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Graphics Graphic card problem?

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by PawelKosi, 6 Oct 2009.

  1. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    Hi Guys

    I have bit of a riddle to solve here I hope You can help me.

    First I'll give You my specs:

    Asus P5N32-E SLI mobo
    Core 2 Duo E6850 @3GHz overclocked to 3.33GHz
    Geil Black Dragon 2x 2gb DDR2
    896mb EVGA GTX260 216 SSC 55nm
    Gigabyte Odin GT 800W Power Supply
    WinXp SP3

    I'll spare You the rest as it is unimportant at this moment.

    So one day I switch on my computer in the morning and nothing happens. Display reports 'no signal'. All fans in the case, cpu, psu etc spin up. LEDs light up too, but nothing happens. LED from HDD lights up for abaut 60 sec. and then goes black again. There is silence, no error beeps from BIOS, nothing. I try again same happens, I have left computer in this state for 5 mins and still was the same. I unscrewed side panel and started to unplug all unnecessary things to find couse of the problem. All HDD's DVD's even fan controlers were unplugged. Still same happend, computer wouldnt POST. I pressed graphic card firmly to its PCI-E slot, chcecked all the power conectors, changed PSU cables going to the card and again the same resoult. In the process though I saw that the fan on the graphic card wouldn't spin. My sister saw me at that particular moment and said that my face expression was almost like I had lost a child or something. :eyebrow: Well I did imo. I unplugged my card and got my old 8800GTS 320mb from the box and put it in the same slot as GTX260 and everything started to work! I was like WTF?! It's new Card! So I put it back in, changed cables and nothing :wallbash:
    So I went for all the effort to pack it up in its original packaging, and sent it back to Scan where I bought it from. Technician sent me an email stating that my card is displaying fine? And there are sending it back to me...

    There are few other things I saw happening before this happend with my card. Twice something happened with my drivers - after quiting form COD4 I windows came back to 640x480 resolution and message was displayed that graphic card driver is badly corrupted and needs replacing. I had to start compuetr in emergency mode as it wouldnt start normaly (it would freeze after logging screen with some artifacts displayed on the desktop like little coloured dots or short lines here and there). I had the same happening after a week just after loading windows. Other thing I saw is when I was watching video on my pc (XviD i.e. not dvd's) after like 10 min the screen started to lag and finnaly video would stop but not the sound. I had to pause the video, stop for few seconds and press play again to continue watching. It was really annoying.

    First of all I thank personally to whomever who took time to read this :)
    I really do have hope that some of You will know at least where to start looking for a fault as apparently it is not a graphic card.

    Thank You so much for any help
    Paul
     
  2. damienVC

    damienVC What's a Dremel?

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    Off the top of my head, the first things I would check would be the drivers and the temp of the GPU. Are these good? Have you tried rolling the drivers back to see if you get the same problem?
     
  3. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    temps were good (38 - 42 C), but no i haven't tried to roll back the drivers I'll check that soon as I get my card back. thx for reply
     
  4. Dave Lister

    Dave Lister Minimodder

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    I had a similar problem on mine a few times - everything turns on except monitor and there are no power on beeps. And the only thing i found that worked was taking out all the ram then rebooting, then turn it off and insert one dimm then back on again and continued in that fashion untill all the ram was reinstalled.

    Don't think it could have been the ram logicaly but it's the only thing that worked for me ! and it takes a while and some times after inserting a dimm i found myself back at square one and had to start over again.
     
    Last edited: 6 Oct 2009
  5. thehippoz

    thehippoz What's a Dremel?

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    make sure the card is seated well.. and when it comes back from rma, reset the cmos with the jumper on board
     
  6. opal

    opal Eh?

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    I have issues sometimes with cold booting (everything will turn on but the monitors I can even hear the windows sounds when it loads the desktop). I can get it to boot correctly by hitting the reset switch and I get a display.

    My issue is with the motherboard though, and it seems to have got alot better over time.

    I'd also try uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling if you can boot into windows.
     
  7. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    Ok Ill clear the CMOS before installing it again. But to answer the last post - it never did boot to windows. HDD's would spin up but thats it. Thanks for replays guys I'll post You whenever Ill get it back and we'll see if that fix the problem or not.
    Once again thanks
     
  8. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    Thats what SCAN sent me:

    Hi, we have tested the card and have not been able to find a fault, the card was run under 3D load for 24 hours without any issues, please contact our returns team on 0871 472 4747 to arrange return of the card, please be aware that as no fault has been found the item is subject to a testing and returns charge of £20 + VAT.

