Dead Graphics Card – Update

If you read my post about my dead graphics card, then I am happy to say I am back in action. I sent out the card on Thursday, Jan. 4, it arrived on Monday, Jan. 8, at BFG. They shipped out the card the next day and I got my card back on Wednesday, Jan. 10. I am very impressed with the turn around time. The rep. gave me an estimate of 2 week turn around time and I got it in under a week. They sent me another BFG GeForece 7800GT OC and it seems to be running fine. I wanted to take some time and test the card out before officially stating that things are running fine. I am happy to report that I am getting temps in the mid 30’s C when it’s not under load and an average of 68C while under load. Kudos again to BFG.

Dead Graphics Card

I built my current PC back in October 2005. When I was deciding on the parts I decided to get a BFG graphics card because of their lifetime warranty. My friend bought a BFG card a few years ago and is currently on his third card from them after having the first 2 replaced and each time has been an upgrade for him. I purchased the BFG GeForce 7800GT OC 256MB card. This has been a great card and plays anything at full resolution my my Dell 24″ screen.

For Christmas I got the new game Company of Heroes, which I played a few times before noticing that my graphics card fan was getting extremely loud. So I downloaded RivaTuner to see how hot my card was getting. I had it log the temperature and the graphics card was getting up to 110C, which is extremely hot. When it’s not under load it’s around 64C.

After a couple days Company of Heroes stopped loading. It was getting me an error saying it cannot find a rendering device. I fired up dxdiag and my graphics card had “n/a” listed for Total Memory. I tried reinstalling the nvidia drivers and directx9, which neither had an effect.

So, I then decided to call BFG, who has 24/7 support and all are in the U.S. I called around 5:30PM and was on hold for a little over 15 minutes, when I got a hold of a live person and told him my card model and that it was getting 110C under load, with the fan getting very load. He asked a few questions of things to try, but pretty much came to the conclusion that the card was dead. He issued an RMA and I shipped the card off on 1-4-07. They said it’s usually a 2 week turnaround time. Hopefully it won’t be quite that long, esp. since they are actually located in the same state as me.

I must say I will recommend BFG from now on. It is so nice being able to actually talk to someone in the U.S. and he really knew what he was talking about.

mandolux.com

Now that I have my new Dell 2405FPW it was time for me to find some good widescreen wallpapers, 1920×1200. I found http://mandolux.com/ awhile back and the wallpapers are just fantastic. If you know of any other sites that have 1920×1200 wallpapers please leave a comment.

So tempted.

Dell Small Business has the Dimension 9150 w/ 24″ LCD for $993. I really want that 24″ widescreen LCD, but I just can’t spend $1000 after just spending $1500 on my current computer that I just built a month or so ago. I guess I will just have to wait until there is a deal on the 2405 by itself.

Damn you Dell.

Update: I went for it! I thought of someone who I work with and she was gonna have me build her a computer anyway, so I will just sell her it for $700 or so. That means I get a 24″ LCD which normally goes for almost $1000 for around $350. Too good of a deal to pass up.

Update #2: It shipped out today and I should have it tomorrow.

Update #3: Everything arrived today. The display is beautiful. Hopefully I will have some time over Thanksgiving to really test this thing and get a review up by the end of the week. I talked with the person that I work with and sounds like she will buy it for $700, so $380 for a $1000+ monitor.

Update #4: I sold it for $700.

Another week done…

Well, I hate those damn Yankees. There are two teams I will never root for the Yanks are one and the other is the Cubs. So, let’s see what them fish can do against the Yanks.

Hockey season started last Friday for the Blues. They are off to an ok start, 1-1-0-1. Speaking of hockey yesterday I went out and played for almost two hours for the first time in about 4-5 years. It felt good getting out and playing again even though I suck. Also, in both of my fantasy hockey leagues I am in last place, at least I am consistent.

Well, my comp really doesn’t like my right now. Plus, it’s about time for a clean install anyway, so this’ll be a thrilling Friday night.

Also, if you haven’t tried iTunes yet you should it rules.