Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by vertigofoo

An Inconvenient Truth

vertigofoo — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:33:33 +0800

I have just watched An Inconvenient Truth less than 30 minutes ago, and I have to say that its one of the biggest eye openers I have ever experienced.

I may have been aware of the global warming message (and the ozone layer depletion) issue for a very long time now (easily 20 years ago), and I'm one of those that have never really stood up to take preventive action. I simply couldn't care less considering the fact that my family, my friends, and my own country's government didn't really give a damn about it.

But things have got to start somewhere, and I intend to do it soon. I'm older, wiser now, and with a bigger circle of influence. We have recycling plants now we did not have 20 years ago. We have energy saving appliances now that we did not have back then. We have renewable sources of energy now that once did not exist / were not available. I hope I can do my part, and I hope you guys can too.

To all those skeptics out there, WATCH THE MOVIE - then decide for yourself.

To all those who are reading this. WATCH THE MOVIE ANYWAY.

Al Gore should have won the presidency and not stupid monkey Bush.

Warranty Woes

vertigofoo — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:05:07 +0800

OK I really need some feedback on this..

I've got a graphics card thats proven to be faulty and I need to send it in for warranty.

It was 8 months ago when I first purchased it, and now I can't find the g*dd*mn receipt anywhere!!! argh

And I do not have the original box for the card either with me..

It was purchased from PC Zone.. And there is a PC Zone sticker (with Date of Purchase) on the card.

Will they allow me to return the card without the receipt + box?

Funny dots all over screen + screen blinking

vertigofoo — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:50:20 +0800

Alright, I hope I'm posting this topic in the right place..

First things first, I'm not an utter pc noob, and I generally know my way around most pc related troubleshooting issues.

I bought an entire rig (seperate components) from Compuzone in June last year, and brought them home for self assembly. The specs are as follows:-

AMD Athlon 64 3200
Abit KN8 motherboard
Leadtek Winfast Geforce 7900GT
Kingston 1GB Hyperx PC3200
Western Digital 250GB Sata2
Thermaltake Purepower TMV 500W
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream casing
Dell 15" LCD Monitor

Everything went well.. And I've been using the PC with no problems until about a month ago.

Small off coloured pixels will begin to appear on my screen - not enough to be a problem, but annoying nonetheless. This is very likely NOT a LCD dead pixel problem, because these off coloured pixels change locations very frequently, and come and go.

Recently, it got worst, and began to affect many of the 3D games I play. Major artefacts appear during the games best described as flickering, and 'spikes' jumping out from the textures on the 3d models + various other problems. Even my POST screen data is corrupted with some of the alphabets displayed in different colours, and being replaced by random letters. The off coloured pixels and dots on the screen appear EVERYWHERE especially when I'm surfing the web.

I'm a very heavy user, and tend to leave my PC on 24 hours downloading stuff so at first I thought it could be a heat related problem. Checked the GC fan (stock cooler), it was working. Nvidia panel - temp average at around 58C which is still OK. And yes, I've updated to the latest drivers. All fans are working fine - my beloved casing has an front intake 120mm, back exhaust 120mm, side intake 80mm, + PSU with adjustable fan speed. Airflow is pretty decent (modular PSU = few cables, and I tuck them to the side). Not much dust buildup - I clean my system quite frequently, and besides, its quite new.

But due to the taiwan quake (cant download much), I tried shutting everything down for one whole day. The problem sort of went away (probably due to the fact that everything is cooled down with no current/static in the system)

Now when broadband has resumed to normal, I just left my PC on for 2 nights in a row, and the problem has now reached a point of unbearability. Everything will work fine for 15 minutes, before the whole screen starts blinking on and off every 1-2 seconds. Again, I don't think its an LCD problem because many of the things on the screen do not 'refresh' properly when it blinks back on (eg I close a window, but the window appears stuck on my desktop wallpaper). I can start playing an Xvid video and the whole PC can hang. Sometimes even restart.

Changing DVI ports didn't work.

I'm pretty certain its my GC (probably the overheating memory modules on the card) - but i'd like some secondary opinion.

And what's my next best course of action? bring it in for warranty? How long does it usually take? The problem gets worse as the PC is used for longer periods - and I suspect the problem might not appear immediately when I bring the card in for testing.. Or is there anyway to further self test the card before I send it in? (I hate sending things in for warranty due to lack of immediate replacement + long wait times etc..)