My video card survived- or did it?

anthonysw1

Junior Member
Feb 2, 2002
15
0
0
(FYI to moderator: I already posted this in technical support, but since I'm not getting a reply and this is a video card issue, I thought I'd try posting it here with a more interesting title)

On the way back to college, I had a pretty gruesome car accident. I was belted in and so was unhurt expect for my arm getting cut by glass when I was crawling out of what used to be my car. Unfortunately, my desktop PC was also in the car, and some if its components were destroyed as well (although amazingly the monitor survived even though the car flipped upside down because I had it belted in. So don't just buckle up yourself... buckle up your monitor too :)

I had a computer repair guy in town figure out what was broken and one of the things he said was still working was my video card, a VisionTek XTasy Geforce Ti 4400. I ordered replacements for the stuff that was broken and when I couldn't get it to work I tried putting a buddy of mine's Radeon 7500 in and it worked like a charm. Just in case it's important, here are the system's specs (which I chose based mainly on AnandTech recommendations by the way):

Pentium 4 2.40B 533 MHz FSB (Northwood)
Kingston 512 MB DDR PC2700
ASUS P4PE motherboard (intel 845PE chipset)
120GB Seagate Barracuda V HDD
VisionTek XTasy Geforce Ti 4400

So since everything worked with the Radeon, the culprit MUST BE the Geforce 4.

I called the repair guy back up and asked him if he was using a flat-screen when he was testing my computer. He was. So obviously the card works when you're using the DVI port and doesn't work when you're connected to the VGA port (the card has one of each type).

So I figured a DVI to VGA adapter would solve my problems, so I ordered one from NewEgg. But then when it came and I hooked it up, I still got nothin'. The problem is the same. The monitor never gets prompted to turn on.

So is there any chance I can still use my Geforce4 with a regular monitor? If not, I'll have to buy either a new video card or a flat-screen monitor.

Faced with those two shopping options, which would you choose... a new video card, or a flat-screen monitor? Any help y'all can give me will be greatly appreciated.
 

EdipisReks

Platinum Member
Sep 30, 2000
2,722
0
0
i don't know about how to fix the card, but if you have a nice monitor already i would definitely replace the vid card instead of the monitor. sorry to hear about your accident, btw.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
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there should be a way for you to get your videocard working. does your system still post? (do you hear the "beep" after you push power?). if it does, it probably means that the videocard itself is functional. all that seems to be damaged is the vga port. there has to be a way within software to force the card to output to the dvi output by default.

i'm sorry to hear about your accident...sounds like a nice computer you had as well :(

<edit: i just thought of something: see if you can borrow a dvi flat panel, boot your comptuer, then get the software to "clone" the displays, or put the dvi as the primary output. i don't know how this works with an nvidia card...i've been using ati cards for the past 2 years.>