As a general rule, when you have something like a mobo or a video card die, do you RMA it, or do you just buy a new part?
I currently have lying around two dead video cards and a motherboard holding a bloody knife (so to speak, more on that in a minute). Temporarily replacing it in my system, I'm running another motherboard that died, I RMAed, but has a problem in that it won't recognize any memory that is put in slot 2 (of 3) (it came back like that, and I haven't bothered to send it back yet).
The dead video cards are a GF4Ti4200, and a GF2Ti. The culprit motherboard is an Asus A7M266 (AMD 761) that is 2 and a half years old. The video cards were having problems where they exhibited overheating characteristics (triangles in games and text that was corrupted), but no amount of cooling would solve the issues. I eventually borrowed a Radeon 7200 from a friend, which worked fine for about 2 weeks, but then it started to have the same issues. When I swapped out the Asus and put in my other board (MSi KT266, VIA KT266 [not a] chipset), the problems went away. (I have tried both the other cards and I think the Asus damaged them beyond repair)
I've decided that I can, if I need to, spend a couple of hundred (200 to 300) upgrading or replacing my components. I currently have an AthlonXP 1800 (Palomino core) with 3x256MB of PC2100 (but neither board runs more than 2 sticks, so I've got the third stick lying around going to waste), and loads of other stuff.
Basically, I'm asking if you think I should bother RMAing what I've got (I think the warranties are all still good... at least through this summer), or just go and buy a new mobo and vid card and perhaps memory. If I do, I'd like to also get a card with VIVO. alternatively, I could also get just a PCI TV tuner card... what are your thoughts on that?
For what its worth, if I do upgrade, I'll probably RMA the parts anyway and put together a second (and third) computer, but I want my main system to be reliable (since the last time this thing died, it was about 4 hours before I had a lab report due, granted that was actually a corrupt windows install but still...)
anyway. thoughts?
I currently have lying around two dead video cards and a motherboard holding a bloody knife (so to speak, more on that in a minute). Temporarily replacing it in my system, I'm running another motherboard that died, I RMAed, but has a problem in that it won't recognize any memory that is put in slot 2 (of 3) (it came back like that, and I haven't bothered to send it back yet).
The dead video cards are a GF4Ti4200, and a GF2Ti. The culprit motherboard is an Asus A7M266 (AMD 761) that is 2 and a half years old. The video cards were having problems where they exhibited overheating characteristics (triangles in games and text that was corrupted), but no amount of cooling would solve the issues. I eventually borrowed a Radeon 7200 from a friend, which worked fine for about 2 weeks, but then it started to have the same issues. When I swapped out the Asus and put in my other board (MSi KT266, VIA KT266 [not a] chipset), the problems went away. (I have tried both the other cards and I think the Asus damaged them beyond repair)
I've decided that I can, if I need to, spend a couple of hundred (200 to 300) upgrading or replacing my components. I currently have an AthlonXP 1800 (Palomino core) with 3x256MB of PC2100 (but neither board runs more than 2 sticks, so I've got the third stick lying around going to waste), and loads of other stuff.
Basically, I'm asking if you think I should bother RMAing what I've got (I think the warranties are all still good... at least through this summer), or just go and buy a new mobo and vid card and perhaps memory. If I do, I'd like to also get a card with VIVO. alternatively, I could also get just a PCI TV tuner card... what are your thoughts on that?
For what its worth, if I do upgrade, I'll probably RMA the parts anyway and put together a second (and third) computer, but I want my main system to be reliable (since the last time this thing died, it was about 4 hours before I had a lab report due, granted that was actually a corrupt windows install but still...)
anyway. thoughts?
Facebook
Twitter