    20 quid ffs ;/ but I guess its not their fault. I still haven't pinpointed the problem. But I have checked the temps on my mobo and the chipset is running very hot (70 - 79 C) Is this may be the couse?
     
  9. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    Little update

    I wil recieve card tomorrow, so that is good news.
    Bad news is that today computer started to behave exactly the same with my old GTS8800, as I written in my first post. Video playback stops, or lags badly untill I stop it and resume it again. I never came across problem like that. I have up to date WinXP SP3, all up to date drivers. My PSU have this nice utility which checks if the PSU is delivering the right voltages or is not overheating. It doesnt report any problems. I have nVidia system monitor too, quite nicely don app. It have this great overlay option of any readings I want to see no matter what I do. I checked the temps of everything I could during video playback, it looks something like this:

    MCP: 75 C
    Core1: 40 - 58 C
    Core2: 40 - 58 C (It jumps sudenly and then drops back to mid 40's)
    GPU(gts8800 atm): 58 C
    HDD's both at 23 C
    PSU 31 C
    My case termomether shows: 36 - 38 C

    Any ideas where to look now?
    Cheers
     
    Last edited: 13 Oct 2009
  10. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    Defo sounds like a driver issue to me. The best coarse of action is to first uninstall the nVidia drivers in <Device manager><properties><Driver(TAB)><Uninstall driver>. Do not reset the PC until you have deleted the nVidia files in(usually) <C:\Program files>. Restart the PC and let it install the compatibility driver. Restart the PC again and then go to <Device manager><properties><Driver(TAB)><Update driver>. Let it search the net and install the newest certified driver and then restart the PC. If that fails then it's an issue with the chipset(motherboard), BIOS(motherboard) or the PSU can't supply enough power to the card and/or the motherboard.
     
  11. B3CK

    B3CK Minimodder

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    Your initial post said that the graphics fan wasn't spinning at one point?
    I had a friend that lost an nvidia card because of the fan not spinning. It would spin at first for like 3 mins then wouldn't spin anymore. While not happening everytime, speedfan and some electronics cleaner solved his issue for a couple months, then the card died, probably cause he plugged it back in wet from the cleaner; (but that's a diff story).
    I'm just saying check on that fan when it's not posting, if it is spinning, check the heatsink temp, and try to check on it as often as you can, as it might be on/off spinning.
    Check to see if there is a temp/speed control that is auto for it in the settings, and if so, change it to full time.
    Or call that number they gave you, and ask if they monitored the fan on it at all.
     
  12. Ravenheart

    Ravenheart What's a Dremel?

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    It doesn't sound like a driver issue to me, it sounds like a temperature issue, I mean seriously what drivers can make the motherboard temperature soar to 70-79 degrees celsius!

    I think it could,

    I'd get more fans in your system if you have any (how many fans do you have in your case now?) or keep the side off your case for an hour and see if the temperature drops at all.

    Also I think the extremely high temperature of the motherboard could have an effect on the graphics card because the graphics card is sitting in a slot on the VERY hot motherboard so it could be causing corruption because of the extreme temperature of the motherboard affecting everything plugged into it, just a thought?

    Edit: Just checked the temps of my components in Everest Ultimate and I get all of the below, taken directly from the Everest Sensor tab.

    Motherboard: 27 degrees celsius
    CPU: 19 degrees celsius
    CPU #1 / Core #1 29 degrees celsius
    CPU #1 / Core #2 27 degrees celsius
    CPU #1 / Core #3 28 degrees celsius
    CPU #1 / Core #4 26 degrees celsius
    GPU: 39 degrees celsius
    GPU Memory: 31 degrees celsius
    GPU Ambient: 30 degrees celsius
    Hard disk 1: 29 degrees celsius
    Hard disk 2: 33 degrees celsius
    Hard disk 3: 27 degrees celsius

    So as you can see the hottest thing in mine is the graphics card so basing that on your top motherboard temp of 79 degrees celsius, your motherboard is running 100% hotter than the hottest component in my system the graphics card, which isn't normal by a long shot!
     
    Last edited: 13 Oct 2009
  13. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    Chipset is at 70 degrees. Read properly and understand before posting. For the northbridge and the newer chipsets that is normal which is why the often have heatpipes all round the chipsets now.
     
