has my video card died?

didn't see a tech forum .. so i'm posting this here.

i am running a 2-year old gateway pc with xp media center (see specs below). i have an ati x1650 pro 512mb video card and a syncmaster wide-screen lcd monitor.

last night, after a full afternoon in sl, i was playing world of warcraft when the picture froze but the sound continued. after about a minute, i got a blue screen saying in effect that an ati driver got caught in a loop.

i shut down the machine. restarted and got the white on black text (i can never remember what that is called) prior to windows boot. however, no windows boot followed. after a few minuted, i shut down and restarted. this time i got nothing on the monitor.

i was original not sure if it was the monitor or the video card, so i disconnected the monitor from the card. the monitor immediately displayed a "no signal" message on the screen. so i assume the monitor is fine and it's the video card that has died.

my two questions ....

1. any agreement on my belief that it is the video card that has died and not something else in the pc? i have upgraded functioning video cards before (i went from an ati x1300 to this x1650 a year ago) but never had one die on me.

2. any suggestions for a replacement card? i haven't been looking so i don't know what's out there. know that i play WoW in addition to second life (double addiction) on this machine regularly.

thanks in advance, taka.
__________________

pc specs follow:

Gateway GT5034. 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+. 2.0GB Dual Channel PC-3200 DDR RAM. 2 x 320GB 7,200RPM Ultra ATA Hard Drive. HP DVD 1040d 20x Double Layer LightScribe Burner. 16x DVD-ROM Drive. ATI X1650Pro 512MB PCI-E x16 Video Card. SoundBlaster Pro Compatible Audio Chipset. ATI Theater 550 Pro TV Tuner (with 3D Comb). 9-in-1 Digital Media Reader. PCI 56K V.92 Fax/Modem Card. Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Couldn't this also be dead RAM, which is considerably cheaper than a video card?

Have you tried booting to bios and running diagnostics? (Hold F1 down during bootup). Since you were able to see text, you should be able to run these.

Alternatively, you could boot to a recover/restore CD, which would have diags on it. You may have one around from your initial XP install; if not, go to a friend's and make one or better yet, get one with good diagnostics on it from any computer store. There are several sites online which also will allow you to burn XP boot CDs, if you have another computer you can use.

.

Test if it's the video card before replacing it...
Make sure it's off, UNplug the pc, wait 10 seconds, push the on button to discharge the power supply.
Unplug monitor, open case, and remove video card.
PLug pc back in and turn it on with no vid card in.
Do you hear "beeeeeeeeeeep...... beep, beep"?

1 long beep followed by 2 short beeps from the pc speaker is the error code for video card. If you hear it then it means the cpu initialized and the motherboard bios has self tested, detected ram, and is now looking for the video card. That's good.
Nothings guaranteed with computers, but if you get the error beep code it's PROBABLY safe to assume it's only just a video card problem.

To be doubly sure, test it by trying another PCIe video card in it, if you can. It only has to fit and work so even the $10 "can barely run MS word" cheapie will work just fine.
If you do and you get normal text on the screen, and it tries to boot, then it definately was the video card. (don't let it boot into windows tho)

Any replacement really depends on how much you can afford to spend on it.

i`ll say this from expirience of my last pc problems

this could be a RAM problem

my system died in a similar way, but, as i didn`t knew RAM could cause this, i replaced my MB, CPU, swapped PSU, changed gfx cards and when almost giving up, i stripped another computer of it`s RAM and it all worked again

if you have another pc or old hardware, try replacing part after part first to see what the issue is

Also be sure to check all your fans, make sure they work and are free from dust.
thats the least expensive thing to check first.....

thanks for all your suggestions.

i'm at rl work (obviously i cant post from home with a non-starting pc .. hehe) and will let you know how this works out

I even knew of a computer that did this with a faulty onboard modem. The strange thing is, the modem had never been used.

I would think if it was the video card, especially if it was heat related, you would have gotten some graphics distortion before it died totally.

hi gang. here's the update.

i took dana's advice. removed the video card completely. started up the pc. no beeps. nothing. silent.

a rl friend suggested it might be the power supply needs to be replaced. however, from reading alicia's post, i certainly don't want to go down that path. i don't have any "spare parts" i can try. and everything i "swap" will have to be purchased new.

this pc is slightly over 2 years old. i'm thinking more and more that i just need to bite the bullet and buy a new one. i think if i act fast i can still get one with xp installed. i only have 3 friends that have bought pc's recently with vista .. all 3 have had terrible problems. and we know how picky sl itself can be.

so .. if there are not further suggestions for a quick and easy fix, i'll be shopping at dell, best buy and microcenter today to see what's available.

and .. thank you all for your time, energy and suggestions.

One last suggestion:
Resetting the bios on the motherboard before you call it a loss would be a smart thing to try. Corruption on the bootup text CAN be the video card, but more often then not, it means a crash has garbled the hardware setup information contained in the motherboard's CMOS chip (bios is the firmware that runs on it). All it involves is unplugging the computer and moving a little jumper block on the motherboard for 10 seconds and putting it back. Your manual should have the info on resetting the bios/cmos, hopefully it has a diagram too, or I can tell ya if you wanna try it. I've seen it where just doing this has saved a pc from the scrap pile.

thanks, dana. i'll try looking for this tonight. there is no manual for bios settings, etc. this is a store-bought machine. gateway from microcenter, to be exact.

if you can tell me what the jumper block looks like, i can try it.

and .. if this doesn't work .. i'm looking at a gateway machine from best buy. 4 gigs of ram, intel quad core and nvidia 8800 512 mb. sounds like a good replacement for my 2 year old machine.

