Vid card about to crap out?

[Rhino4]

Okay, I need a computer guru's advice. My computer seems to be running fine, but sometimes after I turn it off and then turn it back on later, my screen does not come back on. It stays in standby mode and when I turn the screen off and then back on again it says there's no signal. I know the screen works fine because I plugged it into my laptop and had no problem getting a signal. I opened the case for my desktop and everything is still connected, so I don't know what it could be except that my video card is about to expire. Do I need to get in the market for a new one? Thanks in advance for any advice or help you could give me.:helpsmilie:

 

P.S. I'm writing this from my desktop which is now working after 20 times (:joystick:) turning it off and then back on again...I'm afraid to turn it off in case the screen problem happens again (this is the third time this week it has happened). I'm also posting this same thread over at simhq just in case someone there who doesn't read this forum has an idea what is happening to me.

[Kuky]

I have this same thing if you believe and I can tell you I don't think it's your video card dying out but most likely motherboard. I had HD4870 and every now and then my PC would not boot, the fans would come on etc so power was there, but the system would not boot. What I could see on video card are 4 red LED's 3 of which should lit/flash once as system boots and video card initialises, but in this case the 3 LED's would just stay on and video card fan would be spinning at its max and PC would just not boot.

 

At first I thougth same as you that my video card is dying out. Because about a year ago, same time I bought the video card (I had 2 before running in CF) I flushed their BIOS and modified the fan profiles to have the cards run cooler) I never had issues because of it untill lately I started getting this issue where PC would work just fine, there would be no issues running games etc, just that every few days the system would not boot like this.

 

Turning it on, then off multiple times does the trick, but to get it to boot again I need to turn PSU plug off and leave it off for a while. This I am sure clears all capacitors on the motherboard etc and possibly "refreshes" (for the lack of apropriate terms) the motherboard, and eventually the PC would boot again as normal. Sometimes though in this on/off/on/off procedure my motherboard BIOS would reset to its defaults settings and I would have to go back and reset my overclocking settings. So maybe it's because I was overclocking the CPU ever since I bought it that's causing it, I don't really know, but my highest suspicion is on the motherboard itself as if I even take out both RAM sticks out and try to boot I get no sound beep warnings, and same if I take video card out and try to boot like that, so this tells me motherboard does not initialise, not the video card like I thought before (my bad luck was that I actually bough HD4890 few days ago since I thought my HD4870 was dead and chucked it into the rubish bin) and I have same issue happen again.

 

One possible work around for this is once you turn the PC off is to switch off the PSU as well. Next time you want to use it switch the PSU on again and try if it boots every time for a few days like this (I am doing the same).

 

and good luck, maybe someone else has more ideas or experience with same.

 

PS: I guess you could make sure it is your video card having the issue and not booting, if your motherboard is fine, it should give you warning sound (beeps) if you try to boot without video card so you might wanna try that next time it doesn't want to boot and see if it's video card not starting up or the motherboard.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Kuky

[Rhino4]

Here's the thing: I know my computer is booting fine because if I plug headsets into the front of my computer instead of relying on the screen's speakers, then when I turn the computer on, I can press the down arrow key and then enter, and I'll hear myself being logged in and my settings being loaded...

[Kuky]

hm... well in that case I'm pretty sure then it is your video card... unless... do you have different inputs to your monitor? If it's an LCD then you might have analog as well as digital imput, and on the front pannel for example on my monitor there is a button for you to sellect what input to display on the monitor... if I have DVI cable connected it means it's using diginal input so if I press this button and sellect analog or HDMI monitor will show no singal... so before you declare your video card as dead make sure you haven't accidentaly pressed a button that does exactly this (change input sellection).

Edited July 20, 2009 by Kuky

[jpm1]

personnally the black screen would make me think a GC issue . don't you have another GC to perform a test if not you can't find low end GC for less than 30E on the web . don't know what GC you have but is your power supply powerful enought the HD 4870 x2 for example need at least (non-noname) 500-550W PSU

[Rhino4]

I've got a 550W power supply with an nvidia 8800. The computer is only about 6 months old. As for the digital/analog signal, my monitor automatically detects either signal and displays it so there's no way for me to pick the wrong setting. I am using digital signals though. The thing that bugs me is that it doesn't happen all the time, so even if I buy a cheapie graphic card to try out I won't know for sure if that's what solved the problem unless the problem disappears for a month or so and that's a long time to spend with a crappy vid card and no game-time...

[Kuky]

are you overclocking at all, video card or CPU? Right now I have no more ideas...

[Rhino4]

Nah, I'm not much of a computer guy, so I tend to stay away from overclocking anything...

[Kuky]

In that case if you run everything stock you can eliminate things like overclocking failures which would leave either video card really dying out or even PSU if it's getting old... PSU do wear out as well especially if being run at it's max or close to max ratings.

