Weird graphics issue--first GW and now my entire desktop

My computer has a very strange problem.
Back on March 20th, I was playing Guild Wars on my laptop and all of a sudden, colors weren't displaying properly. More specifically, some blacks were turning bright red, and some whites were turning gray, in very narrow stripes of pixels resembling a very gaudy pinstripe suit. I updated my bios, uninstalled GW, attempted to update my drivers, attempted to get my original system drivers back (I have an Nvidia Gforce Go 6600 with 128mb of ram) and nothing worked. I was on the verge of reinstalling windows when I remembered I didn't bring the install disk with me to school, but then another very odd thing happened:

Everything went back to normal. For about five minutes, or until I tried Guild Wars again.

Just yesterday, the problem miraculously cured itself--I watched a two-hour movie, I surfed the internet, but as soon as I started Guild Wars, the problem came back. The funky pixel thing doesn't happen just when I'm playing Guild Wars, either, but has permeated my desktop and all aspects of computer use involving my lcd. I can get by playing GW with it, since it's not a hugely obvious problem, but it's all kinds of annoying.

Has anyone run across this before? I'm also having a hard time updating my video drivers with the correct version, since it appears that nvidia's mobile cards are somewhat less supported than their desktop ones, and it's hard to find a driver version that supports my card.

Sounds to me like you might be having some artifacting on your graphics card caused by heat damage. Is your laptop receiving adequate cooling? What types of surfaces do you use it on? Is the problem more common after the computer has been on for an extended period of time? Do you leave the computer on when you're not using it?

I typically have my computer off when I'm not using it, or at least I turn the lcd off. I normally have it either at my desk or on my floor, propped up on DVD cases so there's airflow underneath. I've tried looking for an application that can tell me how hot my gpu/cpu is, but no luck. I wouldn't have a basis for comparison even if I found one, though.

Edit: I just downloaded RivaTuner, which can monitor core temperature. At the moment, it fluctuates between 58 and 60 degrees centigrade. I'm not entirely sure how good that is, but it seems to be within tolerable limits. The issue DOES correct itself sporadically, and I've tweaked the color balance to make the problem less noticeable. Once I don't need my computer for schoolwork so much, I'll RMA it to my reseller.

Depending on how your computer was designed, 130-140 degrees (which is what that comes out to) is still normal, but on the high side. Have you checked your owner's manual to see if it has any information on normal operating temperatures?

Heres where a few players get into trouble with Laptops. Theytry to run the game on thhighest settings they can. I do not advise this as it can and will destroy the graphics set in the laptop. My suggestion is to start turning down the settings some until the temp starts to stabilize at a more reasonable lvl. That is the only solution for the heat problem. I have a HP DV 8315us that I run both GW and WoW on and both games run real well even with the eyecandy turned down. That is the price I pay for wanting to play my games while away from home.


Mega Mouse

I've got an nvidia go 6600 in my laptop with 128mb ram...do you really think GW at highest settings is too much for it? And if it is heat-related, do you think the artifacting is reversible?