Graphics card up the swannee?

[Fanum]

I'm pretty sure my GPHX card is shot on my desktop......
Nvidia 6700XL (proprietory card made for Medion...basically an overclocked 6600GT) Pci E x16 card.....

Symptoms.....
After 6 months of not being turned on (might be coincidence but worth mentioning) the PC took a long time to show a picture.....20 mins the first time.

Next time it took 40 mins and since then, similar sorts of times......the blue LED on the monitor (Flat screen jobby) does go on though when the PC powers up but then it flashes intermittently....I had the 'no signal' message appear on it this morning for the first time but now, after seveal soft reboots, it's just blank.

The monitor works fine, plugged into the laptop, so the cable and monitor are ok. (i have no other monitor to plug in, nor any other card to swap in to test....the PSU seems OK as well)

The card's seated properly and terminals are clean, the fan's working and I get no P.O.S.T beeps......

Any thoughts on any other causes/fixes before I have to go and bite the bullet and replace it?

 

[Fanum]

Added info..when it did finally come on, I could reboot lots of times over and it behaved perfectly.........

It was on XP and doing this, but last week I whacked on Vista Ultimate to play with and it's doing the same, so it's not a driver issue. (I fully patched it)

 

[Fanum]

Isn't this just bloody typical!!!

I've just soft rebooted again and as it shut down, the 'no signal' message came up on the monitor...then on reboot, it did show the disc checks and the start of the Vista boot procedure- but now it's gone blank again

I'm starting to think PSU inadequate

 

[cookie]

I'm starting to think PSU inadequate

so was i.

 

[Dickieboy]

I'm starting to think PSU inadequate

Bill, check your RAM as well, if you've 2 sticks in the board swop them around in the slots.

 

[Dahoum]

serves you right for threatening Mac users

 

[Fanum]

Bill, check your RAM as well, if you've 2 sticks in the board swop them around in the slots.

It's not ram.......Windows starts fine (You hear the vista noise and if you plonk in an audio cd and wait for the machine to find it and hit return, it plays.....then on shutdown you get the close noise, so windows is running fine.

It's either PSU or the card but I don't know which

 

[mikepg]

Fanum - I have an old Matrox pci gfx card somewhere in the house you could have a go with to see if it either the card or the mboard. Let me know if you want to try it and see if I can find it?

Mike

 

[cookie]

Fanum - I have an old Matrox pci gfx card somewhere in the house you could have a go with to see if it either the card or the mboard. Let me know if you want to try it and see if I can find it?

Mike

i think you will need a modern card with a similar power draw to your own to test the psu, so it might run fine, but not be a faulty board.

is it some generic POS PSU that came with a cheap case?

PC case inc. psu - £25

proper psu - £75

hmmmmm how does that work?

'course it could be the board. always tricky......

 

[Fanum]

Fanum - I have an old Matrox pci gfx card somewhere in the house you could have a go with to see if it either the card or the mboard. Let me know if you want to try it and see if I can find it?

Mike

Thanks Mike, but as Cookie says, that may not actually reveal the problem anyway

i think you will need a modern card with a similar power draw to your own to test the psu, so it might run fine, but not be a faulty board.

is it some generic POS PSU that came with a cheap case?

PC case inc. psu - £25

proper psu - £75

hmmmmm how does that work?

'course it could be the board. always tricky......

I'm increasingly going towards the PSU as the culprit......if I power the machine off then on, I do get the Dual core logo and the first bit of the Vista start up bar thingy...if the GPU was gone, I'd get squat all.

Then again, it's odd that the PSU is just delivering a lower voltage

Just looking at THIS PSU as a possible replacement.....4o notes and it's 100w better than the fitted one.

