It is Never Easy

Got home last night. Ate supper. Julie signs up for WoW. I create a new character, she is still trying to create hers. Her PC is acting all crazy. Jittery video on any input, either mouse or keyboard.

Now being a tech head I figure it might be her video driver since WoW has updated their game version since we last played. I install the latest video drivers. Reboot. Same thing. (I should mention while I'm messing around on her PC Julie is leveling up happily on mine.) Next, I remove all unneeded files on the HD where WoW is installed and defrag the drive. No improvement at all.

I've got it narrowed down now. It is the thing I was hoping it wasn't. (Cue dramatic music.)

THE VIDEO CARD

Yep, after 4 plus years the video card in Julie's PC has decided to die. Actually it was mine originally but it wasn't supported under Oblivion, so I swapped it into Julie's PC since we had just bought her a new video card for WoW.

I open up her PC and the video card is hot. It smells hot and is too hot for me to mess with for 5 minutes or so. Not good. We then proceed to spend over an hour looking for either cheap canned air or a cheap video card. We end up with cheap canned air and after cleaning the video card and PC up a bit she was able to play for a bit before the card overheated.

Hold the phone! I just realized that we have the old video card in a box somewhere. I was all prepared to rant how a new video card was going to cost me $90, while a new PC (built) would cost me $600 after shipping.

The moral of the story though is that nothing is ever easy.