lately i have been getting low fps in my computer games. mainly counter-strike 1.6 and i have a nvidia 6800GT 256mb... i've had the card for a year now and i'm wondering if my video card is going bad... another thing that gets me to believe this, is that my mouse icon started disappearing this morning... i have tried everything... and before i result to formatting (which i dread because i have 5000+ songs), i wanted to see if it was my video card... i do however have a spair ti4200 128mb that should work fine... so if i need to go to that, that's no problem even though i'd like to stick with the 256mb...

amd 2600+ 2.1ghz
1gb corsair
80gb WD
6800gt 256mb
19" viewsonic

souton here is what i would do

1. being that you have a spare video card switch it out with the one thats may be the cause, if your mouse is still doing that than its not the video card. run CS with the 128 and see if the 128mb's performance is better. If it is than its the 6800 gt thats the problem wether its software or hardware is the next step

2. Check all drivers and update them, see if that works. if not i'd safe my self the time and replace the card. if you feel you'd rather reformatt for a fix action than back up your files on diff/new harddrive.

i switched video cards and still the same thing.... mouse icon disappears.... it's not the monitor is it??

Hello

I agree with Lazareth.
However before doing reformat there are many other things to try.
I have a 6800 gt that went bad twice. no intermitten anything just died
flat out.
1. possible fix is to do a repair install of windows.
But we need all the specs you can provide to better help you!
What brand of 6800 is this?
G'Luck

Hi

If I were u. I would do a system file check first by clicking:

Start > Run and key in 'sfc /scannow' > OK (Get the Wins XP CD ready)

before reformatting the hard disk as the last resort. Failing that, scan for viruses...

Have a nice day!

Ronnie

Hmm..dought its the monitor is it a LCD or CRT. Another thing you may want to think about is cleaning the contacts on the card and the slot. Take some rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) and put a drop of it on a q-tip, wipe it off let try and try again, sometimes a little cleaning can go a long way.

If worse comes to worse, get a small hard drive to put songs on or
dvd burner or something $40 or $50...theres no reason you should have
to loose them.
Post back and let us know before reformatting.