Quote Originally Posted by Gnozzorg View Post
Sorry for being late here, but just a sidenote: In my own experience a very large percentage of problems does not originate in hardware failure. So buying new hardware (like graphics cards) is almost always unnecessary.
While it can fix a problem (e.g. because you install new drivers for your new hardware), it is most often a waste of money. Unless you were planning to upgrade anyway

Heck, even when a piece of hardware is slightly broken in a way, you can often find a workaround to not affect you ever.
Aye most true... a friend of mine who was having crashing problems with his laptop opened it up and cleaned, as he thought, everything out. No change. It was behaving like it was a heating issue, and eventually he found a Huge clod of fluff hidden away in part of a heatsink that was blocking most of the airflow and being very hard to see. Once the fluff was cleared completely the problem vanished.

When graphics cards do fail, for me it's *always* been the ram. First time it was a GF4 4400, then a 9700 mobility ... nice pretty stripes that preceed a big crash. I think now they pay more attention to cooling graphics card ram.

Rakku