[SOLVED] Blinking monitor while gaming

Meladolus · 08-09-2008, 06:12 AM

Umm... well.. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Basically, when I play games, my screen will cut out, the monitor will say "No Cable", and then the screen will cut back on. Most games shut down and give me an error report, WoW keeps freaking doing it over and over so I have like 2 seconds to shut the game down. Initially when I first encountered this problem, it happened once, I restarted and my computer was fine for a few days... Then it kept progressively getting worse and worse over the course of a few weeks and now I can't even play any games. I really have only been playing World of Warcraft so I wasn't sure if maybe something just messed up on that, but I tried CoD4, Knight of the Old Republic, and Oblivion with the same results. I did everything I could think of. Made sure windows was up to date. Sound and video drivers were uninstalled and reinstalled at the most up to date version, and I got a registry cleaner, fully scanned my entire hard drive with spybot, adaware, AVG, and Avast!. All they found were a few tracking cookies, nothing major. I'm just having really crummy luck with computers here recently. I tested a friend of mine's dual core 6000 in my last motherboard and it was cool, then I went to put my 4400 back in and inexplicably the pins were bent. I was gonna take it to a repair place to see if they could bend the pins back and my girlfriend tried to fix it herself(without me knowing) and snapped off a pin, so gg to my 4400. I had to resort back to my old setup, which is:

AMD 3000 64-bit
2gb ddr ram
ATI Radeon X1650 pro
600 watt power supply(don't remember the brand or anything. it's like 5 years old now)
Hitachi Deskstar 160gb hard drive

So yeah... Does this sound like maybe a power supply issue? That's what I've been considering since it's the oldest component in my crappy gaming rig. Money is an issue so I was hoping to resolve this without spending any, and I REALLY don't want to wipe the hard disk which was going to be my last resort before buying a new component. System Restores are not really a viable option either, because my motherboard will not keep the time. It always reset the time when I completely shut it down. The BIOS won't even save my settings(That's the CMOS battery being dead I guess?). That also prevents me from using my other hard drive which is an IDE 80gb maxtor drive because it constantly is trying to boot itself from that disk which has no windows installed on it. It's all just a big mess. Can anyone help?

**vladimirb** · 08-09-2008, 06:27 AM

Hello Meladolus,
since your PSU is 5 years old I would suggest you to borrow friend's PSU and test it on yours PC...
If you still get blinking on monitor, then shut down PC and take out graphic card...
Clean contacts with rubber and graphic slot with brush from dust...
Clean RAM modules too...
How old is your Motherboard???
Check capacitors on Motherboard if they are popped up or maybe leaking...
Would be nice to try different graphic card too...

Meladolus · 08-09-2008, 06:44 AM

ha, yeah. the motherboard was an ECS mobo. prolly around 4 almost as old as the power supply. socket 939. I initially bought the system with an x800 pro which went out on me. I don't have any more cards to test it with unfortunately... Could prolly borrow a friend of mine's PSU in a day or so to at least check that out. I'll try to give my pc a good thorough cleaning. It is a little dusty in there.

**vladimirb** · 08-09-2008, 06:54 AM

Yes do cleaning and try with new PSU...
Report back when you do that...

Meladolus · 08-09-2008, 11:41 PM

Ok... well here's an update: I test my psu on my girlfriend's computer and was able to play World of Warcraft just fine. I cleaned out my computer. took compressed air and a small dirt devil to it and used a little brush to clean the ports and contacts. Now I have completely scrubbed my hard drive and reinstalled windows to make sure it was not a software issue that I wasn't aware of. Nope. still screwed so now I have to make the assumption that my 6 month old video card is about to take a dirt nap. Sound about right to you?

**vladimirb** · 08-10-2008, 06:38 AM

Can you borrow graphic card from your gf or a friend and check it on your PC???
By this way we will definatelly know if your graphic card is faulty...

Meladolus · 08-10-2008, 09:41 AM

nah, but I found a pretty cheap solution and probably a semi-upgrade to my problem. I found a nice 30 dollar radeon 2600XT. So I'm gonna get that in the next few days. I'm hoping that it'll be maybe a slight jump in performance from the 1650 pro, but if not, at least it's dx10 compatible and I should have the money to spring for a new processor in a few weeks. Looking at the dual core 5000. cheap and fast. that's my motto :P

**vladimirb** · 08-10-2008, 01:34 PM

Hello again,
try with new one graphic card you can always keep it and it will work properly...
But if graphic card is not your problem, visit us again to solve together...
Cheers ^-^

Meladolus · 08-13-2008, 03:27 AM

Well, new info on the situation. Turns out it was my video card. My birthday was yesterday and for my birthday, I was able to order some parts off of newegg up to 150 dollars worth of stuff. So turns out I'll get to not only fix all my pc problems including my crappy motherboard in one fell swoop. I bought a dual core amd 5000, a radeon 2600xt, and a 500 watt power supply for 121 dollars including shipping. gotta love newegg.

