Please Help Diagnose My Problem

[vikingblade]

ive got a real problem, and i cant seem to figure out exactly what the problem is..

i get very bad visual corruption..lines, colors total garbled mess. sometimes it will happen after im on my comp for 5 min. sometimes 3 hrs. usually if i do a total cold shutdown and restart it will fix problem for a lil while. but not always...often takes a few shut-downs. a restart without a total shutdown will not normally fix. the trouble normally happens when im in windows but sometimes the corruption will even happen before windows loads during hardware detection screen.

at first i thought it was just a bad videocard but... now im not sure... ram, motherboard, cpu, ps.

my basic specs are below...

athlon xp 3000
asus a7n8x ultra?
ati all in wonder pro 9700
antec true 430
antec case - full server
ram - 2 512 ddr 2700 - not sure - maker
80 gb 7200 ide maxtor hd

asus probe utility measured my temps at...
cpu... 46c / 114f
motherboard.. 31c / 86f

this comp is a couple years old, but im trying to keep it going for another month till i can get my new system.

 

[tyborg]

I saw something similar on an EMachine with an NF2 motherboard. The NTune corrupted the BIOS on both it and its replacement. no idea how or why though.

sorry I can't be more help.

P.S. is that idling temps? that's awfully high if they are. mobo should be around 28c, and cpu more like 35c. at least that's what mine does, but it's an intel 1500 mhz, not an AXP(which I hear run kinda toasty)

 

[vikingblade]

thnx...yeah, its weird. i have the side panel off the case and am running a small table top fan right into the case, so, temps should be good unless something is really overheating.

 

[bovinda]

Overheating would have been my guess too. Is there some component that might have a failing fan, that maybe your table top fan isn't reaching? Is the 9700 passively cooled or does it have a fan? Or are you pretty sure that it doesn't correlate with temp fluctuations?

Anyway, that'd be my best guess. Good luck.

 

[vikingblade]

well, the fan is right there..and side door is off. the asus probe reads by cpu and mb as warm but i dont think hot. it could be my vid card i guess, i have no way of checkin its temp. i believe it has a fan, but the tabletop is blowin right on it too.

if it was my vid card, would it only corrupt in windows.... could it cause corruption before windows even loads???

Also, if overheating...why would a shutdown/restart allow it to fix for awhile. its not like i let it cool for 20 min or something. very strange

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: vikingblade
well, the fan is right there..and side door is off. the asus probe reads by cpu and mb as warm but i dont think hot. it could be my vid card i guess, i have no way of checkin its temp. i believe it has a fan, but the tabletop is blowin right on it too.

if it was my vid card, would it only corrupt in windows.... could it cause corruption before windows even loads???

Also, if overheating...why would a shutdown/restart allow it to fix for awhile. its not like i let it cool for 20 min or something. very strange

Look closely at the fan, I suspect it's running slow or even stopping intermittently. A restart could just be prompting it to start running again. A fan blowing on there won't be nearly as effective as the fan directly attached to GPU heatsink.

I've fixed 9700's like this before. The easiest thing to do is buy a small fan, remove the old one, and attach the new one to the heatsink using sheetmetal screws (self threading). Don't worry about being elegant, it's nearly impossible to find the OEM fan that is an exact replacement and chances are the power connector won't match what's on the video card.

 

[vikingblade]

thnx. its hard to tell if the fan is runnin well on the vid card, its on bottom. is there any other way to tell ifits a gpu overheating problem...troubleshooting, gpu temp reading programs available? is it definately not a motherboard/cpu, ram or ps issue.

unfortunately, im disabled so just dismantling and checkin everything out physically isnt possible for me. also, replacing a fan isnt possible either. im trying to troubleshoot by symptoms etc.. i guess the best way to find out if its my gpu is simply to replace it... but, im saving for a pci express gpu so dont wanna waste any money on another agp. any other options