[mythtv-users] Is my video card toast?

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Tue, 2009-04-21 at 11:18 -0700, Gabe Rubin wrote:
> I think this may be exactly the issue.  There was some crust/gunk
> (highly technical term for it) on a few of the capacitors, and I
> scraped most of it off.
> 
> Would this have been caused by overheating, age, or something else (or
> impossible to tell as it is a case-by-case situation)?  I just don't
> want to have to repeat this process with a my replacement card.

It is usually heat that kills them. And yes a motherboard + box that
kills one video card will off others as well. Better heatsinks don't
help as it isn't the chip but rather the other components that fail.

Capacitors pop and solder melt seem to be common..

Good ventilation over the whole card will save future cards, but
generally you buy a roomier case or live with short lived video
cards. When short lived is 2 years this is usually more acceptable
than when short lived is 2 months.

-- Daniel