Video Card Just Died - HELP

[Pho King]

So I think my video card just died. I have a gforce 4200 (agp) card and when I boot my computer the monitor doesn't seem to sync with my system.

With DVI nothing shows up, with analog I get garbled text. I've also tried taking out the card and reseating it to no aval.

So I figured I needed to look for a new video card, but when I started looking again there are all these cards for ePCI (?). Last time I was in the hardware game - it was all AGP! What happened here?

So my system isn't that old - P4 1.8 (overclockable to 2.2), Asus Mobo with Rambus Ram.

I'm torn between:

Just getting a cheap AGP card and plugging it in (which one?)

new system - mobo, cpu, ram, video card?

Any opinions would be appreciated!

 

[Matt2]

If you have the money, please buy a new system.

You can get an AMD system, even a dual core CPU for DIRT cheap these days.

If you dont have the money then do not buy an expensive AGP card as it will be a complete waste.

 

[Pho King]

Suggestions on what to buy? I've been out of the hardware game for a while and I don't know what to get. I did "minimal" research and came up with this

mobo:
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

cpu:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

I've read somewhere this combo is good for overclocking, I dont really plan on overclocking anymore. I don't play games on my computer, but that might have just been a limitation of my old system!

I still need help with a video card....

 

[Matt2]

your mobo link is broken, but yes, a Core 2 Duo system would be the best possible solution.

What is your budget? Are u playing games?

 

[vhx]

Have you tried cleaning out the card of dust, since it's a fairly old card?

But if you are looking to go for PCI Express then a Core 2 Duo would definately be worth it.

 

[Juno]

i think i have a ti4200 laying around. if i do, i could spare it to you.

 

[Pho King]

Yeah I tried using my trusty canned air. I already ruled out cabling or monitor issues because I hooked up a different system to my monitor as well. Now I don't think I want to get into dual SLI type cards, I don't need that much power- just a solid middle of the line card.

 

[Vinnybcfc]

Originally posted by: Pho King
So I figured I needed to look for a new video card, but when I started looking again there are all these cards for ePCI (?). Last time I was in the hardware game - it was all AGP! What happened here?

Lol, PCI Express was made to:

Replace PCI so each port has indivdual bandwidth rather than shared
Allow SLI and Crossfire
More bandwidth on the graphics card port (not really needed but anyway)

Originally posted by: Pho King
Just getting a cheap AGP card and plugging it in (which one?)

new system - mobo, cpu, ram, video card?

If you are happy with the current speed of your system slap a new agp card in otherwise look for a upgrade

 

[Pho King]

It doesn't seem to expensive to upgrade my system, I'm looking at probably 500 for cpu, mobo, and ram. I would probably budget another 200 for a graphics card.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

You might want to consider bumping the video card buget a little bit more, because for $250, you can get a Radeon X1900XT 256mb card that will be more than enough for casual gaming for years to come.

Or if you are happy with the speed of your system an AGP 6200 would probably do you well. It'll be about par with the 4200 that just died. A 6600GT would be a good performance boost.

But your system is pretty old dude. RAMBUS died a few years ago.

 

[Pho King]

I thought Nvidia was the graphics king now? ATI still makes good cards? Is DUAL 7800 SLI still the best you can get?

 

[Captante]

Video cards in order of approximate overall performance:

(1) Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 *(SLI on a single card)
(2) ATI Radeon X1950XTX
(3) Radeon X1900XTX
(4) GeForce 7900GTX
(5) Radeon X1900XT 512mb
(6) Radeon X1900XT 256mb
(7) GeForce 7950GT
(8) GeForce 7900GT
(9) Radeon X1900GT
(10) GeForce 7900GS

6 through 10 are the cards that won't bust your budget wide open... the 256mb X1900XT is the best bet IMO, otherwise an oc'ed 7900GT if you prefer Nvidia.

 

[DeathReborn]

PCI Express cards would be the Radeon X1900XT 256MB or the GeForce 7900GTO. They both cost in the region of $250 & would give you excellent performance with a C2D CPU.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Pho King
It doesn't seem to expensive to upgrade my system, I'm looking at probably 500 for cpu, mobo, and ram. I would probably budget another 200 for a graphics card.

Also budget enough for a new PSU, minimum of $25 (for that Ultra V series 400W @Outpost) to about $75 (shipped price of Enhance 5150GH from eWiz).

 

[mikeford]

What you describe sounds like driver corruption to me, not hardware failure. Delete the driver and reinstall and I bet it works.

 

[Basilisk]

RAM prices (for a new m/b) are ridiculous at the moment; I expect they'll drop over the next several months -- the old boom-and-bust cycle. I'm not sold on present Core2 Duo chipsets, and expect the next round will improve features. And soon, the DX10 world of new cards will unfold. So, if you were happy about your system until this crash, I'd suggest you try to keep it going for 6 months to a year.

With that goal:
-- Did you hit the reset-BIOS settings button on your m/b? [Most m/b's have this, but not all I suppose.]
-- I didn't notice you mentioning if the boot process appeared to complete -- if disk activity continued for (30?) seconds [despite the monitor problems], then things settled down. That happening would be a very good sign.
-- At least borrow a video card from a friend to see if that alone fixes the problem; look to buy a modest replacement only if it does -- FleaBay or the Buy & Sell forum make sense for just a year of AGP.
-- There's a good chance there's a non-video-card failure,: the drivers, the m/b, or RAM. It's hard to replace drivers if you can't read the screen. Nevertheless, try booting from Windows CD just to see it that presents sane graphics.

Good luck.