What part of my computer is fried?

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Intimacy wrote on 2011-09-20 06:03

Well after testing it mabinogi is fine but videos i downloaded or youtube video and my whole screen dies on me. It even starts dying on me the second i try logging into QQ (it's a lightly flash or java animated loading screen)

Not sure exactly what's wrong but it started happening after watching around 30-40 animes the last few days.

I just took my computer apart and cleaned it and i still am having trouble.

The screen goes grayish and starts showing lots of white sparkly thin lines through the screen, covering 50%-100% for a while then it just goes black. It goes away when i take the video or QQ page down.

If anyone could help me fix this i'd be really happy. Off to school now.

*edit* Some animated ad's on mabination are also doing this to me, they go away when i scroll up or down
Osayidan wrote on 2011-09-20 06:15

Best thing to do would be try on safe mode, if it doesn't do those problems then download the latest drivers for your card, uninstall the old drivers and install the new ones.

If it still happens then try to test either with on-board video if you have it (remove your current card) or with another video card. Make sure to get the proper drivers too.

That would eliminate it being a driver + windows or other software issue.
Intimacy wrote on 2011-09-20 06:19

Quote from Osayidan;592275:
Best thing to do would be try on safe mode, if it doesn't do those problems then download the latest drivers for your card, uninstall the old drivers and install the new ones.

If it still happens then try to test either with on-board video if you have it (remove your current card) or with another video card. Make sure to get the proper drivers too.

That would eliminate it being a driver + windows or other software issue.

How would i go about doing that? I've never done any computer repair stuff on my own.
Bleh, school time will respond in quite a few hours.
Osayidan wrote on 2011-09-20 06:55

For safemode you usually just spam F8 while windows is about to stat loading. Choose safemode with networking so you can still google stuff.

Safemode disables video drivers, so if the drivers are the issue you'd likely find out here.
Yoorah wrote on 2011-09-20 11:26

It's unlikely that a driver issue would start doing this. x( I think your graphics card is fried. Check if any of your friends has an old spare graphics card they could lend you for testing this.
Intimacy wrote on 2011-09-20 11:26

Quote from Osayidan;592291:
For safemode you usually just spam F8 while windows is about to stat loading. Choose safemode with networking so you can still google stuff.

Safemode disables video drivers, so if the drivers are the issue you'd likely find out here.

Okay next time i shut my computer down i will try that.
Osayidan wrote on 2011-09-20 13:24

Quote from Yoorah;592429:
It's unlikely that a driver issue would start doing this. x( I think your graphics card is fried. Check if any of your friends has an old spare graphics card they could lend you for testing this.

Never know with graphic cards, best to eliminate the lowest cost issues first. It likely is a hardware problem but best to be sure.
Intimacy wrote on 2011-09-20 13:28

Quote from Osayidan;592572:
Never know with graphic cards, best to eliminate the lowest cost issues first. It likely is a hardware problem but best to be sure.

Worst comes to worst, which kind of graphics card should i use to replace my current one?
Yoorah wrote on 2011-09-20 13:34

Quote from Osayidan;592572:
Never know with graphic cards, best to eliminate the lowest cost issues first. It likely is a hardware problem but best to be sure.

I know what you mean. But so many of my friends have had their NVIDIAs die (and a few ATIs), and I'd tell them to update their drivers etc, never solved the problem. So I gave up pursuing that route. :<

Quote from Intimacy;592581:
Worst comes to worst, which kind of graphics card should i use to replace my current one?

What is your current one? And I assume your comp is a desktop, yes? Because if it's a laptop, you cannot replace it. You'd have to send it in for repairs and it would cost like $200+. :(
But if it's a desktop, then the criteria depends on your system power supply's capacity (ie. 300W or something) and the type of chasis/case your PC uses. Some graphics cards are too big to fit. x3 (Whether you have a PCIe or AGP slot in the motherboard is important, too, but computers have been using PCIe for the past 5-6 years now.) You could look up this info using your comp's model number on the manufacturer's site, or you could post it here and someone will look it up for you.