Back From Malacca...

Hey, guys!
I'm back from Malacca!
Yes, I'm tired, but I have just enough energy to update my blog, like I said I would in my last post...

Well, in one of my recent posts, I mentioned that while I was playing "Star Wars: Battlefront", my monitor just froze, and then blacked out.
I told my father the problem, and he told me to check the Internet for solutions.

I did. But what I found was discomforting.
There is no problem with the monitor at all. It's the graphics card that's on the fritz.
It was something I honestly did not want to believe. It was painful, actually...

I decided to carry out a test to determine if what I discovered was true.
I unplugged my old computer's monitor and hooked it up to my new computer's CPU.
It's a standard test - If the old PC's monitor manages to show the start-up process of the new PC's CPU, then there is something wrong with the graphics card in the old PC.

I carried out the test, and the old PC's monitor actually worked - I was able to use the new PC's functions, and it all showed up on the old monitor.
That proves the fact that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the monitor.
The monitor is directly connected to the graphics card. If there was something wrong with the graphics card, it would affect the monitor too.
Therefore, there HAD to be a problem with the graphics card.

I told my father about this, and he told me to open up the old PC's CPU chassis.
Well, I saw him open it up before, so it's no big deal actually...
The last time we opened it up, it was with the intention of getting rid of the dust in the chassis, because the dust could actually cause the internal systems to overheat.

This time, however, I had to open up the chassis, remove the graphics card from its slot, and inspect it for signs of damage. And give the innards a good dusting as well!
So, the next day, I opened it up and got rid of any dust inside the chassis using a fine brush.
After that, I gently removed the graphics card from its slot.

Here are some pictures.
I took them using an old camera I found in my cabinet.
Here they are:

The good ol' chassis of the "HP Pavilion t210d"...[ sigh ]

Here's a closer look...

The two most difficult parts to clean - The graphics card and the processor fan.

The hardware - My beloved "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 AGP 8X"...

Well, I inspected the graphics card, and I found something on it that could be the possible cause of the graphics card's malfunctioning.
It was a rupture on one of the pixel pipelines of the card.
It wasn't very big, but even a little bit of damage can cause the whole the card to cease functioning.

I showed the damaged graphics card to my father, and he asked me to find out more about the damage on the graphics card via the Internet.
All the websites I found all repeated the same thing: If the graphics card is damaged, then the only solution is to replace it.

So, finally, I helped my father find the information and specifications of my old PC.
We would have to replace the old graphics card. Apparently, there's no other option...
To be honest, I'm actually gonna miss that old graphics card...[ sigh ]

Well, I guess that's it for now.

Oh, and Jannah,
welcome back from wherever it is you were...
We thought you were dead! [ stares wide eyed ]

May the Force be with you...