Hi. Forgive me my bad english, I'm not native english speaker. I used search but didn't find anything useful.
First of all, specs:
Motherboard P965 neo
Graphic card ATI X1950 Pro
PSU Antec NeoPower 430
RAMKingston 2Gb DDR2 X2 Corsair512Mb DDR2 X 2
CPU Intel E6400 dual core
Monitor Asus VW221
As you can see, computer is at least five years old. This problem started in much smaller case about a year ago. When temperature rised too high e.g. when playing counterstrike or Morrowind, monitor suddenly went on standby mode, first saying "VGA no signal". Too high being about 65-70C. Sound continued playing like nothing didn't happen. Well, I used underclocking as a temporary solution. With underclocking temperature stayed under 60C and all was fine.
Slowly problem get bigger, and I haven't been able to play cs anymore in last few weeks or so. Being student, I haven't had dough to build better computer and so I thought I'll wait until I have more money and then build a new comp. from a scratch. But few days ago, I left comp. on over night and when I woke up there was a blue screen in monitor. I rebooted it, few hours passed and monitor went to standby giving VGA no signal. That was new because there wasn't any "stress" on it, there wasn't any programs running. Problem got bigger, and now when booting computer it monitor just says VGA no signal and goes to stand by. It doesn't even show starting screen so I can't access BIOS.
I've tried monitor with other computer, it works just fine. I've taken off all unnecessary appliances from back of the computer. I've reseted CMOS, booted with every single RAM itself, reseated graphic card and cleaned it, reseated all cables. There is no onboard video card in my mobo so I haven't been able to try that. I have no possibility to try my graphic card or PSU in other computers.
I assume that problem is either PSU or graphic card. I planned to get a cheap temporary graphic card or PSU until I have money to build better computer. But is the problem graphic card or PSU. Or something else. Sorry about long story but I didn't know what's necessary and didn't want to leave anything important out.
I really appreciate all answers and I want this problem solved. Thank you.
can you use the psu from other computer to test with? does other computer have a videocard that is compatible with sick computer? look at the siler top cans on the motherboard to see if any are domed as they are supposed to be flat topped. get new thermal paste for the cpu heatsink after you clean old paste & any dust bunnies on\in the cpu heatsink. what is the total number of fans in the computer, locations of fans in the computer & which are blowing air out or sucking in air?
Originally posted by ddp: can you use the psu from other computer to test with? does other computer have a videocard that is compatible with sick computer? look at the siler top cans on the motherboard to see if any are domed as they are supposed to be flat topped. get new thermal paste for the cpu heatsink after you clean old paste & any dust bunnies on\in the cpu heatsink. what is the total number of fans in the computer, locations of fans in the computer & which are blowing air out or sucking in air?
Thank you for your answer.
Unfortunately I dont have any possibility to try either graphic card nor PSU in other computer, at least not in this week. All top cans are flat topped. There are just one fan behind the computer and its blowing air. Im using Antec Sonata II case. I have to go and buy that thermal paste today. I don't know what heat sink is but I cleaned all parts with air duster, there no dust at all in the case anymore.
I went and bought that thermal paste. Wiped old ones out and put new stuff in and all went nice. But it didn't change anything. Other than possibly my CPU will be cooler in future. Which is not bad thing at all:) I'm still pretty sure that graphic card is the part to blame, especially because sounds didn't stop playing when monitor went to standby.
you have One PCI Express x16 slot for a videocard so can ues any card that fit in that slot except for pci which is your other slots. watch what card you get as might need more power from your psu which might not be capable of handling. also depends on how much you want to spend as some cards go for multiple hundreds of dollars or as cheap as $40.
Originally posted by ddp: you have One PCI Express x16 slot for a videocard so can ues any card that fit in that slot except for pci which is your other slots. watch what card you get as might need more power from your psu which might not be capable of handling. also depends on how much you want to spend as some cards go for multiple hundreds of dollars or as cheap as $40.
I bought a new graphics card (GT 620), put it in and booted my computer. And it worked. Until "starting windows" screen came up. It didn't go anywhere from that. I had my computer on for few hours, and it still stayed in that screen.
I checked that everything was okay in BIOS, and did proper check for hard drive and formatted it with DBAN, no problems there. I tried to reinstall windows with CD and bootable USB, but was still stuck in that starting windows-screen. I'm all out of ideas, what can be wrong this time.
Originally posted by ddp: see if can go into safemode with new videocard with current windows.
Tried that, didn't work out. I tried other modes also, they didnt work either. I'm currently trying to install win XP. If it works I might be able to find some clues what's wrong. I can't understand why this computer doesn't work. Seems like it at least started installing XP, I'll update this post when install is complete.
Edit:
I was able to install XP. I'll check if everything is working and then I'll try to install win 7
Edit:
Everything worked as they should in XP. After installing all drivers I tried to install Win 7, but it didn't work. First I tried to install x64 win, and after that I tried x86 win but neither of them worked. I started installing x86 in XP and installation went well until computer booted. Then I was back at "starting windows" screen. XP is still working, I tried to install win 7 in different partition.
Now everything is okay. I took away all unnecessary hardware and was finally able to install win7. Strange, because only part what has been changed is graphics card... Anyway, life is good again
