No Video - Help Diagnose Please

[teddyv]

I built a new system about five weeks ago based on an Epox 9NPA+Ultra and an AMD Venice 3000 chip. I used the MSI RX800-TD128E Radeon X800 128MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card and up until now was exceedingly happy with it.

Last night I shut the system off to run downstairs and eat dinner, and when I returned and turned it back on the card would not put any signal out. I have a Dell CRT with an amber/green light - when you turn on the computer it goes from amber to green and lights up. Since last night it has remained just amber.

A. Things I checked.
1. The VCard fan is on and working
2. The Epox gives the "FF" All-clear code as it has since I got it
3. Card is seated properly and monitor connection is secure
4. No funny smells, cannot see any signs of something burning out on the card

B. Some basic troubleshooting I did
1. I removed and reseated the card
2. The Monitor was plugged into my laptop and then my old Dell standby desktop - it fired right up and worked perfectly. I even took it through a reboot cycle with no problems
3. I let the system cool down for a few hours and tried to boot up, still no signal and Monitor amber powersave/off light doesn't change.

I should mention this has happened three or four times over the last five weeks including once earlier in the evening last night but a quick reboot always solved it (and I had attributed it to my monitor being a few years old and slow to power up.) Not sure if this means anything, but after I rebooted when it had happened earlier in the evening last night a window popped up saying something about the monitor not being optimized for windows and would I like to do that now.

Is the VCard fried? Anyone in the Washington DC Area have a spare PCIe VCard I can use to diagnose the board?

Thanks!

 

[BlacKJesuS]

reset bios.....and if that fails submerge it in water...the ENTIRE PC

 

[teddyv]

reset bios

That is the problem - there is no signal going to the monitor and so no way to see much less reset the bios

BTW, why reset the bios?

 

[teddyv]

I should add that I am using the recent ATi Catalyst from the ATi site, but not the Catalyst Control Panel.

 

[Fattysharp]

Do you know what your power supply is? If this has happened in the past, and is happening now I have seen systems behave like this if they were on a low wattage, or low end power supply.

I have a pc here at work that will do this sometimes due to the power supply not being able to support the stress the system gives it.

 

[BlacKJesuS]

Originally posted by: teddyv

reset bios

That is the problem - there is no signal going to the monitor and so no way to see much less reset the bios

BTW, why reset the bios?

Do you have onboard video also???? and reseting bios will take everything back to how it was when you first got the computer...maybe you goofed somthing but all yuou gotta do is look on the motherboard an dpop the nickel out for like 30 seconds and then put it back in

 

[teddyv]

--SOLVED--

Sort of...

I put in a friend's card and it posted just fine with the monitor on, etc. I replaced it with my x800 and it again the monitor worked just fine. So I turned it off, screwed the card into the case (takes a little english as it doesn't quite line up leaning a bit inwards) and voila, it doesn't send a signal anymore. Off it goes, out comes the screw and it boots and works perfectly.

SO..... It looks like the little pressure it takes to line up the mount screw is unseating the card. To be specific, the card's screw hole lines up inwards away from the edge of the case and to line it up you must put push the card tab out a little towards the edge of the case.

Is this a case, Mobo or card issue? Is this at all common? Should I even worry about leaving the screw out? Is there a way to secure it without having to adjust the card?

Thanks Folks!