Flickering After Dusting off Video Card

[tHa ShIzNiT]

It seems like every time I open my case, something new gets broken. Maybe this time I will learn my lesson and leave well enough alone.

Anyways, my problem began happening after I opened my case and manually blew the dust out of the fan on my Radeon 9800 Pro video card. I proceeded to stick the card back in, which required a bit of "shoving" (which in my experience is semi-usual and has not damaged any previous cards). Now, as soon as the computer starts, at the BIOS screen, the picture is all blurry and weird patterns . This problem continues as windows starts up.

I feel like it cant be a driver problem because the problem happens before any drivers should be loaded. Is my card fooked?

Thanks for any help.

 

[CrispyFried]

Its possible you bent a pin on the VGA connector? Does that card need a separate power plug? Try unplugging it and trying again.

 

[Fern]

Reseat it. Also check to make sure the fan is spinning normally. If you used compressed air, you could have fooked the fan.

Fern

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

OK, first of all thank you both very much for the replies. I'm gonna give it another go in a minute, but for now I can say that I am using the DVI connection rather than VGA (not sure if that makes a difference) and that I didn't use compressed air to clean it, I just used my mouth to blow the dust out.

The fan on the card is definitely spinning at full speed when I turn on the computer, so it appears to not be broken in that regard.

I am going to give it another try here in a couple minutes, thank you again for your responses.

-shiz

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Well...just reseated her back in there after unplugging the power and lettin it sit oputside of the box for a while while I prayed to the video card god and sacrificed an old 3dfx voodoo card...

And no luck, its still doin the same thing. I think this card is fooked...I have no idea how it happened...all I did was pull it out blow on it and put it back in. A matter of seconds literally. Damn...

 

[Fern]

Ummm... Just occurred to me. Did you have the PC unplugged (or the rocker switch turned off) when you first pulled the card?

If not, the 5v (IIRC) standby current may have F'd up the gfx card. Back in the day I pulled my Ti4200 and forgot to unplugg the PC. Ooops , had to replace it.

Fern

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

I'm pretty sure I unplugged the thing first, but now I dont remember *exactly* what happened.
I have a habit of unplugging before I go inside the computer but lately I have gotten lazy with it. Either way, not sure if I unplugged it or not.

At this point I am pretty positive it is the video card that is fooked and not anything else, so I think I'm gonna make my way to Best Buy and attempt to rectify this problem. My way...

 

[Creston]

You could have gotten some dust stuck in a certain area of the card where it's interfering with the picture. Get a can of compressed air, take the card out, then completely blow it clean of any and all specks of dust, make sure to spray in all the connectors, nooks crannies etc.

Then, also spray (a bit more gently) in your AGP slot.

Then reseat it and try it again.

If it's still broken, it's possible you may have someone bent a chip out of alignment or something, but that'd be VERY VERY rare. Most likely it's just dust stuck somewhere.

Creston

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Damn...I sure wish that worked. I just finished blowing every little bit of with a can of compressed air...no dice. Still screwed up at BIOS, and on loading into Windows the whole screen now goes fuzzy/blurry. I wish this didnt crap out on me right now...I doubt I'll be able to replace it on warranty and Best Buy/Circuit City are both no longer selling this model. I may be S.O.L. on this one, sadly.

Any other suggestions are still welcome, I can't afford a new card!

-shiz.

 

[lenjack]

ESD perhaps? Did you use a grounding strap or touched the side of the case before removing the card? Did you rub against it while the card was out of the case?