Graphics card giving up

[Axis64]

I have a 9800 Pro (i know its old i dont play games so it does me) and the last 2 days my monitor has just gone off and also yesterday i kept getting what looked like a big barcode on my screen then it would go off!

Any Ideas?

 

[gurusan]

Sounds like it could be dying and/or overheating.

Is there lots of dust trapped inside the heatsink?

 

[Axis64]

There is a fair bit of dust in there yeah i am gonna clean it out today to see what happens

 

[gurusan]

yeah it could be heat related, but if you clean out the dust and its still having problems then it's time for a new GPU.

 

[Streeteh]

Happened to my 9800 pro AIW. I ended up beating it up with a hammer for funsies and bought a 7800GTX.