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Monitor flickers then PC shuts down, HELP!
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Ian1324
Junior Member
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22. April 2006 @ 12:42 |
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Firstly let me applogise if I this is in the wrong section, but I couldnt realistically see where else to play my thread.
I have been having a problem with my PC of recent, let me explain further.
Around 2 weeks ago the IT technical support at my college build me a new PC using some componants from my previous PC, and some from their 'old' PC's (note: my college updates PC's every 6 months, and all componants were in perfect working order, the college simply no longer needed them)
Anyway, I took my PC in and it now contains the following compants (I have also contained information on wheather components were added at the college or added from my previous machine):
GIGABYE GA-7ZXE Motherboard w/ Athlon AMD 1.4 Processor (College)
Hard Drive (My Own)
3 256 sticks of SDRAM (768 in total - College)
NVIDIA GeForce 3 Graphics Card w/latest drivers (My Own)
450watt Power Supply (My Own)
and the usual, all my own, dvd r\w, dvd rom, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc...
Now them, with that information, I recieved the computer back and have been using it fine for almost 2 weeks, not a single problem, however, a few days ago the monitor started to flicker as if I were recieving a text message on my mobile phone, however, I recieved no message and the flickering starting getting worse and worse, then, for no reason, the screen went black and my MP3 was looping...the computer had crashed. I restared the computer thinking that it must have been a one-off, however, after using the PC for 5 mins or so, it happeneded again, screen flickering, PC turned off. At first I thorght it was a fault with the monitor, as it is aroung 5 years old, but I have plugged the monitor into another PC and it worked fine.
I turned the PC on again yesterday and it worked for around an hour, and then surely enough, the monitor started to flicker and the screen went off. I have replaced the monitors power cable (I know this sounds stupid, but I thorght it was worth a go) and it seemed to work fine for a few hours, but once again, the screen went black and the computer shut down.
I thorght perhaps the PC was overheating, so I have had the side panel of the case off and it hasnt solved the problem, I have also updated the drivers for my graphics card.
Remember the PC was working without a problem for around 2 weeks, and now I'm lucky if I can go 5 mins without it shutting down, all I can realistically think, knowing that it isn't the monitor(and even if it were, I doubt that this would shut the entire PC down), is that my graphics card is broken, but I assumed that if this were the case, my monitor simply wouldnt display anything, instead of working for a while then shutting down.
All in all I am at a lose at to wonder what the fault is, and any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Also, sorry for such a long post, I just wanted to fully explain my problem and the solutions I have tried.
Cheers,
Ian
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ZergDrone
Newbie
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22. April 2006 @ 14:24 |
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id say make sure that the memory sticks are the right kind of ram for the board. other than that, an older or even an incompatible power supply put with newer things or a lot of devices can cause it to shutdown like that. how many devices total do u have with pci/scsi?
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Ian1324
Junior Member
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22. April 2006 @ 14:27 |
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I was thinking it could have been a power supply fault, but its been running perfectly fine for 2 weeks or so....
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Ian1324
Junior Member
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25. April 2006 @ 04:44 |
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UPDATE: I've been back to the college and told the technitions of the problem, they gave me another graphics card to try (a very old card), but said that if that stopped the screen flickering than it was a graphics card problem, I put the new card in, but I think its broken cause nothing appeared on the screen. I put my GeForce 3 back in and now nothing displays on the screen except some blue flashing lines, and even thats only for a second.
Any more ideas people?
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Ian1324
Junior Member
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25. April 2006 @ 08:18 |
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FURTHER UPDATE: I've solved the problem, I did have 3 236 sticks of SDRAM in the pc, and by taking them all out and trying each one one at a time, I found that 2 of them were broken, so I now have the 1 stick of 256 SDRAM in and the PC is working fine, planning to by some new RAM at the weeked. So the problem was solely with the RAM, thanks for the help people, and I hope this thread will helps others with a simlers problem
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Ian1324
Junior Member
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4. May 2006 @ 05:46 |
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FINAL UPDATE: The problem wasnt with the RAM, because although it worked fine for a while, the problem returned. The problem was actually heat, caused by the case. You see, when I got the new m/board I simply put it into my old case, however, the board the case was designed for simply didnt have as many slots for RAM, cards etc... This meant that I was putting a new board in with almost double everything, causeing everything to be too close together. I took it to a local computer shop and they advised me on purchasing a new case, which I did. My new case has alot more space, and everything is now alot more spaced out.
Just thorght I'd update incase I anyone else has the same problem and comes across this thread.
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