Graphic Card or RAM?

[-HANZ-]

Hi, I'm having trouble with my desktop and I know little about the troubleshooting computer hardwares. I'm seeking advices from IT gurus here. Appreciate your help.

 

Situation:

My display is having patches of colour stripes all over and my com gets hanged while playing old games which I used to play.

Is it sign of graphic card (4yrs old) failing? How can I isolate the problem?

 

Thanks for reading.

[cOngx]

since ur computer is 4years old alrdy could be alot of problems

 

1)monitor might be the cause of the colour stripes. if ur monitor is old

 

2)try cleaning up ur pc, u know those dust. remove ur gfx card and clean the dust and put it in , even the cable connecting from gfx to monitor

 

3) its time to upgrade ur pc alrdy seriously . i think ur pc is a p4 1.6ghz?

 

and ur gfx card shld be geforce 4 mx/ti or raedeon 7900 around there yea?

 

(i kind of upgrade my pc every 2 years.)

[Enotsol]

What you describe is often a case of the graphics card failing, specifically the video memory. This can be caused by overheating. Check whether the graphics card fan is still moving.

[choi_ji_woo]

i still playing warcraft 3 with a 700mhz AMD cpu leh. But still very smooth haha. If can meet your basic needs stick with it lah.

[madman]

yap, 4yrs doesnt mean have to upgrade pc. Mine older that, only thing that need to replace is the hdd and gphx card.

 

usually, it is the hdd or gphx card that fails for old comps.

 

still doing 3d wif my p3 1ghz. haa...

[cOngx]

haha, i keep on play up to date latest games like battlefiled 2142 , nfs carbon n stuff.. so there fore a 2yr old com most likely wont support them well haha

 

anyway i played

 

wc3 on p3 600mhz b4

haha wasnt that lag

but sometime i go lanshop who uses p4 2.4ghz and play their wc3 its so fooking lag lo. i dunno why maybe their pc suxs totally

 

important stuff of the pc is RAM n GFX

when playing games u shld have gd n fast enough GFX to render the graphics fast enough so u wont feel lag and yea RAM also affects ur game play too since there are alot of temp data that is need to be stored n access quickly when playing games...

 

for processing 1ghz is alright la just that u will take longer time to load the game.

 

for me i used to be happy when i see 256mb ram, then 512mb ram..

 

now 2GB is a minimum for me

[-HANZ-]

Thanks all for the advices.

 

As an update to my previous post, I did a check on my graphics card. The fan is still spinning.

 

Please see below some findings:

 

1) I notice the colour stripes only come on when the windows start up. No funny colour spotted during windows loading..

 

2) I also get this santa wandering around my desktop when windows start up. Spyware? Virus?

 

Should I try reformating?

 

Thank you.

[Enotsol]

It would be a bit too hasty to do a format.

 

Try http://housecall.trendmicro.com to do a virus and adware scan on your computer.

[standlee]

Originally posted by -=HANZ=-@January 12, 2007 08:27 pm

Thanks all for the advices.

 

As an update to my previous post, I did a check on my graphics card. The fan is still spinning.

 

Please see below some findings:

 

1) I notice the colour stripes only come on when the windows start up. No funny colour spotted during windows loading..

 

2) I also get this santa wandering around my desktop when windows start up. Spyware? Virus?

 

Should I try reformating?

 

Thank you.

if the colour stripes comes on in windows. it could be ur monitor, gfx or conenction.

 

try to isolate the prob by plugging to the onboard gfx(if u hv), adjust ur connection since 1 bad pin connection could result in colour deformation. alternatively, try swopping gfx with ur friend if possible.

[gorgonitz82]

4 year old pc shd be oki lah ... might be bad connection ... or video mem failing .... as for the santa ... might be spyware .. go check it out

[-HANZ-]

Thanks all...

 

I've replaced my graphic card and formatted my com... everything is fine now..

[ah786786]

Originally posted by choi_ji_woo@January 09, 2007 12:12 am

i still playing warcraft 3 with a 700mhz AMD cpu leh. But still very smooth haha. If can meet your basic needs stick with it lah.

lol,mine also same,almost 4 yr lappy,p4 M 2.20Ghz....play CS source and conditon zero and 1.6.....still ok.....just its gets hot.....

[edition]

from wat u said it feels like is graphic card problem .. cau mine happen tt oso .. n monitor won;t broke up so eazily .. my monitor wif me for 7 yrs still workin well .. though the brightness is nt as gd as new ..