Machine keeps dying - screens go black

hyperian

hyperian

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My pci-e graphics card started performing strangely a few days ago, with the screens losing signal while the pc continued to run fine. I used the onboard graphics for a few days and everything ran fine, so I assumed that it was the fault of the graphics card.

I bought and installed a new card, and it ran fine for a few hours. However, every so often, the screens would go all black or white and the machine would freeze and would need to be rebooted. I'm wondering whether the old graphics card was actually at fault, or that perhaps its my pci-e slot which is faulty. The card isn't running warm at all. I've downloaded the latest drivers and will install them when I get home.

I'm running XP 32bit SP3 on an intel 965SS mb. The old card was an x1800xt and the new one is an 8400GS. Any help will be greatly appreciated :)
 
Sounds like its the Mobo. if the new cards does it too. dont think it could be the drivers.
 
hyperian said:
Bleh :( I hope its not the motherboard. Its an intel branded board with a 3 year warranty, and its not 3 years old yet, but I bought it from Lanworld computers which has since closed down and become a Chaos shop.
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Did not know. Remember buying stuff from them back in the day and they were good!

Don't waste your time taking it back to a retailer, rather phone a supplier i.e. Rectron/Frontosa and ask them which company repairs/handles Intel motherboard warranties. Take it to them. :)
 
This happened to me with an ATI850GT and a 6800GT. Both times it was heat problems.
Test them in other PC's as Ruan suggested to make sure its the mobo.
 
Hmmm. My psu fan seems like its about to die. The bearings are shot. Although i think that the pc would have died when I was using onboard vga. I'll test the card on another machine, and if it works fine i'll try find where I can take the motherboard to perhaps be fixed ;)
 
hyperian said:
Bleh :( I hope its not the motherboard. Its an intel branded board with a 3 year warranty, and its not 3 years old yet, but I bought it from Lanworld computers which has since closed down and become a Chaos shop.
Click to expand...

The warranty is still valid as it's a manufacturers warranty. Take it to the local distributor.
 
The machine will boot now but after a few minutes it dies. I noticed that only 10.5v is coming through on the 12v rail. Could this be the problem perhaps?

EDIT: Ah, when i'm using onboard vga, the 12v rail jumps to 11.7+, so i'm starting to believe that this is a psu problem.
 
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