No Open Blockers

I ordered the replacement video card for my MythTV box–

Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. I could have ordered a cheap replacement card for the Myth box. All it really needs to do is output to DVI, nothing fancy. The alternative is to take my video card from my gaming rig and move that to the Myth box, providing a reason to upgrade my gaming rig. That’s way more expensive, but I was careful to just tell the wife “I ordered a replacement video card.” I never said if I was using a cost optimal solution.

Where was I… oh ya, so I ordered a new video card yesterday at lunch. It arrived today at lunch. For no extra charge. When science perfects instant teleportation of objects, Newegg is going to raise the bar by just guessing at what hardware you need and sending it before you realize you need it.

Last week I was catching up on some shows I recorded on my MythTV box (essentially a computer made into a home made Tivo) when the picture just disappeared. When I rebooted, it didn’t even show the BIOS, so I figured the video card died. I built the box back in 2004 and it’s always on, so it actually had a really good run.

While I’m waiting for the replacement card to arrive from newegg.com, I decided to take the existing card out, make sure the fan still spun, and reseat it back into the motherboard. It was worth a shot.

The inside of the box itself was a disaster. I try to air dust my desktops about once a month, but apparently I’m behind on this one. I tried to take a picture, but it doesn’t do it justice. I’ll simply point out that there is a dead spider inside.

Whenever I’m dealing with a piece of hardware that doesn’t work, I inevitably turn it around in my hands looking for… well, I don’t know what I’m looking for. I’m not an engineer, so short of seeing smoke coming from a part, no amount of physical inspection has ever yielded results.

This time was a bit different. Take a look at the second column of cylinders on the card below. I don’t know what they are or what they do, but I’m pretty sure the tops aren’t supposed to be blown out like that. The one closest to the camera even had what looked like ash coming out of it.

Might be time to plug in some of the fans I disabled to make the box run quieter.

And as a public service announcement, airdust your computer. It will love you for it.