Colored Dots on dark backgrounds with an nVidia card
 

Hi guys, I'm experiencing a bit of a problem with (presumably) my graphics gard. It's an nVidia 7900GT and what's happening is I'm getting colored dots on dark backgrounds. They're not dead pixels though, because if I scroll the screen they move with it. Sometimes they even leave a kind of 'trail' behind. I've had the card over a year and I've only noticed this recently, any ideas what it could be? I've updated the drivers and that hasn't helped. It's not overheating either - the nVidia control panel says its 50-60 degrees, well in the 'green' zone.

Try taking the videocard out of the PC, cleaning the connectors on the bottom, and putting it back in. My 6800 GT used to do that and reseating it fixed it.

I would have to say, if reseating doesn't fix it, try a different power supply. IIRC, that video card uses power directly from the PS as a supplement, so that could fix it. The other possibility is bad video card ram(in which case a new card would be needed), but lets assume its not the most expensive stuff first, though :). Good on you for checking on the drivers :) .

I tried reseating it, that has really helped (if anything it might be getting worse), what would I clean the connectors with?

Isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip, it dries quicker than water. But I'm 90% sure its the power supply, but to double check could you go into the BIOS and see if there is any of those artifacts evident? If you go into the BIOS it takes out the software variable, and if it isn't evident in the BIOS after waiting for 5-10 minutes, then I would say the problem is with the software. If it shows in the BIOS its hardware I would say replace the power supply first.