Screen corruption and crashes

[Blinkz]

Hey folks,

I think I can guess that my ati 4800hd which is nearly 4 years old is starting to give up the ghost.

It started with Firefox having mild corruption around the GUI, and then websites themselves were flashing on and off, with big black boxes covering different areas.

Then it progressed to windows itself having corrupt, flashing menu bars, start menu etc. it has been crashing a number of times as well with thousands of lines of different colours before rebooting and a few bosd mentioning ati dll files.

Am I wrong or is it new gfx card time? If so any suggestions on a cheap reasonably good ones?

Cheers!

 

[Blinkz]

Anyone??

 

[Catanonia]

I you haven't updated any drivers then it is possible and does sound plausible.

Only way to really tell is a system re-build or swap the card out for another and remove it from the equation.

 

[Blinkz]

Thanks, any suggestions on what card to replace it with? I assume anything these days would be faster then the 4870?

 

[humbug]

Thanks, any suggestions on what card to replace it with? I assume anything these days would be faster then the 4870?

Depends on your budget, this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-052-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411
is way faster than your 4870

This http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Is the fastest card for its money, by a country mile.

 

[Blinkz]

Thanks for the suggestions, wasn't planning on spending much! The computers 4 years old, just a core2duo 3ghz with 4 gig ram so a powerful gfx card might be a little over kill!

I was thinking max 100 quid, if not less! Just wasn't sure what was the best value for money?

 

[JonSmith]

The 2GB 7850s are the best for £120. Otherwise the 2GB 7790. I'd recommend spending the extra for a 7850 though, it'll last for another 4 years at least.

The one thing you can try is to remove the fans, heatsinks and bracket from your 4850 and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 10 mins. That's usually enough to reflow the solder joints that are the cause of the corruption issues usually.