Graphics artifacts and shutdowns

pertheusual · 10-21-2006, 01:59 PM

I figured I'd see What you guys think.

Ok, so on my way back to school this year, my computer was upright in that car for travel. After arriving, the system ran fine for the first week or so, then I started getting graphics artifacts every once in a while.

Thinking it was something on the OS, I rebooted and bam, it wouldn't boot into any OS. I thought in my windows install might have been corrupted, though I thought it was unlikely, so I tried to boot to an Ubuntu Live CD I had around, with no luck. Locked up loading the graphics card drivers. At which point I booted to BIOS and noticed artifacts in to BIOS Screen.

I switched some ram sticks around to confirm it was not something with them, and ran mem test with no errors.

I put in another videocard and there was no problem, but the other card wasn't mine. The next thing I did was take the Zalmann heatsink off the card(Radeon 9800) and put the factory one back on. After this, my card worked fine.

So, I'm figuring that I either damaged the AGP slot connection or something on the card itself by maybe going over a bump in the car on the trip here or something.(The heatsink is heavy)

It's been running fine except for random shutdowns like once or twice a week. They have been getting more frequent.

Generally, after the shutdown, I have to cut power to the motherboard before I can turn it on again, though once or twice it rebooted automatically.

So, at this point, I'm just trying to figure if it is my motherboard or videocard?

Opinions or suggestions would be appriciated.

Thanks.

jflan · 10-21-2006, 09:12 PM

After transport/shipping it's probably a good idea to make sure that everything is seated correctly, as you did.
But with this random shut-down thing I would suspect a failing power supply.
Your symptoms, in my experience, indicate that.

pertheusual · 10-22-2006, 10:11 AM

That is a possibility, but as far as I can tell, the voltage has been pretty stable over all.

I checked Asusprobe, it's recorder registered pretty much 100% steady voltage on all the lines for the past few days.

10-21-2006, 01:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
pertheusual Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 23 OS: XP	Graphics artifacts and shutdowns I figured I'd see What you guys think. Ok, so on my way back to school this year, my computer was upright in that car for travel. After arriving, the system ran fine for the first week or so, then I started getting graphics artifacts every once in a while. Thinking it was something on the OS, I rebooted and bam, it wouldn't boot into any OS. I thought in my windows install might have been corrupted, though I thought it was unlikely, so I tried to boot to an Ubuntu Live CD I had around, with no luck. Locked up loading the graphics card drivers. At which point I booted to BIOS and noticed artifacts in to BIOS Screen. I switched some ram sticks around to confirm it was not something with them, and ran mem test with no errors. I put in another videocard and there was no problem, but the other card wasn't mine. The next thing I did was take the Zalmann heatsink off the card(Radeon 9800) and put the factory one back on. After this, my card worked fine. So, I'm figuring that I either damaged the AGP slot connection or something on the card itself by maybe going over a bump in the car on the trip here or something.(The heatsink is heavy) It's been running fine except for random shutdowns like once or twice a week. They have been getting more frequent. Generally, after the shutdown, I have to cut power to the motherboard before I can turn it on again, though once or twice it rebooted automatically. So, at this point, I'm just trying to figure if it is my motherboard or videocard? Opinions or suggestions would be appriciated. Thanks.

10-21-2006, 09:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
jflan Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Vancouver, WA Posts: 935 OS: XP/Puppy 2.14	After transport/shipping it's probably a good idea to make sure that everything is seated correctly, as you did. But with this random shut-down thing I would suspect a failing power supply. Your symptoms, in my experience, indicate that.

10-22-2006, 10:11 AM	#3 (permalink)
pertheusual Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 23 OS: XP	That is a possibility, but as far as I can tell, the voltage has been pretty stable over all. I checked Asusprobe, it's recorder registered pretty much 100% steady voltage on all the lines for the past few days.