Sometimes it's not as bad as it looks

[DeRose306]

To start, I recently bought a NewEgg refurb video card 9800pro, love it.

3 days after the return cutoff I get all kinds of wierd lines, during post and after windows loads.

Needless to say, I freaked. Not sure what to do, I pulled the video card, memory, and sound card out(not sure why), blew everything out, put it back together and the problem went away.

I chalked it up to not being seated good.

Now 3 weeks later, it does it again! This time, I'm little more calm.

I pull the video card out and look at the contacts on the card, and using an old trick learned years ago, I use an eraser to clean them. The difference was astounding.

From what I gather, this is probably why this was in the refurb bin. The contacts started to tarnish, was then put in a computer and acted up. When it was sent back, it probably worked fine for them, so it got put back up for sale.


I guess, the moral of the story is, sometimes the simple things can cause just as much problems as anything else.

[Blackmage]

I would like to know how did the eraser help!

[DeRose306]

the eraser I used, one of the ones on the end of a pencil, actually removes tarnish from contacts. This was an old trick that a lot of us did with the old Atari 2600 cartridges when they wouldn't want to work.

Surely I'm not the only one who's done this here.

Try it sometime, use something old like an old vid card, sound card or one of those old ISA cards, lol. You'd be surprised at what it will do.

Be gentle and remeber to clean off any eraser bits left behind.

[Joe Don Baker]

I had a Sapphire 9700 PRO that had these weird yellow vertical lines that would come and go I wonder if it was the same problem you had.

I don't have the card anymore so I can't try the trick. Do you have any pics of the lines? This sounds exactly like the problem I had.

[cornbread]

Surely I'm not the only one who's done this here.



Nope your not the only one. I have done it myself, I learned it by cleaning my old game cartridges also.

[DeRose306]

well now I feel better, at least someone else knows the trick. I'm watching for the problem to come back now, but i don't think it will. If it does, I'll do more troubleshooting.

Just wanted to share the experience in case seomone else runs across the problem, may save a few $$$

[Sentential]

Im so glad you have had success and thanks for the suggestion. If something similar happens Ill know where to look first :D