  14. Ravenheart

    Ravenheart What's a Dremel?

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    Excuse me?

    I read and understood it properly thanks very much, but just to humour you I went back and read it again and I still came to the same conclusion, it clearly isn't normal running at 70 degrees celsius is it :wallbash:, if my motherboard or chipset (which coincidentally is on the motherboard!) is running at a very cool 27 degrees celsius, you tell me where 70 degrees fits into the 'normal' category?

    It doesn't.

    And I have a new motherboard with one of the 'newer chipsets' obviously what with running an i7 860 cpu, and I can tell you now if it was running at a temperature of 70+ degrees celsius I would be rather worried as I'm sure a large percentage of the forum users would be too.

    Also how many users of this forum actually have they're motherboards running at 70+ degrees celsius, I would think very few, but you're entitled to your opinion, I simply disagree.

    Also could all the users whose motherboards run at 70+ degrees celsius please stand up, please stand up :clap: (sorry Eminem! :D)
     
    Last edited: 13 Oct 2009
  15. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    A lot of SLI chipsets run got enough to warrant a fan attached to the heatsink. Also have the temps of your mobo got to do with the chipset. As the op said he had overclocked then the temps are bound to be higher yes?
     
  16. Ravenheart

    Ravenheart What's a Dremel?

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    He had overclocked from 3ghz to 3.33ghz, a 333 mhz increase yes?, I overclocked my i7 860 from 2.8ghz to 3.4ghz, a 600 mhz increase, yet I only had a 10 degrees celsius temperature increase which meant the motherboard then ran at 39 degrees celsius instead of 29 degrees celsius, still nowhere near 70-79 degrees of PawelKosi's motherboard, I would say it's a definitely a temperature issue obviously :D, and sounds like a faulty motherboard/chipset to me, and if it was me I'd be rma'ing back to the manufacturers right now.

    I appreciate your opinion by the way, I just disagree with some of what you say.
     
  17. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    Well, at least we agree to disagree. Could do with a few more opinions really but sometimes no matter how much you try to entice people into a post they don't want to know. V_V
     
  18. Lankuzo

    Lankuzo CPC Refugee

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  19. PawelKosi

    PawelKosi What's a Dremel?

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    Thx for all replays!
    Ok let me answer some of the posts ;)

    First thing is I never believed and will not believe in windows automatic driver instalation - it never worked properly imho. But still I will reinstal all the drivers and see if that helps. I will download them manualy from nVidia website. Other thing is that it haven't occured to me when I was posting first post that nVidia cards have veeery audible way of alarming You if they dont get enough juice. So that rolls out the PSU from the remaining components. I use Gigabytes Power Tuner to constantly monitor changes in currents and voltages - this program will sound a warning when there is problem with power. So by now I am pretty sure that this is not a PSU problem. That leaves us with mobo or ddr's.

    True, I said that but as some of the new GTX cards (I read a bit abaut it now :p ) will spin their fan only when they reach certain temp. I was used that all fans spin up even for a few seconds during the post but that doesn't mean that the fan on the card have to spinup too. Still I will check for the option You mentioned and will put it on "always on". And to get any info from scan.co.uk is like a miracle... So I wont bother with calling now :p

    I use antec900 case with all extra fans installed. Just checked the temp from inside the case from different termomether and that shows nice 23.3 C

    Just to clarify, there was bit more overclocking involved. The CPU yes, then the FSB from 800 to 1066 (but please note that the chipset is runing this hot at its normal 800Mhz as I cleared all the changes I made to check if that is the problem.) just to make my ddr's run at their native speed. My mobo is over 2 years old ;/ so it is not under guarantee anymore...

    Thanks for all posts!

    Now I just recieved my card back, so I'll install it again and I'll post You all shortly after. I have ordered a custom chipset fan/heatsink for my mobo which came too so I'll atempt to install that to and we'll see. Thanks for such an interest, I think we can all benefit from it and learn something new ;D 'till next post
     
  20. kenco_uk

    kenco_uk I unsuccessfully then tried again

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    I agree with the chipset running a tad warm. I'd be very tempted to prise the chipset heatsink off and re-do the thermal goop (maybe using mx-2 or ceramique) AND get a deskfan blowing air onto it while the new thermal goop cures. I'm trying to find time to do it with my toasty X58 chipset as it idles around 80c.
     

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