Bad video card?

[GoMilton]

Im going crazy, about a month ago my power supply went out, it was under warranty so I sent it back. I got the new one and it wasn't compatible with my system so I had to send that one back. When I got the new power supply that replaced the replacement power supply, I installed it and noticed that the fan on the video card was a bit loose so I ordered a new vga heatsink/fan. I now have that installed but now the computer wont load past the Windows Boot screen. The computer loads in Safe Mode or if the video card drivers are not installed at all.

What the heck is the problem? Everything worked fine before the power supply went out.

Video Card is a MSI Radeon x800xl. I tried updating/installing the latest Catalyst drivers but it didnt work.

Any ideas?

[NuclearDreams]

A few questions. Were you grounded when you changed the heatsink on your video card? Did a tool touch any two chip legs at one time (chip legs are the metal contacts that are soldered to the board)? Did you connect the card to the power supply?

If it is the same card you shouldn't be having problems with the drivers. But we are talking about Windows, anything could and will happen.

[Soviet779]

Unfortunately when a power supply goes bad it can take any number or all the components with it, i had this happen to me a while back and i ended up having to replace the ram/video card/motherboard. Still not entirely sure which was was faulty, or if all of them were, it seemed like they all were.

If the card was outright broken it would not boot, you would hear bleeps and see a blank screen (typically) so its still alive. Nuclear saying the card not being plugged in is a good guess, but usually it also wont boot in this case and will give a message telling you the card isnt plugged in. My 9800 pro did anyways.

Did this problem occur with the replacement of the fan? Or was it like that before you touched the fan?

[jamesminilogo]

Had exactly the same problem with a FX5900XT when a power supply went. No matter what computer i tried it in, it couldnt boot into windows.

Do you get white specks or anything that wasnt there before on your screen during boot up?

[GoMilton]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes I was grounded when I did the work. I cant think of a time that a tool touched the board so no I don't think so. Maybe i'm missing something but I havent plugged it into the power supply. Never have and its worked fine. I haven't seen any spot on the video card for something to be plugged into other than the fan from the vga cooler.

This is my card here (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RX800XL-VT2D256E)

This problem occurred after the replacement of the fan. I should clarify that the first replacement power supply I got worked for a few minutes, maybe even a half hour but then would shut off randomly. This was a flaw with the power supply and the motherboard not being compatible. The video card worked just fine at that point so the power supply going out, didn't effect the video card.

Everything looks normal while the Windows Boot screen is up then it goes black and the monitor looses the signal and shuts off like the computer had just been turned off but thats not the case.

[Gaucho8788]

Try getting ahold of another video card, if you can without buying, and see if it will load up then. If it does with the temperary card then your x800 is bad. if you can't get ahold of one for free, then I would suggest finding a comp that you could test your card in. I bet you 10 to 1 when the power supply went out it took your card with it. Of course without more info on some of your other hardware it's just speculation. Hope this helps.

[GoMilton]

Unfortunately I dont have another video card or computer that I can test this on. All the other computers/video cards that I have are only AGP compatible and not PCI Express

My other hardware

AMD Athlon 64 3700
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
MSI Radeon rx800xl 256mb
Corsair XMS 2x512mb Dual Channel
2x250gb WD Sata Hard drives
Antec P180 case

Old power supply - Antec NeoPower 480
First replacement - Antec NeoHE 500
Second replacement - Antec Truepower Trio 550

Sony DVD drive

[Gaucho8788]

The only thing I can suggest at the moment is try and find a program that will test your ram, just to see if maybe it burnt out your ram. Go to google and search for memory tester. Thats all I can think of besides buying new stuff and that could just become unnecessary costs.Just look around for diagnostic tools and other free programs that can check your comp. Hope this helps.

[GoMilton]

Alright, thank you

[Camel]

:D You can download Memtest free from here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Memory-Tweak/MemTest.shtml

[jamesminilogo]

Do you still have the fan you replaced with?

Could it possibly be its overheating with the new fan causing it to shut off

[GoMilton]

No its not over heating.

It shuts off at the same time, every time if the video card drivers are installed. If I go into safe mode, it will startup and continue to run without shutting off on me.

[Soviet779]

Ok so the problem occurred after the replacement of the fan rather than the power supply and it worked fine for a bit with the old fan.

Its a stretch to think its somthing else other than the video card, i think you should put the old fan back on and see if that works.

1. Did you see any thermal paste on the card when you removed the old fan? If so did you scrape it off and replace it with a suitable substitute?

2. Does the new fan spin?

3. Is there no gap between the heatsink and the GPU core?

If you answered yes to all the above just get rid of the drivers from safe mode, and install either the latest ones, or the ones that came with the card on the cd (or any older driver you can find) ATI's drivers are all date listed so catalyst 6.12 are 2006 month 12, X800's came out somtime in 2005 i think so a 5.xx driver would be the ones they were released with. Theres also "omega" drivers as opposed to the official catalyst, no idea what the difference is but they may be worth a try.

It could be overheating though, seems funny that drivers go screwey after a heatsink and fan is replaced. I dont know exactly what causes X800's to shut off if they overheat, i would expect there to be a hardware solution rather than relying on drivers & software to do it but i dunno.

[GoMilton]

Thanks for the reply Soviet.

The only heatsink/fan is bad so I wont try putting it back on, thats why I replaced it.

