After only three years since I purchased my wonderful Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop (back then truly state-of-the-art), it seems to be giving way to old age. To be more specific, with all those random rows and columns of mis-colored pixelations moving across my LCD screen, it is apparent that my graphics card is suffering a slow and painful death.

I need a replacement ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 M9 64MD graphics card (part number 4U284), please. Can someone help me?

Googling all over the Internet in frustration, it seems that this specific video card is difficult if not impossible to find, unless of course I am willing to fork out four hundred forty-five euros for an out-of-the-box new card for a laptop worth half as much. Thanks alot Dell!

I called a couple places who claim to be computer experts, and when I tried to explain my predicament, the reply was always the same: "How old is your laptop? Oh, three years! Then you can pretty much forget about it..."

Who would have ever thought that after three years my state-of-the-art laptop would be end-of-life? Back in the good old days (when I was little) when we bought a technology product like a new television, it would last for fifteen years, at least.

Hopefully I can find a second-hand computer store which happens to have one in the back storage room.

Time for a new laptop? Could be.