IS MY VIDEO CARD BAD? PLEASE HELP??????????

[HansGroenewold]

Last night while it was left unattended, I returned to a blank screen on my gaming PC. Everything was still running, fans, power supply, fans, etc. but nothing on the screen. I turned it off and restarted it and listened for the XP little song at startup and heard nothing.

The hard drive light is on, solid red and does not flicker like it normally does on startup. If the hard drive was bad, wouldn't I at least get an error message? The fan on the video card is running but nothing displays on the screen. My system specs are below. Any help would be deeply appreciated, I'm dead in the water at the moment.

You guys think I'm dealing with a bad video card? This PC is only one year old, custom ordered to my specs. I called their customer support and they seem to think it's the card and advised me to try another card from another PC to see if that works.

Sincerely,
Hans Groenewold

AMD Athlon 3500+
Asus motherboard
1 GB RAM
eVGA 6800 Ultra 256MB video card
Creative Labs Audigy Sound Card

 

[Steelski]

do as they have stated or try a different card in your machine. either will confirm or deny your speculation.

 

[HansGroenewold]

OK, I swapped video cards and got the same thing described above, any ideas on what to try next?

Sincerely,
Hans Groenewold

 

[ayabe]

It could be anything, RAM, CPU etc. I would try re-seating the RAM, clearing the CMOS.

 

[Janooo]

Switch monitors. Just to make sure it didn't die.

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: ayabe
It could be anything, RAM, CPU etc. I would try re-seating the RAM, clearing the CMOS.

yeah, it sounds like the CPU to me

 

[JPB]

Mine did that...but my power supply half died. Some things still ran...but a few things didnt. Is everything running?

 

[HansGroenewold]

Yeah, everything runs, fans lights, etc. Here's what I've tried so far:

I tried another video card.
I tried another monitor.
I reseated the memory modules.
I took out and put the mainboard battery back in.
I unplugged the cable from the hard drive, then turned the PC to see if anything would
come up on the screen, nothing did.

When I turned it on, it doesn't even sound like it's trying to boot up or access
the hard drive at all. The red light for the hard drive just stays solid red. How can I tell
if I'm dealing with a bad CPU, RAM, or a mainboard? I have two memory modules in
there, I find it hard to believe they would both go out at the same time. Thanks for
your help.

Sincerely,
Hans

 

[ayabe]

Have you tried the RAM sticks individually? Sometimes it's really hard to isolate these things without POST codes, I would take your soundcard out, and unplug all ATA or SATA devices, so you only have the videocard and one of the RAM sticks in.

I woudl say if it still doesn't work with either of the RAM sticks in and you've tried another PSU, then you have a bad CPU or mobo definately.

 

[JAG87]

if you dont get a post, it is either the mobo, or the cpu.

cant be anything else. if the computer turns on, the psu is ok. if the hd was dead, it would post. if the ram was dead, it would post and beep. if the video card was dead, it would post and beep.

if the LEDs stay on, and u get nothing on your screen, then its either the mobo, or the cpu. i really hope your cpu died for some reason, cause it is really less work to replace just that.

good luck.

 

[Janooo]

If you don't get any beeps (assuming pc speaker is connected properly) it's power supply or mobo. Bad CPU would beep.

 

[Steelski]

Originally posted by: JAG87
if you dont get a post, it is either the mobo, or the cpu.

cant be anything else. if the computer turns on, the psu is ok. if the hd was dead, it would post. if the ram was dead, it would post and beep. if the video card was dead, it would post and beep.

if the LEDs stay on, and u get nothing on your screen, then its either the mobo, or the cpu. i really hope your cpu died for some reason, cause it is really less work to replace just that.

good luck.

I would disagree. I had a computer whos p[ower supply almost died.
It did not work with the ti500 installed but would get further with the radeon vivo installed. and then it booted with a really low powered savage 4 installed. but at first I thought that it was the CPU/motherboard. turned out the PSU had commited suiside.

My advice to OP is to try as many of the other components other than the CPU/motherboard. most common one that i have had was the PSU die on me. Even faulty ram dosoent always seem faulty.
Who knows.

10 bucks on the PSU.....

 

[HansGroenewold]

You can check the power supply by putting a voltmeter to the end cables that feed the other components, can't you? I'll check that first. If that checks OK, would it be safe to assume it's the motherboard since I get no beeps whatsoever out of it?

Sincerely,
Hans

 

[Janooo]

Yes, no beeps -> mobo or PSU

 

[HansGroenewold]

We checked the power supply with a voltmeter and it checks out fine. I guess it's a safe bet to replace the motherboard, you guys concur? If it was the CPU, the motherboard would at least beep, right? The only thing that lights up on the motherboard is the standby light. There are no beeps to be had at all.

Sincerely,
Hans

 

[winr]

EDIT:

Do you have another video card to test in your machine?


I sold a guy an AGP video card.

When he recieved it he said it would not boot up in either of his machines.

When I recieved it back it wouldnt do anything in 4 of my machines and 4 monitors.

The hard drive would spin up, the cpu fan would spin but nothing on the monitor.

I stripped 2 machines down to cpu, memory and video card and still the same thing.

I even tried booting to a PCI video card with the bad card plugged in and still nothing.

Best wishes.

Richard.

 

[HansGroenewold]

I already tried swapping out the video card, actually the first thing I tried. If I go to a new motherboard, can I get another 6800 Ultra card and get one of those PCI express boards. Don't a need a card specifically designed for PCI express or do I just need two indentical cards?

Sincerely,
Hans

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: HansGroenewold
We checked the power supply with a voltmeter and it checks out fine. I guess it's a safe bet to replace the motherboard, you guys concur? If it was the CPU, the motherboard would at least beep, right? The only thing that lights up on the motherboard is the standby light. There are no beeps to be had at all.

Sincerely,
Hans

No, it's not a safe bet. While there were many theories here of things that might have some limited chance of causing this, the memory and CPU are not reasonably suspect (save for an obvious fault like not being plugged in good or a heatsink fan failure.

With the system already running when this happened, it is less likely motherboard than PSU. Examine the board for things like failed capacitors, as that might do it but generally the board doesn't fail while running... it's still suspect but not AS suspect.

PSU voltage may be ok, but no detail of the scenario used to measure it. Common failure on PSU is output filter capacitors and voltage may look ok still. you might open the PSU and inspect it after letting it sit unplugged for a few minutes, NOT plugging it in while open unless you feel competent to do so, but it will be drained and safe after unplugged.

So motherboard or PSU- if you had a spare PSU I'd try it, with an old low-power-consuming video card and nothing else connected just trying to get it to POST with bare minimal parts (video, CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 memory module)... and clearing CMOS once again after the alternate PSU is hooked up, while AC is still disconnected.

Did you measure the battery voltage? Some boards won't POST at all with a dead battery and one won't realize battery is dead till the box crashes or whatever- and gets reset or power cycled. That's not going to cause the drive LED to remain lit though, AFAIK, but it may be ilt from a PSU failure as well as board failure.