... but ...

it'll have vista.

have any of you had problems running sl on a machine with vista pre-loaded? i know there are problems with upgrading a machine TO vista (driver problems, wireless problems, etc).

but what about new machines?

Need Windows XP?? Or Vista?? Try here:

http://www.9software.com

Been going there to buy XP when folks around here need it (or they just hate Vista!)

i dont need either.

i was asking for anyone's experience in using sl with machines with vista pre-installed.

With that much RAM, if all your drivers are up to date, Vista shouldn't be a problem running. But that is different from it's crap everything else.

Looking straight at your motherboard, with all the ATX ports (sound, mouse,etc) coming out of the back of the case facing to your left side.
Look towards the bottom right corner of the motherboard (i'm assuming, many boards are different). Look for the silver, flat, round cmos battery.. there's on one on the board.
Right near it should be the cmos chip. It's black, a little over 1/2 inch square with pins on all four sides, and it's in a little black chip socket. Again there's only one little socket of this type on the board. Might say the name of the bios on it, like Award or something.
Real close to that chip there should be 3 tiny pins, with a little plastic block over the first two pins, the third pin you can see. It might be labeled JP1. That would be the bios reset jumper.

The two pins under the block is default run position (pins 1 & 2).
Making sure the power cord is unplugged and you have pushed the power on button so there's no stored charge in the power supply... reach in there with nimble fingers, tweezers, forceps, or NONmagnetic needle-nosed pliars and grab it. Pull straight away from the board and the shunt should slide right off those 2 pins.
Just move a little over and put the block on pins 2 & 3, leaving the 1st one uncovered.
Wait about 10 seconds or so.
Now just pull it back off and put the block back on pins 1 & 2 where you originally found it.
That is all.

What that does is force an erase of the stored setting, and restore the working settings to that of the original configuration by the motherboard maker, NOT by Gateway.

Plug stuff back in and give her a try.

If by chance it works and you hear the bios post (that one single beep you hear on every normal startup), push the power button and shut it off (DO NOT let it load into windows!).
You'll probaby need to enter the bios setup utility on the next powerup and load the "optimized settings" or something similar. At the very least verify that your harddrives are detected, your cpu is running at the proper speed, and that you memory speed is correct. That's a whole nuther post tho lol.
-----------------
Preloaded, as in factory installed Vista is just tuned to your hardware by having the right drivers for the hardware, otherwise it's no different than any other install of vista. The problem is that under vista, SL likes to choke on certain Vista driver versions for things like video cards, sound cards, etc... is a balance between finding driver versions that work, and ones that SL will work with If it were me, I'd nuke the whole thing and put XP pro on it right from the start lols.

new ram is pretty cheap these days so buying 1 ram module won`t set you back to try if the reset doesn`t works, if it doesn`t, less ram to buy or extra ram if you get a new system

Is VERY cheap, but his current ram is pc3200 DDR (184 pins)... anything newly boughten, as in a new computer, will be support DDR2 (240 pins).. it wouldnt fit

thanks dana. i'll try it tonight. btw, how do i get into bios on the second restart?



i have thought of that, dana. but wouldn't i have the problem of xp not having drivers for the hardware in this new vista pc? would i be changing one can of worms for another?

take the monitor to a friends house and plug it into his/her PC. Does it work ther. If so then its not the monitor.

Nobody ever suggested it was the monitor. We've been talking about her video card.

P2

her? ... *reaches into his pants and checks* ... whew!

This is a long shot - but it might just work - try reseating your processor

I have a similar problem with my PC - from time to time it totally freezes up and won't boot up again (no POST beep). If I reseat the processor it generally boots fine.

i tried, dana. i could easily find the battery. but there was no black "squares" closer than 3 inches to it. and i could find nothing resembling the jumper and those 3-pins. but thanks for the suggestion.



thanks, fiona. the processor is a dual amd athlon. it's covered by a humonguous head sink. as big as my fist actually. i shook my head when i saw it thinking there is no way i'm gonna be able to even approach the processer underneath.

anyway, thanks all for your help. srsly.

i have decided to trash it. maybe salvage some things (new dvd burner & cable card) ... and b=get a brand, spanking new machine.

Usually hit the F1 or the DELETE key a few time when you see text. (for future referrence )

Without being able to see the board, or knowing the exact maker/model number AND getting a decent manual online I just can't know for sure where the bios reset is. Sorry I can't help more.


Actually yeah you would, in a way. The brand name or major manufacturer pieces of stuff in the computer, like nVidia 8800GTX or whatever would just be a matter of downloading the XP driver from the manufacturer's website. Finding the maker of the motherboard would be a bit more difficult so I would understand not wanting to go this route. I've done this for every system I've built/owned for years, but it IS much harder when you have a boughten system that doesn't always list the name/make/model of all the components.
There still are some excellent XP systems in the stores... if I was in yer spot I would probably look to find one of those that met my needs. I'm not sure I'd wanna play the vista crapshoot with SL.

final update ...

hopped over to best buy this afternoon and bought the gateway fx7024.

seems like a good replacement. intel quad core, nvidia 8800, 3 gigs ram, etc.

of course, none of my software or hardware will run in vista home premium ... but do i need all this stuff???

thanks again, all.

ps> sl's release client (was warned NOT to use the regular client) installed and runs perfectly. i'm working on WoW at the moment.