I think I jinxed myself by mentioning in another thread that this card was getting long in the tooth. I just got a BSOD from the driver, then recurs on boot after the Windows logo. I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers, and it runs fine on the Windows default VGA driver (luckily), so can at least look for information but at a terrible resolution. I found several similar posts where the card was repaired, but I have never repaired a GPU, so not sure if worth the effort or to replace it (I read posts where people said a 960 is not much over the 580 enough to warrant an "upgrade"). Even during boot I am seeing two artifacts with the card - short vertical lines through all periods (like |.) and horizontal red lines (very faint) all over the display. A component has succumbed to the temps after 4 years, but not sure where to look (and tearing it apart takes the computer offline completely). Does anyone have any advice on if it is worth repairing this, or should I just replace it?
 
I did a quick search and the ASUS GTX 970 would be the most likely replacement, but this computer is only PCIe 2.0, so not sure how much it would choke that card (but would also intend to carry any card forward into a future build). I had seen MSI and ASUS 970s recommended as replacements for the 580 since they run cooler than Gigabyte's. Right now, this 580 runs off two (not one) 8-pin connectors on PCIe 2.0, and I have seen some cards requiring a 6-pin*, so not sure what else I need to be wary of if looking to replace this. Are there any other "gotchas" to worry about?
 
*Edit - forgot until disassembly that my "8-pins" are actually 6-pins with an extra 2-pin portion to the cable that can easily be used or not used depending on the card being connected.

Have you tried an older NVIDIA driver?  Since it runs OK on the Windows driver it may just be a driver issue rather than a hardware problem.

Yeah, I still have an older version on the machine, but it always fails to complete the installation. From the best I can tell, it seems a board component had a catastrophic failure, but also seems fairly independent of its internal VGA routing. Since I did find posts of the same issue where the card was repaired it may be obvious when I pull it from the machine.
 
The VGA mode although it functions does create the vertical/horizontal artifacts mentioned above. The | through periods only occurs on the start screens where the BIOS status messages are popping up, and the faint horizontal red ones only occur when it is trying to render dark grey or black.
 
In fairness to ASUS, the original CPU cooling system this computer came with was liquid and had a recall a few months after I bought it. The recall was for a system rupture which I did experience, and rained all over this card 6 months into its life. Thankfully that coolant stinks to high heaven and I was at the machine when it occurred. The machine started to lug suddenly and began to squeal like a pig; but simply cleaning/drying everything was all it took to bring the system back up, and that was 4 years ago now.
 
I am going to shoot ASUS an email, since I found posts that seem identical to what has happened and mentioned "repair" in them.

Quick and very interesting update to this (massive kudos to ASUS). I called their support line and the guy simply said "We need the serial number from the card so that we can issue an RMA to you for repair." This caught me off guard so I immediately clarified that this is a 5 year old card, and they would still RMA it? To that he simply responded, "If it our gear, we will repair it."
 
I admit I was not expecting such a simple response from them as any warrantee expired years ago, but the attitude of "if we built it, we will fix it" is definitely worth noting to the general masses.

Cool.  I wouldn't have expected that response either.  The only thing will be the "turnaround time".  Some vendors are quick and some take weeks.

Agreed. I am fortunate that I can plan the RMA as the VGA mode still works. I only need a couple of days and can take the computer offline. It will be a nice opportunity to take a break from "endless sitting" anyway.
 
I just took the card out and cleaned it with nothing obvious, but the end plate (where the DVI connectors are) had blued. That implies some pretty extreme heat, but the bluing did wipe off. ASUS has a GPU tweak utility that I rarely ran, but in hindsight that may not be a bad thing to let run in the future. I do remember when I ran the Passmark benchmark utility on rebuild, it goes "all out" on initialization and the GPU squealed... then I looked in the UI corner and it was running this card at 4000+ fps!! It makes me a little more wary of programs which may unnecessarily run a graphics card hard. I should also develop the habit of shutting the machine down at night. Lessons learned, but for 5 years old it has been a trooper.
 
Just to clarify the RMA quick - ASUS will pay to ship the card back and analyze it, but the repairs themselves would not be free (this card is out of warranty). However, having the company who build it and has all the parts/equipment on hand to refurbish it is an impressive repair option I was not expecting.