Suspect vidio card

[mick11]

I have a Windfast GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E card and suspect it has gone faulty. :(
I have a crescent shaped lighter area on the monitor that covers about 1/3 of the screen. I have tested the monitor and it checks out ok.
Before I fork out on a new card is there anything else I should check

[Taxation]

is the monitor cable properly plugged in
is it high temps
any bangs or knocks to the comp
installed any new hardware/software

[mick11]

Yes
Temp of GPU 42c ambiant 35c
No
No
Its a flat screen monitor and works fine on another pc.
I did clear a load of dust and crud out of the heatsink on the card, so wonder if it had got cooked.

[Taxation]

check now without all the dust,
check all drivers are fully updated

[mick11]

I have the latest drivers, and temps are without the dust. Unfortunately didnt think to check before I removed it.

[Taxation]

have you done any overclocking/modifications to the card??

[mick11]

None at all

[Nox]

Before I fork out on a new card is there anything else I should check

Yes - how long the warranty is on it.

Nox

[mick11]

Warrenty ran out 2 weeks ago, as usual :(

[Nox]

Doh :(

Did you get the 1 year from Leadtechs website (I couldn't find it!) as quite often a reseller only gives 1 year warranty and going directly to the maker may give you an extra year or more.

Nox

[mick11]

Got the pc from Novatec with card installed, and their warranty ran out 2 weeks ago. I cant find Leadtec's website either

[Nox]

Yep, the Novatech warranty will have gone. Some manufacturers extend this, (ie XFX 2 or3 years, bfg/evga lifetime) if you can find a contact number for leadtek you may be plesantly suprised.

But 'cheap' products tend to be similar but have less warranty, ie the savings of not having a massive warranty are taken off the cost of the card.

But if they don't have a website, theres not a lot of chance of more than a year :(

Nox

[mick11]

But if they don't have a website, theres not a lot of chance of more than a year :(
Nox

Thats what I thought,thanks for your input anyway.

[Nox]

http://www.leadtek.co.uk/ or .com

/sigh

no warranty info :(

Nox

[Nox]

Vantec tornado too drops in at a cool 55dB :D same ball park, ie very loud!!!

Nox