I have an nVidia GeForce 5700LE which I purchased about three years ago for my son's games, the latest being World of Warcraft.

About a week ago, he began to reporting problems with the graphics in World of Warcraft. After discussing the problems he was having with some of his fellow gamers, they suggested that the graphics card could be over-heating. Within a few days, the screen went "haywire", displaying a basic green desktop with dashed lines randomly displayed across the screen. The mouse pointer was completely erratic, disappearing and appearing at random. The icons were illegible. Any attempt to actually use the computer, even a simple attempt to shut down, was not possible. The only way to shut down was to power the system off.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts to boot up in safe mode or in regular mode, I was finally able to access the BOIS settings and switch back to the onboard graphics. Thankfully, the computer seems to work fine with the onboard graphics. Of course, gaming is out until I either get a new graphics card or repair this one.

When I visually inspected the nVidia card, I noticed I could lift the spring-loaded fan enough to see between it and the chip mounted under it. Under the fan, it appeared that there was some type of glue which had lost its seal. After reading through several threads here and on other sites, it seems I can replace the “heat sink” (I’m not quite sure what that is?) and the fan, although the fan was still working while the card was installed.

The question is, how do I know the card is still good prior to attempting the repair? I’m reasonably comfortable with this type of repair with some good instructions. I hate to waste the money and time, just to find out the excessive heat has permanently damaged the card.

Money is currently a major issue. Otherwise I would simply buy a new graphics card or, better yet, upgrade to a new computer. Here are the specs on our currrent computer:
HP Pavillion a620n
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.20 GHz
1 GB DDR RAM (2 x 512 MB)
3 PCI slots available (Though for what, I don't know)
1 AGP slot available (No PCIe slots)
250 watt power supply
Windows XP Home with SP2

Obviously, most of the newer, more powerful cards will not even fit this system No PCIe slots, power supply too small, etc). So, if "replace" is the answer, I'll be starting a new post to get advice on what to buy.

Thanks!!

If it starts up all weird looking on a cold boot, then most likely yes its dead. If it goes screwy after being on for a while then you might have a shot at it. Check and see if the fan is working on it, clean it out with some compressed air and see if it will work if not then you'll probly have to buy one. The latest i think they made for AGP was the 6600 nvidia or the 9600 ati, look on www.newegg.com to be sure.

Hmm that "glue" you are referring too may be the thermal grease. Its used to transfer the heat to the heat sink and disperse it into the fan where it gets cooled easily. Im not very sure as I have not dealt with very many graphics card that are not on board.

Wait to see what other people say but if my guess is correct it measn your thermal grease is dried out witch will cause over heating. I having a problem with it on one of my processors my self.

You can look at newegg.com for some thermal grease or any other computer shop. Its very inexpensive ranging from 2-15$

Thanks for the replies! The evening that I actually saw the problem the system had been running for some time. So, I'm not sure the term "cold boot" is very accurate for that night. I'm very interested in testing this theory. However, before I disable my onboard graphics again and re-install this questionable graphics card, I have a question. If I attempt to boot with the graphics card and it immediately gives me a wierd, or worse, black screen, how do I get back to my onboard graphics without a screen? The settings are in the BIOS setting which I reached using "F1" prior to Windows start-up.

The extremely old boards you had to disable onboard video to avoid the black screen when you plugged in a real video card. if that's the case with yours then besides simply memorizing or writing down the way to the option you need, i'm not sure what you could do if you disable the onboard and your card doesn't work period. But unless its really old like that you should be able to just take the card back out and plug your monitor into the onboard again and be good to go. At least that's how mine have worked for quite a while now.

But cleaning it and checking if your fans work doesn't require anything besides putting it back in the computer and hitting the power switch.

If, after you try the old card, you want the onboard back, remove the motherboard battery for 10 minutes. That puts everything back to default settings. As long as you have the card out, inspect it closely for burn marks, burnt resistors, and bulging capacitors. You used just a VERY small drop of heatsink compound after cleaning both surfaces, Right? Before re-attaching the fan, make sure the heatsink is nice and clean and free of dust and lint

Thanks for everbody's help! I love this site!

To GARMANMA - Thanks for you answer! That helps a lot. I will re-inspect the graphics card & look for the thing you listed. I have looked it over carefully but, until now, I didn't know exactly what to look for. As far as the heat sink compound, I haven't purchased it yet. I going today. I'll keep it to a tiny amount.

I actually have two computers. The second one is an old Dell dimension 2400 which is not worth upgrading on its own. However, it gets the rest of the family on the web, allows for e-mail checking, or other basic uses when my son is gaming on this system. Fortunately, most of the parts for the HP, from RAM to, thankfully, this graphics card, are interchangeable with the Dell. I've determined that the best plan is to get a new video card for the HP, along with a new power supply (old one is only 250W with the +12 rail being only 14V), extra cooling fans for the tower and increase the memory from 1 GB to 2 GB. I can do all of this for about $150 to $200. The 1GB (2 @ 512 MB each) coming out of the HP will go into the Dell. Both use DDR 333/400 PC 2700/3200 memory. The Dell currently has only 256 MB memory. However, with your info, I feel comfortable with attempting a repair on the old graphics card and putting in into the Dell along with the increased memory.

Also, thanks for the tip on removing the batteries from the motherboard in order to reset to onboard graphics! That was really my BIGGEST comcern in this process.

I'll post back here & let everyone know how thing are working!

Keep the GREAT info coming!