Severe video issues

[postjack]

Hey gang-

Having some really bad video issues. I've had this BFG 8800GT for a while now, and its been great. Last week I started having problems: yellow lines across the screen, random swirly blue dots showing up in any picture, and several minutes after these errors begin, my screen starts going black for several seconds, then flick back to normal for a second or two, then black, and so on back and forth, basically making it impossible to do anything with my computer. I haven't run any games in a while, this just happens when I'm browsing the internet. My quick resolution is to shut down the computer for a couple of minutes, then turn it back on. Everything works fine for a few hours, then it starts again.

So I had the yellow lines/blue swirly dots issue with an HP laptop I had a few years back, and the tech support person said it was the graphics card. So I pulled out the 8800GT (all drivers up to date btw) and put in my old 7950 and installed it's latest drivers. Looked like everything was working perfectly, and it did for about 24 hours, but just a few minutes ago my screen started doing the black out thing, back and forth between showing the desktop and black. This spell was not preempted by any yellow lines or swirly dots, it just happened. Again I turned off the computer for a few minutes and turned it back on, so far everything is fine.

Thoughts? Thanks.

[grawk]

If you're having issues with 2 different graphics cards, I'd blame the monitor.

Time to get a new one...

[postjack]

If you're having issues with 2 different graphics cards, I'd blame the monitor.

Time to get a new one...

Right on. I have an old LG 19" I could hook up to test that theory. Sucks though, my current monitor is a 24" Samsung and I love it.

[n_maher]

It's either that or the power supply section for the VC is going flakey, or something like that. I'd also check the connections at both ends of the cable connected to the monitor, it may be hardwired at the monitor end which would probably eliminated it as a cause.

[strid3r]

Sounds like the monitor. I had a hand-me-down LCD that would sometimes have horizontal yellow lines across the screen.

[n_maher]

Jack, one more thing, the good news is that big LCD's have come down quite a bit in price.

Newegg.com - Acer X243Wbd Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM with HDCP support - LCD Monitors

or if you could live with 22" you could save a lot of $$

Newegg.com - Acer V223wbmd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2500:1 Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors