As shown above, my computer's video output is having some problems. There is a photo of it here: img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/stephaniet/IMG_3034.jpg -- basically there are all sorts of weird lines, "corrupted" looking characters, moving squares, multiple mouse pointers, etc. -- it looks like the screen has giant pixels of moving fuzz on it. Tried the monitor with my laptop and it works fine.
I opened my machine, and yes there was tons of dust in there, and I *suspect* it is the video card that is gone, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't the motherboard before I spend $ on a new video card.
When I start up, I get a quick blue screen (too fast to read) that then restarts the computer, and asks me if I want to start in safe mode, since it didn't start up properly the time before. Even that screen has graphics problems -- the letters are kind of drippy. When I start in safe mode, I can use the computer, though it looks like what you see in the picture above.
Any thoughts? Also, is it okay to replace the card (currently, Nvidia GeForce4 TI4200 64MB DDR AGP 4X from 2002) with a non-fanned card? This is my second (old) computer and I barely use it, though I might watch .avi files and do some Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator on it from time to time.
I opened my machine, and yes there was tons of dust in there, and I *suspect* it is the video card that is gone, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't the motherboard before I spend $ on a new video card.
When I start up, I get a quick blue screen (too fast to read) that then restarts the computer, and asks me if I want to start in safe mode, since it didn't start up properly the time before. Even that screen has graphics problems -- the letters are kind of drippy. When I start in safe mode, I can use the computer, though it looks like what you see in the picture above.
Any thoughts? Also, is it okay to replace the card (currently, Nvidia GeForce4 TI4200 64MB DDR AGP 4X from 2002) with a non-fanned card? This is my second (old) computer and I barely use it, though I might watch .avi files and do some Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator on it from time to time.