[basscadets rriatt]

ar this sounds likely to be a dodgy connection or possably dust is corrupting your components, unplug it all(video card,sound card ram, drive connections, power connector to MB) give it all a good blow out an get all the muck out, you can buy cans of compressed air for a couple of euro, an reconnect backup an it should be cool,

also check there are no kinks in any of your pc's wires, if there is yuill need to replace the wire.

hope this helps ya buddy gdluk :thumbup:

Edited July 21, 2009 by basscadet's rriatt

[Kuky]

I don't recoment using high pressure air to blow dust of the PC parts as it can very likely kill your hardware because it can form static electricity... I know of two people that have done that, used can of high pressure air blowing on the motherboard etc, then after they put the parts back in the PC went dead. One guy killed his RAM like that, can't remember what component dies for the other.

[jpm1]

try to check if all your hardware is correctly mounted RAM , GC .. otherwise i suggest you give your PC to a technician it'll cost you 30E you'll have no games for a while but he'll make you save money as he'll be able to tell you with no doubt where the failure comes from

 

here's what i would have done myself in your situation :

 

1/ reinstall audio/video drivers

2/ reinstall latest .NET framework release

3/ check if the hardware is well mounted (including video cables)

4/ open myself a beer to unstress

5/ wait a month to see if the problem persists

6/ begin making some savings

7/ after 1 month 1/2 if the problem's is still present i call a technician

 

[basscadets rriatt]

I don't recoment using high pressure air to blow dust of the PC parts as it can very likely kill your hardware because it can form static electricity... I know of two people that have done that, used can of high pressure air blowing on the motherboard etc, then after they put the parts back in the PC went dead. One guy killed his RAM like that, can't remember what component dies for the other.

 

WOW, bro not high pressure:huh:, a little common sense,one should know just to be gentle an kind an soft to your riggie's components:P an treat it like your lover :P not like your wife :D

 

i use low pressure air blowers on my kit and on big pc components at work never had a problem caused by just blowing, you would certainly do some damage if you used high pressure blower

Edited July 22, 2009 by basscadet's rriatt

[PoleCat]

I have also seen many a PC component die as a result of people using home vacuum cleaners to clean the inside of thier PC's. This also creates a huge static wind storm in your PC. If you are going to use a vacumn rather then a can of PC safe compressed air to clean your PC, make sure it is a static free service vac that is designed for blowing or vacuuming PC's and servers safely. They are also designed to both blow and vacuum at safe levels. Too strong a force can pull jumpers right off the board.

 

Out

Edited July 22, 2009 by PoleCat

[Ramstein]

check your wiring and plugs... soemtimes a bad power supply plug in the molex connectors isn't in there right and isn't making good contact.. (those connectors are made cheap and badly in lots of connectors and power supply wires..) cheap bastards at the manufacturing companies cut

corners..

[kiss4luna]

i have a simulate problem

i have two ViewSonic VX2035WM displays and when connected to ATi cards they all got no signal input. i have tried catalyst 8.12 to 9.6 drivers and they all won't work

[rabidscoobie]

I had this same exact problem On every ATI card I have owned.Within 8-10 months they have gone bad,thats 3 cards that have done exactly like you have described.I liked ATI cards but Ive just never had good luck with them.

 

On they last I had I was on tech support for over 2hours trying to get this fixed before they came to the conclusion that its bad.That was my ATI x1950.Now I have a EVGA 8800gt thats been going strong for 2yrs now.

 

And I do not overclock ever.And Im not a fanboy of any brand im just giving my experience.

 

Im sure the other posters have said some things to check but I didnt feel like reading through all the posts.But the only thing that worked for me for a short time was once I got the screen to come up was to use a program(forgot the name) and underclock the ATI card,at least it allowed me to use my pc for light work.

Edited July 23, 2009 by rabidscoobie

[jpm1]

reboot , enter the set up reset the settings to default . you can check if the system is set to boot on the drive you have your OS on too .

[leafer]

I didn't read every comment but have you checked the cable and the connections? My friend's comp had the exact same symptom as yours and at first I was certain it was the vid card. However, I decided it can't hurt to replace a much cheaper cable first which turned out to be the culprit.

 

edit:

 

I meant the monitor cable.

Edited July 28, 2009 by leafer

[diveplane]

i know its anoying but you have to be anal when it comes to cleaning a pc inside them.

 

is your system chocked with dust?

 

if so clean it out with canned air. electronic components can go crazy if theres not enough ventilation passing through your tower.

 

dust film can trapped warm air on the pcb.

 

this may not be your problem but again good to check out.

Edited August 2, 2009 by diveplane

[leafer]

Not to mention that that stock GPU fan is wimpy. My GPU burned out because a wad of dust wedged its way in between the fan and its housing.

[Oldflyer2]

no boot-up

 

I was just wanting to know if you fixed the problem!

 

I wanted to mention that a weak hard drive will give you alot of symptoms that look like other problems.

 

I computer waiting for boot-up information will look like it is in a comma! everything is waiting to start but the Weak or non fuctioning HD is not providing the proper data to the system. Always check to see if your hard drive is spinning up normally. If it cannot read the Bootsector info you will get bad problems.

 

A weak HD motor not spinning fast enough or not at all can be the cause of all of this.

 

Just a thought.