*sigh* Unfortunately it looks like my shiny (and not too old, relatively speaking) OcUK 7900 GTX is, ahem, joining the black parade.
About two months ago, I developed what appeared to be a dead magenta pixel on my screen. Appeared, that is, until I dragged a Notepad window around underneath it. It left a trail. I checked the temperatures: 45°C, which is fine. I swapped the drivers around to an older version — still there. I swapped back — gone, or so I thought.
A couple of weeks later, it returned, in a different place. And it was joined by another magenta pixel, and another. And a yellow one.
By now, moving a Notepad window around even slightly is revealing an alarming stripe of polka–dots.
And my games have started artefacting. And not just slightly. Badly. They flicker and jump.
It's being run at stock, it's never been overclocked, it's well powered, it's well ventilated, and it's not hot. I've tried various driver releases. But even the graphical BIOS startup screen (it's an A8N-SLI Premium) is not immune to four little magenta spots, three of which aren't always in the same place each time.
I've heard of similar problems with 7900-series cards before, but at the time it was being reported, this one was behaving itself. But yep, looks like you can add this one to the list of dead/dying 7900s.
I'm not sure if I can RMA it, or where to; it was an "OcUK" one, bought (from here of course) when it was on special. It came in a plain green box with the XFX logo. I'm trying to find the invoice, but I have a depressing feeling I might be SOL —though if anyone here has any advice or suggestions or might know better, please tell me!
I've actually borrowed a 6600 until I can afford a replacement. I don't know how well a vanilla 6600 will handle 1920×1200 (I suspect I might well have to turn the graphics settings down just a tad, but at least I won't be seeing polka–dots). *sigh*
About two months ago, I developed what appeared to be a dead magenta pixel on my screen. Appeared, that is, until I dragged a Notepad window around underneath it. It left a trail. I checked the temperatures: 45°C, which is fine. I swapped the drivers around to an older version — still there. I swapped back — gone, or so I thought.
A couple of weeks later, it returned, in a different place. And it was joined by another magenta pixel, and another. And a yellow one.
By now, moving a Notepad window around even slightly is revealing an alarming stripe of polka–dots.
And my games have started artefacting. And not just slightly. Badly. They flicker and jump.
It's being run at stock, it's never been overclocked, it's well powered, it's well ventilated, and it's not hot. I've tried various driver releases. But even the graphical BIOS startup screen (it's an A8N-SLI Premium) is not immune to four little magenta spots, three of which aren't always in the same place each time.
I've heard of similar problems with 7900-series cards before, but at the time it was being reported, this one was behaving itself. But yep, looks like you can add this one to the list of dead/dying 7900s.
I'm not sure if I can RMA it, or where to; it was an "OcUK" one, bought (from here of course) when it was on special. It came in a plain green box with the XFX logo. I'm trying to find the invoice, but I have a depressing feeling I might be SOL —though if anyone here has any advice or suggestions or might know better, please tell me!
I've actually borrowed a 6600 until I can afford a replacement. I don't know how well a vanilla 6600 will handle 1920×1200 (I suspect I might well have to turn the graphics settings down just a tad, but at least I won't be seeing polka–dots). *sigh*
check their webpage for RMA details - even without an invoice you should be able to RMA it if its within their warranty (just takes longer - I think you can get OCuk to send you a copy of it but don't quote me on that) - tho usually OEM products have 1 year max...