video card travails

[macjedi at mac.com]

Well, fellow Cubists, a bit of warning for those of you who may entertain a
fan-using video card in your Cube: blow out that fan often.

I failed to heed such advice with regard to the GeForce 3 card I had in my Cube,
and have now paid for it.

I began experiencing big pixelated squares all over the screen one day. After
some other troubleshooting, I was able to determine that the problem lay in the
video card. Pulling the enclosure off the Cube core to expose the video card
while booting showed that its fan was not powering on during operation. I used
some compressed air to thoroughly blow out the Cube's innards, paying careful
attention to the video card. The next time I attempted to boot the Cube, the
GeForce 3's fan kicked on!

All was fine for a couple of days, then the pixelated squares began showing up
again. I pulled off the enclosure to view the video card, but it was running
just fine. I can only surmise that some minor damage has occured to the GeForce
3, though I could see no burn marks nor smell anything burnt. So I have reverted
back to the Cube's original Rage 128 card.

Anyone want a slightly used and likely damaged GeForce 3 card?

In the mean time, I'm looking for a GeForce 2 or Radeon 7000 at a reasonable
price.

chris