So, I left my computer on for many many days and now it seems to have paid back. Obiviously when I tried to run a game these red dots began to appear, the screen sometimes flashed to black and back with all the small red dots everywhere. When I shut the game down with ctrl + alt + del, everything went back to normal, well sometimes the red dots staid blinking for a couple of minutes. I also noticed this problem appeared when I tried to play a movie with Windows Media Player in FULL SCREEN, in a small screen it didn't seem to happen. Any idea what's wrong with my computer? I tried formating the whole thing but obiviously the problem still staid. Is there some sort of a program I can use that would help you to identify the problem? I think something is messed up inside my computer.
Is this a laptop or desktop and what is the brand/model on your video card? Video cards rarely go bad. If it has a fan, see if it stopped running. I leave my mediapc running 24/7 for months at a time and have never lost a video card. You can always try booting up with a linux livecd, that's what I use when I want to test my hardware. This will rule out a windows driver problem.
I'm using a PC with Windows XP and a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card. Well mine has gone before along with the motherboard. I took the computer outside onto my balcony and cleaned it from the dust. After I hooked it back on everything seemed to work perfectly for 10 minutes till the red dots appeared. I suppose since it was cool outside it had something to do with it working.
sounds like the card is overheating or it's ram is going bye bye. see if can try the card in another pc to see if does same thing or not. does it have a fan on it?
If it's overheating, just stick a case fan to blow on the video card. An 80mm case fan will help. Any extra cooling is beneficial.
Okay, I took it out from under my desk where it was very dusty and difficult for the PC to "breathe". Now I have it outside of there, took the side case off and am holding the balcony door open. Everything seems to be working fine. My friend on msn says that this will work temporarily cause he thinks the card is fried or something. It never did behave like this before though, so I quess there must be something wrong with the card since it did work for months before in the same spot.
Yes they do, and that's what's happened here. The card is likely damaged from overheating for too long, and as a result will only function correctly (i.e. no red crap all over the screen) when it's cool. The problem is more likely to get worse than better over time so you should RMA the graphics card. If you bought it from a good board partner like BFG or XFX you may still be under warranty.
