[dba-Tech] Failed graphics

[Jim Lawrence]

Hi All:

Has anyone ran across a situation where their built-in graphic card has failed but only partially. Ran across such an issue on a Lenovo ThinkCentre. Initially, I thought the failure was a software problem as I have never seen an Intel graphic or any graphic card for that matter partially fail. As the computer has a very small foot-print and all the components are built into a single board, it is unlike that the single above-board expansion slot will support any third party graphic card. If the GPU had completely failed the problem would have been easy to diagnose. It took over two weeks of going back and forth and researching before a solution was discovered.

All said and done, the computer now works though the fancier 3D graphics and all programs that require such features just pause, then fail but it no longer freezes or force a reboot. The client seems happy enough, as the Office software and email works but the long range plans sees this box's future as a some special headless server (maybe a NAS controller :-)), running from the command prompt and a new work-station being brought in.

Jim