By the way

My current notebook is a 5-something-something which i ordered from Xotic about three years ago. Around that time, there was talk of nvidia cards (8800 gtx) having certain issues that might show up in the long run.

When i started playing starcraft 2, mysterious things were happening. The game would hang if i started it with too high resolution. If i started a new game in really low resolution, and then switched it back to normal resolution after a few seconds, everything would seem to work ok. Then, when playing new vegas a few months later, something similar happened, and after a few weeks, i was not able to play any game at all. My computer would also randomly go to black screen (not even blue ), and this is my current situation.

Just out of curiosity, is this the type of problem one might see if using a 8800 gtx from that time period? I remember thinking "oh well, my card is probably fine"

 

Update your drivers and check the temperatures first

 

Oh, i've continuously gone back an forth between driver releases these past three years. When the problems started, i tried at least 10 different drivers, including the stock drivers that came with the computer, and the temps were always ok. This is without question a physical problem. Just curious if this type of behavior is/was common with the 8800 gtx.

My laptop is reduced to a 9 pound iPad :O

 

sadly graphics cards dont last forever.
im running the 9800GT which is in fact a re badged 8800GTX and its 2.5 years old now and have not had one problem with it but there are 3 people in the last month that have had to bake their cards back to life.
did you get vertical lines at all on your screen when you first noticed the problem. and the main question is have you ever overclocked as this shortens the gpu life.

 

No overclocking here.

I don't remember any vertical lines. In the beginning, various games would just go to blue screen. I would also get weird artifacting evenly distributed over the screen, even after i quit the game. Everything seemed ok after reboot.

I didn't realise it was a hardware issue until i couldn't even run CS:S at low graphics levels without periodic (0.5 Hz or so) FPS-drops and subsequent BSODs.

Oh well. New laptop on its way.

 

which laptop are you getting?

 

The Nvidia 8XXX series was plagued in later-life soldering issues which a lot of enthusiasts relied on baking the cards in a pre-heated oven to reconnect the solder joints.

I'm not saying do this ... but a lot of people got an extra 6-12 months out of their card. There's lots of information about it on google. If the card is dead to you then this might be worth a shot.

 

How quaint!

I believe it's time to let the 8800 take a long nap. Mainly because getting all those tiny screws out of the 5793(?) is such a painful process

 

I just had dell replace the mobo/gpu/cpu on my 3 year old XPS m1530. It has the 8600m GT chipset that was well known to kick the bucket due to overheating. My laptop therefore has lived on a cooling pad, but I figured since my comprehensive warranty ends soon, I might as well get it fixed. I'd be having some overheating/bsod issues but nothing serious.

Check out The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Home Page and see if you're affected. You might qualify for a free replacement mobo and gpu.

Tech came out and replaced pretty much everything inside other than the HDD and RAM (mobo, gpu, cpu, heat sinks, fans, top bezel, power supply, and power brick).

I just basically got a whole new machine! (which will end up in a closet somewhere after I get my 8150).