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Looks like my graphics card is ****ed

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  • 14-12-2015 2:33am
    #1
    muffler
    Registered Users Posts: 45,830 ✭✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    Hopefully someone here can offer a wee bit of advice. First of all I just want to make clear that I know very little about computers, their components or how they work but earlier tonight I brought the PC out of sleep mode and the screen was just grey with a mass of little different coloured dots. As I couldnt see or do anything I had to shut the PC down by holding in the startup button on the front of the machine.

    Long story short it wouldnt boot normally. When I tried to start windows normally I got a certain distance (with a funny looking black screen with 3 vertical blue bands) and it would just reboot again on its own until I started in safe mode. Tried a system restore and it didnt help. After looking at a pop up Microsoft message and clicking on different links in it its telling me that there is an error with the video hardware which I assume is the graphics card. Its also making a strange sort of humming sound at the moment.

    Im hoping someone can confirm that this is is the case and what type of card I should be looking to buy as a replacement. I can get a guy later in the week hopefully to fit the new card if that is the problem. Its just that I would like to have a replacement here for him when he calls rather than having to order one afterwards thus delaying the whole process.

    The PC is a Dell XPS 430,
    OS is Vista home premium 32 bit,
    Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz,
    4Gb RAM,
    Current graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series 512MB.

    Thanks in advance.


Comments

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    #2
    IRE505
    Registered Users Posts: 13 ✭IRE505


    It's difficult to say. It could be the graphics card, the RAM, the power supply or even the motherboard. I would say if you think you're not too confident with computers, wait for your guy to come and see what the problem is, you wouldn't want to be wasting money on a graphics card if your RAM is dead instead. And if you want to do some reading about your problem it's known as the "Multi Coloured Screen of Death".

    If you want to see if it's the graphics card, you can try it in another machine and see if it has the same problems.
    Good Luck!


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    #3
    muffler
    Registered Users Posts: 45,830 ✭✭✭✭muffler


    IRE505 wrote: »
    It's difficult to say. It could be the graphics card, the RAM, the power supply or even the motherboard. I would say if you think you're not too confident with computers, wait for your guy to come and see what the problem is, you wouldn't want to be wasting money on a graphics card if your RAM is dead instead. And if you want to do some reading about your problem it's known as the "Multi Coloured Screen of Death".

    If you want to see if it's the graphics card, you can try it in another machine and see if it has the same problems.
    Good Luck!
    Thanks for that. One of my son's friends is to call tomorrow evening to have a look so I'll leave it until then as he should be able to diagnose the exact problem. In the meantime this 11 year old Dell 5000 that I have as backup will keep me slugging on ;)

    Must have a look now at the multi coloured screen of death shortly :)


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    #4
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    It sounds like the card, a basic replacement card of the same/slightly faster speed wouldn't cost more than about €30 2nd hand. You could replace it with the same card again for about €20, even.


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    #5
    muffler
    Registered Users Posts: 45,830 ✭✭✭✭muffler


    TerrorFirmer wrote: »
    It sounds like the card, a basic replacement card of the same/slightly faster speed wouldn't cost more than about €30 2nd hand. You could replace it with the same card again for about €20, even.
    The guy who looked at it confirmed the demise of the card and thinks that the whole system is basically banjaxed. Accordingly Im on the hunt for anew PC as described here


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