Video card madness---part 2
Ordered a decent "low-end" EVGA-brand video card from NewEgg late yesterday. 256megs RAM, nVidia GeForce 6200LE chipset, AGP format. $52 plus $5 shipping, UPS 3-day ground (which came by air from CA to West Columbia, SC). UPS tracking says I'll have it Monday, which is OK by me.
The card had mostly good reviews, considering it's a "low-end" unit with decent features (the RAM is a nice step up from what I have) and a DVI connector for my 19"WS ViewSonic. The old card (128meg nVidia) also has a DVI port, but there didn't seem to be much difference between DVI and "straight" VGA-plug performance, at least not for the short while I used it with the DVI cable before it went belly-up. Apparently it had been in "early failure" mode for some time, getting progressively more cranky, but like most people, I'd been ignoring the glitches---until they got so bad I couldn't ignore them any longer.
Now I just have to hope that the new video card cures the problem; otherwise, the fool thing will quickly turn into a money pit (new power supply---yes/no?; new motherboard-CPU-RAM---yes/no?; slit my wrists---yes/no?)
The card had mostly good reviews, considering it's a "low-end" unit with decent features (the RAM is a nice step up from what I have) and a DVI connector for my 19"WS ViewSonic. The old card (128meg nVidia) also has a DVI port, but there didn't seem to be much difference between DVI and "straight" VGA-plug performance, at least not for the short while I used it with the DVI cable before it went belly-up. Apparently it had been in "early failure" mode for some time, getting progressively more cranky, but like most people, I'd been ignoring the glitches---until they got so bad I couldn't ignore them any longer.
Now I just have to hope that the new video card cures the problem; otherwise, the fool thing will quickly turn into a money pit (new power supply---yes/no?; new motherboard-CPU-RAM---yes/no?; slit my wrists---yes/no?)