I still need to pick one of my motherboards....

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131068 (this is the one I WAS using. This is also the one that I suspect helped in destroying my last cpu. When I pulled out my old cpu and was trying to remove the fan/heatsink, the thermal paste was so sticky it ripped the cpu right out of the socket. I dunno if that's what caused my old cpu pins to get bent but I'm worried about using this one)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130063 (I actually bought this for 25 bucks on some website that had it on clearance. 25 bucks and free shipping. Can't beat that deal with a stick.)

So which mobo should I go with?

oh, I should add that the asus board is listed as sli but the one I have is not. it's got one pci-e X16 slot, 1 pci-e X1 slot and 3 pci slots, but the specs other than that are the same. Also, I'm not *positive* but the msi board on newegg was listed as not having onboard video, but the one I have has those same specs and also has a built-in geforce 6100 chipset.

**vladimirb** · 08-13-2008, 03:56 AM

Hello again ^-^
Well I am glad you have sorted things out...
Lucky for you that you had your birthday ^-^ , you have upgraded PC now...
About Motherboards, I would definatelly go for ASUS because it has more DIMM slots [4]
better cooling of chipset, SLI mode, 2 IDE controllers [just in case] etc...

Hope you will choose what you think it is the best for you...
If you ever need help again, visit us mate ^-^

Meladolus · 08-13-2008, 05:48 AM

thanks a lot for your help man. It was much appreciated. You definately helped me determine my problem for sure. And, in the future, I'll keep my computer cleaner. :P
Hopefully all my computer parts from now on will last me 5+ years. Can't really complain. Still... sucks that my 6-7 month old radeon(diamond is the manufacturer) burnt out already. wasted money.
My old sapphire X800 pro lasted 2 years, so I went with sapphire again on my new card. Anyway... Thanks again man. I really appreciate your advice.

08-09-2008, 06:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	[SOLVED] Blinking monitor while gaming Umm... well.. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Basically, when I play games, my screen will cut out, the monitor will say "No Cable", and then the screen will cut back on. Most games shut down and give me an error report, WoW keeps freaking doing it over and over so I have like 2 seconds to shut the game down. Initially when I first encountered this problem, it happened once, I restarted and my computer was fine for a few days... Then it kept progressively getting worse and worse over the course of a few weeks and now I can't even play any games. I really have only been playing World of Warcraft so I wasn't sure if maybe something just messed up on that, but I tried CoD4, Knight of the Old Republic, and Oblivion with the same results. I did everything I could think of. Made sure windows was up to date. Sound and video drivers were uninstalled and reinstalled at the most up to date version, and I got a registry cleaner, fully scanned my entire hard drive with spybot, adaware, AVG, and Avast!. All they found were a few tracking cookies, nothing major. I'm just having really crummy luck with computers here recently. I tested a friend of mine's dual core 6000 in my last motherboard and it was cool, then I went to put my 4400 back in and inexplicably the pins were bent. I was gonna take it to a repair place to see if they could bend the pins back and my girlfriend tried to fix it herself(without me knowing) and snapped off a pin, so gg to my 4400. I had to resort back to my old setup, which is: AMD 3000 64-bit 2gb ddr ram ATI Radeon X1650 pro 600 watt power supply(don't remember the brand or anything. it's like 5 years old now) Hitachi Deskstar 160gb hard drive So yeah... Does this sound like maybe a power supply issue? That's what I've been considering since it's the oldest component in my crappy gaming rig. Money is an issue so I was hoping to resolve this without spending any, and I REALLY don't want to wipe the hard disk which was going to be my last resort before buying a new component. System Restores are not really a viable option either, because my motherboard will not keep the time. It always reset the time when I completely shut it down. The BIOS won't even save my settings(That's the CMOS battery being dead I guess?). That also prevents me from using my other hard drive which is an IDE 80gb maxtor drive because it constantly is trying to boot itself from that disk which has no windows installed on it. It's all just a big mess. Can anyone help?

