What has died?
Discussion
No, you may be ok. It sounds like you have selected a screen size or refresh rate that your monitor doesn't support.
If you are running Win 2000 or XP, reboot, wait for the black n white bios screen to show, and just as it finishes running POST (power on self test) hit F8 until you see the following screen (or similar)
Now select 'VGA Mode' and if your hardware is ok, Windows will run in 640 x 480 mode. Select another screen res and reboot.
Most monitors work with 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768.
Let us know if that works
If you are running Win 2000 or XP, reboot, wait for the black n white bios screen to show, and just as it finishes running POST (power on self test) hit F8 until you see the following screen (or similar)
Now select 'VGA Mode' and if your hardware is ok, Windows will run in 640 x 480 mode. Select another screen res and reboot.
Most monitors work with 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768.
Let us know if that works
ultimasimon said:
No, you may be ok. It sounds like you have selected a screen size or refresh rate that your monitor doesn't support.
If you are running Win 2000 or XP, reboot, wait for the black n white bios screen to show, and just as it finishes running POST (power on self test) hit F8 until you see the following screen (or similar)
Now select 'VGA Mode' and if your hardware is ok, Windows will run in 640 x 480 mode. Select another screen res and reboot.
Most monitors work with 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768.
Let us know if that works
Nope, not that. Doesn't even display any text. It has been crashing a fair amount lately as well.
OK, so I put a new video card in and it boots up and is back to its old self, more of which in a second. To prove off the video card is kaput I put the old one back in, lo and behold it works as well. Not exactly sure what the issue was but it appears to have cleared itself.
Now it is back to crashing every time I ask it to play a tune or video or try and play a game. WTF?!
Now it is back to crashing every time I ask it to play a tune or video or try and play a game. WTF?!
It could be heat issue if the machine is crashing when under load.
I would suggest you download SpeedFan and check the tempreture of your machine, you can also change the speed of the fans in your machine.
[url]www.downloads.com/speedfan/3000-2094_4-10516200.html?tag=lst-0-1]
I would suggest you download SpeedFan and check the tempreture of your machine, you can also change the speed of the fans in your machine.
[url]www.downloads.com/speedfan/3000-2094_4-10516200.html?tag=lst-0-1]
My "fairly warm" 7800GT Extreme runs at 41 (or less, 41 is the minimum the sensor will read) and goes up to over 70C if I'm really hammering it in something like Oblivion with HDRI turned on. What make/model of video card are they? Some of them can require a separate power feed.
One other possibility is the power supply connector to the motherboard, remove it and reseat it. Perhaps there could be a slightly faulty connection on the AGP connector too.
One other possibility is the power supply connector to the motherboard, remove it and reseat it. Perhaps there could be a slightly faulty connection on the AGP connector too.
CPU Temp is around 50 deg C, fan speed 4200 or so.
It will crash sitting idle..........
Norton says no viruses etc.
Other clues: when using something like Outlook "Common services" will crash so outlook locks up, also "Gineric Win 32 program" "experiences an error" and after a crash it says it suffered a fatal error - the cause of which, according to the WinXP diagnosis on the MS site is video drivers. I think I've disproved this by updating and rolling back drivers and replacing the video card and drivers. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the video card or connections.
The RAM "looks" fine........what should I be looking for as a defect on the motherboard?
The amount of money I'm going to spend swapping bits in and out will add up to half of a new pc. I'm getting tempted just to bin it.
It will crash sitting idle..........
Norton says no viruses etc.
Other clues: when using something like Outlook "Common services" will crash so outlook locks up, also "Gineric Win 32 program" "experiences an error" and after a crash it says it suffered a fatal error - the cause of which, according to the WinXP diagnosis on the MS site is video drivers. I think I've disproved this by updating and rolling back drivers and replacing the video card and drivers. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the video card or connections.
The RAM "looks" fine........what should I be looking for as a defect on the motherboard?
The amount of money I'm going to spend swapping bits in and out will add up to half of a new pc. I'm getting tempted just to bin it.
Does the PC crash when running for a while?.
My PC crashes if it exceeds 50C, it all depends on your model. Have you tried to run the fans at 100% to see if this stops the crashes?
I'm still not convinced this could be a heat issue, my PC did the same when it was running to hot. Windows problems, hardware problems etc. Remember as the PC gets older the fans in it will become less effective.
Run Speedfan and keep your eye on the temp and see if you can make it crash, if you minimize speed fan it will show the temp in your task bar.
If not I would suggest it could be a power problem, either the PSU, Motherboard or getting between the two.
My PC crashes if it exceeds 50C, it all depends on your model. Have you tried to run the fans at 100% to see if this stops the crashes?
I'm still not convinced this could be a heat issue, my PC did the same when it was running to hot. Windows problems, hardware problems etc. Remember as the PC gets older the fans in it will become less effective.
Run Speedfan and keep your eye on the temp and see if you can make it crash, if you minimize speed fan it will show the temp in your task bar.
If not I would suggest it could be a power problem, either the PSU, Motherboard or getting between the two.
I replaced the fan a while ago when it did shut down for running hot.
It doesn't appear to run any hotter when under load. Like I say, it crashes at idle.
Looking at the mother board there appears to be some sort of residue leaking from what looks like a capacitor near the video card. The root of all my problems maybe?
It doesn't appear to run any hotter when under load. Like I say, it crashes at idle.
Looking at the mother board there appears to be some sort of residue leaking from what looks like a capacitor near the video card. The root of all my problems maybe?
ferrisbueller said:
I replaced the fan a while ago when it did shut down for running hot.
It doesn't appear to run any hotter when under load. Like I say, it crashes at idle.
Looking at the mother board there appears to be some sort of residue leaking from what looks like a capacitor near the video card. The root of all my problems maybe?
The PC should run considerably hotter when under load, mine moves from 37-38 to high 40's when I work it hard.
The leaking capacitor sounds like a winner though!, it could be causing all sorts of mischief with the motherboard!
Faulty motherboards are absolute barstewards to diagnose. They can consistently give errors that look like an overheating cpu, bad memory or video. The leaky capacitor certainly wouldnt be helping, it may be that after a random amount of time it is shorting that power rail 
Unfortunately the best way is to swap stuff out with a known good PC. You could possibly rule out the video drivers by running it in safe mode with straight VGA and no acceleration.
Unfortunately the best way is to swap stuff out with a known good PC. You could possibly rule out the video drivers by running it in safe mode with straight VGA and no acceleration.
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