Yesterday my trusted GeForce died out of a sudden, showing me some red artifacts and corrupted fonts on the BIOS screen. Windows 7 booted fine, but in VGA mode.
nVidia 8800 cards seem to be prone to the problem with soldering, which breaks after many heat-cool cycles. Unfortunately it is hard to tell by the artifacts, which chip has broken solder. To remedy this problem, some people put their cards in oven for 6-9 minutes. Of course cooler, radiator and all plastic parts need to be removed first. The board should be placed on aluminum foil (chip side down) and the oven preheated to 180 degrees C (or 365 F).
People report mixed results, but since the card is broken anyway, it can be a good way to revive it.
WARNING: if you decide to treat your card in the oven, I am not responsible for any damage this may cause. Some parts can explode (electrolytic capacitors) or melt (plastics), so you do it at your own risk. Under no circumstances use microwave oven! It will induce lethal voltages inside chips on the board, wrecking the card beyond repair. Cooking a card is also likely to damage the microwave oven.