1. Yes and yes I wiped it off. I put on Arctic Silver 5.

2. Yep

3. No gap that I can see.

I got rid of all of the drivers and have tried installing the newest drivers. That didnt work. I got rid of those drivers and tried installing the old drivers that came with it, that didnt work.

I've come to the understanding that the video card is just bad and that i'll have to get a new one.

[jamesminilogo]

Ive replaced fans on graphics cards a number of times and havent seen it causing a problem before.

I did have problem booting into Windows before when my stepdad pinched my 6800 as his 6600GT was having problems with his motherboard. I couldnt boot into windows and the only way i solved it was a format.

Perhaps removing the fan and reapplying the Arctic Silver etc

[Soviet779]

Oh well, at least you can do hella lot better than an X800XL nowadays a nice 7600GT or 79xx would be a great upgrade. If your wallet and PSU can handle it an 88xx would be a good dose of overkill.

You could also ebay the old card and label it as "might be busted" or somthing.

[GoMilton]

Actually, I just realized, this thing might still be under warranty. When I get home im going to check and see. If it is, hopefully I can send it back.

[jamesminilogo]

If it is then tell them that you arent able to boot into windows and the card used to be fine before that.

I done that with the 6600GT i had and PNY accepted a return and sent me a new one, then i had the same problem with the new card, which the format fixed :\

[GoMilton]

So I have an update on this

I sent it back to MSI under warranty and I got it back the other day, put it in and still had the same problem. What I noticed though was that the computer was still booting up, the screen was just going black after the windows loading screen finished. I can hear the windows startup sound, I just cant see anything. In safe mode, I cant go above 30mhz refresh rate without the screen going black.

Unless someone has any other suggestions, it looks like im just going to format and re-install windows and hopefully that will fix it.

[MaXiMuZZZ]

Do you have the possibility to try another monitor?

[GoMilton]

Yea I got a chance to try another monitor this weekend and it worked. Why would the old monitor only work in safe mode? It doesnt make sense. I would think if a monitor went bad, it would just go bad.

Anyways, any tips on a new monitor? Im looking at a $300-350 budget. Ive looked at a couple and one that sticks out is the HP W2207. Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated.

[Gaucho8788]

Hp, I've found, is always a good brand to go with. Other brands I could say would be Samsung, Philips, KDS, LG, and ASUS. These are the brands I recommend, HP and KDS, being at the top. Also one reason that your monitor would only work in safe mode is that somehow the monitor got damaged and it would only run at the resolution that safe mode runs in. Anyways hope these suggestions help.

[GoMilton]

Thanks Gaucho

[JJFZ3000]

Interesting the monitor problem seems to be what my old laptop is doing right now. I start the laptop it would run normally up until the Windows XP loading screen, then the screen would turn black. I know it hasn't turned off, but I can't see much either.

It's an old Toshiba with ATI graphics card (64mb?).

[Gaucho8788]

It could either be the ATI card is going out or your LCD is going bad, Two main reason. I would take it into a comp repair shop, being that working with laptops is a wee bit different than desktop comps. If you pick somplace good they should be able to tell you exactly whats wrong pretty quick.

[JJFZ3000]

Actually, there's something new, sometimes it runs for various lengths of time. Sometimes it's black starting when the power's turn on, but sometimes it works for an hour before turning dark again. :S

[Scoot]

Is there a certain size you want? I purchased a 19" widescreen Samsung LCD when I bought my new computer. It was about $225, on sale at Best Buy.

[GoMilton]

I ended up getting the Samsung 226BW. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and couldnt be happier with it.

[Gaucho8788]

Happy to here that. Enjoy your monitor.

[pieman224]

Im going crazy, about a month ago my power supply went out, it was under warranty so I sent it back. I got the new one and it wasn't compatible with my system so I had to send that one back. When I got the new power supply that replaced the replacement power supply, I installed it and noticed that the fan on the video card was a bit loose so I ordered a new vga heatsink/fan. I now have that installed but now the computer wont load past the Windows Boot screen. The computer loads in Safe Mode or if the video card drivers are not installed at all.

What the heck is the problem? Everything worked fine before the power supply went out.

Video Card is a MSI Radeon x800xl. I tried updating/installing the latest Catalyst drivers but it didnt work.

Any ideas?




were you wearing rubber gloves when you installed it? if not you might have touched one of the gold chips and corrupted it. 95 percent of the time when people dont wear rubber gloves when fixing or installing parts they touch a computer chip and end up having to re-buy the part

[Chev]

Getting back on Milton 'former' incident:

I've had problems with the same motherboard.
PC overheateds, freezes up and 'dies' pritty quickly and gets about 100 degrees celcius when playing games after placing a new graphic card.

Read about it (not my own site):
http://www.euroalps.eu/technology/Computing/Chipset_Cooling/Chipset_Fan/chipset_fan.html

Just a matter of replacing the fragile fan on the mainboard with a heatsink and it's done :p (intresting reading tbh).

Perhaps it might be usefull for someone in a future reference.

Cheers.

Chev.

[NuclearDreams]

I've never had a problem with my mainboards overheating. In my shop I get customers who come in with that problem though. Sometimes it's the fan on the board, but more often it's a result of the wrong CPU fan and inadequate or wrong case air flow. Some new CPU fans have heatsinks that cool the CPU but leave surrounding mainboard components wanting. There was an article in Tom's Hardware about it, if I find it I'll post it.