card memory - when i underclock the memory and leave the core intact - i have significantly less of those weird black dots in warcraft 3 then i have when i do the opposite.
the cooler came with a big active cooler for the core and some passive coolers for the memory.
i've tried running warcraf3 and turning of the computer and check the temperature of the memory by hand - i woulnd't say it's over 40°C.
anyone know a diagnosis for this situation ?
it would really help me a lot, and save me a ****load of nerves if someone would be good enough to help. or to compose a list of things i should do to try to repair this - from turning off vsync to flashing the card.
thanks in advance guys
p.s.
Abit Nf7-SL
Athlon barthon 2500+
512 kingmax ddr 500
onboard sound system (nvidia soundstorm)
and samsung 959nf (i don't know if this has anything to do with it, but i'm so deep in the dark it wouldn't surprise me at all)
i've tried a gf3 and a gf2 from my friends, it works fine.
thanks agan