08-09-2008, 06:27 AM	#2 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,690 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Hello Meladolus, since your PSU is 5 years old I would suggest you to borrow friend's PSU and test it on yours PC... If you still get blinking on monitor, then shut down PC and take out graphic card... Clean contacts with rubber and graphic slot with brush from dust... Clean RAM modules too... How old is your Motherboard??? Check capacitors on Motherboard if they are popped up or maybe leaking... Would be nice to try different graphic card too... __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

08-09-2008, 06:44 AM	#3 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming ha, yeah. the motherboard was an ECS mobo. prolly around 4 almost as old as the power supply. socket 939. I initially bought the system with an x800 pro which went out on me. I don't have any more cards to test it with unfortunately... Could prolly borrow a friend of mine's PSU in a day or so to at least check that out. I'll try to give my pc a good thorough cleaning. It is a little dusty in there.

08-09-2008, 06:54 AM	#4 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,690 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Yes do cleaning and try with new PSU... Report back when you do that... __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

08-09-2008, 11:41 PM	#5 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Ok... well here's an update: I test my psu on my girlfriend's computer and was able to play World of Warcraft just fine. I cleaned out my computer. took compressed air and a small dirt devil to it and used a little brush to clean the ports and contacts. Now I have completely scrubbed my hard drive and reinstalled windows to make sure it was not a software issue that I wasn't aware of. Nope. still screwed so now I have to make the assumption that my 6 month old video card is about to take a dirt nap. Sound about right to you?

08-10-2008, 06:38 AM	#6 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,690 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Can you borrow graphic card from your gf or a friend and check it on your PC??? By this way we will definatelly know if your graphic card is faulty... __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager Last edited by vladimirb; 08-10-2008 at 06:39 AM.

08-10-2008, 09:41 AM	#7 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming nah, but I found a pretty cheap solution and probably a semi-upgrade to my problem. I found a nice 30 dollar radeon 2600XT. So I'm gonna get that in the next few days. I'm hoping that it'll be maybe a slight jump in performance from the 1650 pro, but if not, at least it's dx10 compatible and I should have the money to spring for a new processor in a few weeks. Looking at the dual core 5000. cheap and fast. that's my motto :P

08-10-2008, 01:34 PM	#8 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,690 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Hello again, try with new one graphic card you can always keep it and it will work properly... But if graphic card is not your problem, visit us again to solve together... Cheers ^-^ __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

08-13-2008, 03:27 AM	#9 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Well, new info on the situation. Turns out it was my video card. My birthday was yesterday and for my birthday, I was able to order some parts off of newegg up to 150 dollars worth of stuff. So turns out I'll get to not only fix all my pc problems including my crappy motherboard in one fell swoop. I bought a dual core amd 5000, a radeon 2600xt, and a 500 watt power supply for 121 dollars including shipping. gotta love newegg. I still need to pick one of my motherboards.... http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131068 (this is the one I WAS using. This is also the one that I suspect helped in destroying my last cpu. When I pulled out my old cpu and was trying to remove the fan/heatsink, the thermal paste was so sticky it ripped the cpu right out of the socket. I dunno if that's what caused my old cpu pins to get bent but I'm worried about using this one) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130063 (I actually bought this for 25 bucks on some website that had it on clearance. 25 bucks and free shipping. Can't beat that deal with a stick.) So which mobo should I go with? oh, I should add that the asus board is listed as sli but the one I have is not. it's got one pci-e X16 slot, 1 pci-e X1 slot and 3 pci slots, but the specs other than that are the same. Also, I'm not positive but the msi board on newegg was listed as not having onboard video, but the one I have has those same specs and also has a built-in geforce 6100 chipset. Last edited by Meladolus; 08-13-2008 at 03:31 AM.

08-13-2008, 03:56 AM	#10 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,690 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Blinking monitor while gaming Hello again ^-^ Well I am glad you have sorted things out... Lucky for you that you had your birthday ^-^ , you have upgraded PC now... About Motherboards, I would definatelly go for ASUS because it has more DIMM slots [4] better cooling of chipset, SLI mode, 2 IDE controllers [just in case] etc... Hope you will choose what you think it is the best for you... If you ever need help again, visit us mate ^-^ __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

08-13-2008, 05:48 AM	#11 (permalink)
Meladolus Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: windows xp	Re: [SOLVED] Blinking monitor while gaming thanks a lot for your help man. It was much appreciated. You definately helped me determine my problem for sure. And, in the future, I'll keep my computer cleaner. :P Hopefully all my computer parts from now on will last me 5+ years. Can't really complain. Still... sucks that my 6-7 month old radeon(diamond is the manufacturer) burnt out already. wasted money. My old sapphire X800 pro lasted 2 years, so I went with sapphire again on my new card. Anyway... Thanks again man. I really appreciate your advice.