Wierd Tint

Please not to take anything personally, you were clearly coming from a very pure place and moved to help.

If it helps....I too come from this place....and on more than one occasion here have gotten gently shotdown, this is the real world ya know... for not owning the level of expertise I came to think I might cause I am the go to girl for friends when their puters get messed up....which they do a LOT.

Always remember, all learning is a gift!!!!! Do not make this or that post some litmus test for yr worth!!!

 

Pls bear with me, I have again been doing again the bad of trying to post while working....made now 3 responses to this and accidentally lost all of them.

My lesson: work, then finish work....THEN post. I shall, 3 plus hours hence.

 

I went on break cause I wanna get this done:

I totally relate to not being able to be without some device for more than 21 mins running. So thanks for the info re the geographic distance between you and yr dad.

Next, you are clear, calm & pro active…. & also have this uber geek dad.

If you take the puppy to Neiman Marcus to have them take it down, repair the board, it will not only cost but who knows if the board isn’t compromised in some other way?

On the other hand, if you can unearth a healthy pull replacement board for little money, they exist, I ought to know "¦..and do the replacement yourself….NOT HARD< JUST CREEPS you out at first, trying new things does that; you go slowly, make diagrams, write stuff down; it isn’t rocket science….you will only have to give the cost of the board…..and you will have earned even more coping skills.

Takes less time even first time than you think! You already reveal you can take it down cause for you, the issue was mailing it to yr dad and waiting for the reapit and return!

But must be your call and only yours. Also ponder how long you might keep this system.

This is just another form of troubleshooting & coming to decision that’s right for YOU while learning all your options.

But I am positive should you choose, you have the chops to do it. If you asked Neiman Marcus to take it down and replace the board….they would gouge you on the part….forget the labor.

Not long ago, a friend had an issue with his HP lappy….I felt it was the adapter, but I had no voltage tester around, I borrow one from the staff in this building when I need one.

He took it into Best Buy where he bought it…running VISTA, no less. They took it in the back, he said, let him wait as if they were doing something big….came forth, confirmed it was the adapter and charged him obscene money for, obviously… doing nothing but testing the part in the back and dragging that out.

If you take it I to have someone do the repair….the person doing that should naturally test the board for other issues. So, 90 days exactly after….another doesn’t pop up.

Even if it’s OK, bet the person would use cheap thermal paste….not the arctic Silver YOU would use!!!! Or not replace the existing paste at all maybe even!

My experience is no way vast, lol, but while I have seen laptops with such as power jack issues---those are soldered to the board and very vulnerable, a board where a cap died---but I never heard of a board in a desktop that got messed up in the way yours has. Makes me wonder about the construction of this thing from jump and if something was forced in the original assembly.

Perhaps someone can comment on this?????

(Apologies to Neiman Marcus, but common.)

 

Hi

before resorting to the soldering iron, might it perhaps be worth running a memory test - in case of a problem with system memory lying within the AGP aperture range?

(trying to think of something which could affect both the graphics cards)

Microsoft memory diagnostics from here:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
...it makes a bootable floppy/CD

I'm the first to admit that it's a long shot - awfully complicated (for me anyway!) trying to understand how AGP uses the aperture range - but the memory test is non-invasive and doesn't take too long to run

apologies in advance if you've already proven the memory - I've been up and down the thread but might have missed something.

best wishes, HJ.

edit: PS - upon re-reading I see that Belarc seems to have performed some sort of memory testing? - although I suspect the Microsoft diagnostics might perhaps be more thorough, and they would be running without the confusion of having an OS running at the same time.