[Scottishguard]

Hi. I'm brand new here, so bear with me. I'm not sure what the problem is with my system, so I wasn't sure where to post it. This seemed the best spot.

Over the past several months, on rare occasions, I will be doing something on my PC (usually gaming, but not always anything visually intense), and suddenly my monitor screen will blink off then pop up a message about video or monitor signal lost, and the little green light on the bottom of the monitor will turn yellow. The tower continues to run, everything spinning, but no video (or audio - though the audio seems to fade out a few seconds after the video blinks off). The boot up has been slowing down, as well (moreso after I updated the bios a few months ago - which I was told may fix some video lag issues).

I thought the blackouts may be an issue with the video card, but it didn't happen often, so I let it go til I could afford to upgrade my system.
Well, this week, it has been happening frequently. Only getting a few hours of gaming in, then Blam! Video signal lost - have to reboot.

This morning, I opened the tower up and thoroughly cleaned everything (air cans), being careful no to touch unthouchables. I was careful to not let the air flash-freeze anything or blast too close to anything.
Afterwards, I plugged everything back in on the backside and fired it up. I had enough time to open up two tabs in my browser and launch Ventrilo, then I got this weird pixel-crazy line across my screen and Blam - Video signal lost.
I rebooted, repeated what I did before, made it as far as connecting to the Ventrilo server and Blam!

This time, I shut it down, pulled the Vidcard and set the bios to read the onboard vidcard instead. When it rebooted, it made it as far as the Express Gate load screen then went to a black screen Not a video signal lost... just a blank screen. The next time, it made it to the Express Gate page, so I opted to go into the Bios there and check things. Checked out, reboot, Black screen after E.G. load screen, again.
I put the vidcard back in, same thing. It will not get to the OS load screen.

So (sorry for the novel), I don't know if my vidcard is bad, my HD is bad (I have two, btw, both with OS's on them, switched them around, no OS load screen), my MoBo is bad, or my CPU is bad.

Help?
:banghead:

 

[Scottishguard]

Wow... over 100 views and no replies. I guess I stumped everybody. Sorry for that.

Anywho, after a long, arduous morning of fiddling, testing, rearranging, etc., I figured out the problem. My Video card failed AND my slave drive. And I do not believe I ever actually tested Just the Master HD by itself with only the Onboard video running.
Weird helluva coincidence, but such is my luck.

I would like any positions you may have on Bios updates = slowdowns. This did happen to me, and I read a number of other posts out there on the Net making mention of the same problem, if not the same system.

By the way, disabling Express Gate really sped up boot-up time. I think they need to pick another name for it.

 

[[email protected]]

Interesting, Scottishguard. I wonder if the slow down after the BIOS update might be caused by a change in order of the installed devices as opposed to the OS's configure list. Since the list would be out of order to the original setup during install of the OS, the OS would have to scan through the list until the device drivers were found. So the BIOS might now list the devices as 3,2,4,1 while the OS would be looking for an order of 1,2,3,4. Just a WAG here.

You could download the computer manufacturers device drivers somewhere convenient, do a backup of your data, go into hardware manager and uninstall the system devices. Like the system board, video card, network card, sound card. Then on reboot, Windows will reinstall them with you directing it to the device driver folder.

Someone else here on the board might have an easier way to do this so I'd wait a bit before trying this.

 

[loda117]

Can you check the voltages in BIOS and post them
Download hw monitor and check the temps
save logs for 15 mins in idle and 15 mins if you can from a load on the CPU and Video card

As for boot time check your boot priority settings to make sure you are booting from HDD instead of LAN > CD > HDD etc

 

[Scottishguard]

Can you check the voltages in BIOS and post them
Download hw monitor and check the temps
save logs for 15 mins in idle and 15 mins if you can from a load on the CPU and Video card

As for boot time check your boot priority settings to make sure you are booting from HDD instead of LAN > CD > HDD etc

Jim - that never occurred to me. Thanx, I will check that tonight.

Loda - I will look for the app tonight (I'm at work) and check. I normally use the Asus Probe thing, which keep tabs on my temps and volts and rpms. Offhand, I know my board runs at about 103 F and the CPU about 120ish F (I think). My board got a little warm earlier this week, before the mass-cleaning. Up to 113 - 115 F.
Never got a warning on the vidcard or CPU. Fans spin well (I have 8 fans in the tower, incl. the PSU, CPU, and Vid fans) and overclock the vidfan by about +30% (RiveTuner).
The rest of the info, I will have to post after I get home and finish putting all my RAM and such back in.
Left the surgery table early to go to work. lol

And my boot settings are HDD, CD, Floppy. Was debating on whether they should be CD, HDD, Floppy - incase something ever crashes and I have to boot from a CD.

 

[[email protected]]

And my boot settings are HDD, CD, Floppy. Was debating on whether they should be CD, HDD, Floppy - incase something ever crashes and I have to boot from a CD.

No need to do that as you should be able to get into BIOS to reset the order if need be. Then since so few people have a need to use the floppy any more, I'd disconnect it, both cables, and set the BIOS to ignore it. An old floppy drive can cause a stall during POST if it's going bad and not returning the correct setup info to the BIOS during post. So these days, I just disconnect them to avoid problems. Gives them longer life too. Then if I need a floppy for some reason, it's easy to reconnect it and reconfigure the BIOS.

 

[Tyree]

If we knew the specs we might be able to assist you in determining what, if any, components have failed and to prevent the failure of other components.
PC Specs?
Pre-Built Brand & Model Number
Custom Built-Brand & Model of Mobo-CPU-RAM-Graphics-PSU.

 

[Scottishguard]

If we knew the specs we might be able to assist you in determining what, if any, components have failed and to prevent the failure of other components.
PC Specs?
Pre-Built Brand & Model Number
Custom Built-Brand & Model of Mobo-CPU-RAM-Graphics-PSU.

Yeah... the specs are listed already. Under "My System"... in the left column, under my name.

I can see it. Do you guys not?

 

[[email protected]]

We can see it, Scottishguard, but we're often rapidly looking at other threads trying to help and can miss that little 'My System' drop down under your sig when we first glance at a post to see if we can help. So it helps us if it's posted right in the OPs original post, so it's right there. Hard to explain. But it helps. Most posters don't fill out their 'My System' as completely as you did either.

 

[Tyree]

Posting the specs, as requested, prevents us from continually going back and forth to view the components to assist you in finding a solution to your problem.
Low quality PSU's are noted for damaging other components while in use and taking other components with them when they fail.
My first recommendation would be to replace the very poor quality PSU with a good quality 650W minimum unit and then proceed to a bench test. SeaSonic-XFX-Corsair (not the CX-GS-M Series) are top quality.

Remove EVERYTHING from the case.
Thoroughly check the Mobo for burned spots and swollen/leaking capacitors.
Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can actually conduct electricity!
Install the CPU and heat sink.
Install 1 stick of RAM.
Install the video card and attach the power supply connection(s) to the card if your card needs it.
Connect the monitor to the video card.
Connect the power supply to the motherboard with both the 24pin main ATX Power connection and the separate 4 or 8 pin power connection.
Connect power to the power supply.
Do NOT connect ANYTHING else. Make sure you have the power connector on the CPU fan connected.
Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find which two pins connect to your case's power switch. Then touch both pins with a screwdriver to complete the circuit and boot the system.

If all is well, it should power up and you should get a display. Then assemble the parts into the case and try again. If the system now fails to boot, you have a short in the case and need to recheck your motherboard standoffs.

If the system does not boot after this process, then you most likely have a faulty component. You'll need to swap parts, start with the power supply, until you determine what is defective.