 

[cookie]

wonky psus sometimes give a fluctuating voltage under load, gpu throw's a wobbly & quits.

i've heard good reports about Q-tech. i was just about to recommend them when i found this

only have personal experience of enermax and antec.




actually, i know i'm new to this, but is this where i should say "buy a mac"

probably not

 

[Fanum]

actually, i know i'm new to this, but is this where i should say "buy a mac"

probably not

No....'cos if this was a Mac with a faulty PSU I would be restricted to having to buy a Mac power supply unit for silly money (Guessing only there ) rather than being in the position of being able to pick and chose exactly what I want from any manufacturer for much, much less (guess)

PC wins again

 

[Carl]

No....'cos if this was a Mac with a faulty PSU I would be restricted to having to buy a Mac power supply unit for silly money (Guessing only there ) rather than being in the position of being able to pick and chose exactly what I want from any manufacturer for much, much less (guess)

PC wins again

Ahhh... but the Mac power supplies are made with quality components and pure gold solder. They never go wrong.......... do they?

 

[Fanum]

The thick plottens........


The bloody thing just came on......no apparent reason why, but the picture just appeared

I've whacked on Doom3 and left that running for ten mins, so the card itself seems to be OK......I've plugged in all the USB devices I have, run the TV card, Vista Aero and everything else I can to put it under load and it all works...it even re-boots and the picture is there immediately

Flippin' odd I call it ...and it's annoying 'cos it doesn't make much sense

 

[GSmonkey]

Had a similar intermittent fault. Eventually tracked it down to the Mobo. The clues were in the bulging capacitors which had seen better days.

At the same time swapped my all singing all dancing video card that was about £400 three years earlier with two fans on it, for a naturally cooled one of twice the performance for £20

 

[mikepg]

The thick plottens........


The bloody thing just came on......no apparent reason why, but the picture just appeared

I've whacked on Doom3 and left that running for ten mins, so the card itself seems to be OK......I've plugged in all the USB devices I have, run the TV card, Vista Aero and everything else I can to put it under load and it all works...it even re-boots and the picture is there immediately

Flippin' odd I call it ...and it's annoying 'cos it doesn't make much sense

Maybe you have mice in your case!!! -

Perhaps it would not do any harm to leave the thing switched on and just turn the monitor off?

 

[Carl]

The thick plottens........


The bloody thing just came on......no apparent reason why, but the picture just appeared

I've whacked on Doom3 and left that running for ten mins, so the card itself seems to be OK......I've plugged in all the USB devices I have, run the TV card, Vista Aero and everything else I can to put it under load and it all works...it even re-boots and the picture is there immediately

Flippin' odd I call it ...and it's annoying 'cos it doesn't make much sense

Have you run a stress test to put under load each subsystem in turn? I used something like this in my pre mac days to diagnose a fault, and it worked

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fi...ge,1-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html

 

[redcastle]

Try removing the psu power lead and leave it unplugged for a couple of minutes, that will force the psu to reset and discharge/recharge the capacitors. If it works fine after several tries then its the psu.

just switching the psu off wont work you must remove the power lead.

 

[Fanum]

Perhaps it would not do any harm to leave the thing switched on and just turn the monitor off?

The system isn't used for up to a couple of months while I'm away so not possible.
This may actually be the root of the problem

Have you run a stress test to put under load each subsystem in turn? I used something like this in my pre mac days to diagnose a fault, and it worked

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fi...ge,1-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html

Ta for that..it's why I left DOom3 running for a few mins and I've had everything I can working- t did't fall over.

Tried that burn in test and it passed apart from a checksum error associated with the network so it looks OK

Try removing the psu power lead and leave it unplugged for a couple of minutes, that will force the psu to reset and discharge/recharge the capacitors. If it works fine after several tries then its the psu.

just switching the psu off wont work you must remove the power lead.

Will try that......This morning it booted up as normal and the pic was't there (as normal) but it popped up after 10 mins.

I have a feeling the thing has got a bit damp and cold having ben left in an unheated house for about 4 months without being started

It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow to see if this is right...the mobo looks fine (thoroughly checked when pulling out and cleaning every component) so who knows