Topic: Tech Support Yet again...

[Sirgod]

thanks Guys, I'll look into It a bit more. It's relativly new system I put together, and yes the Graphics card is PCI. From back when my old system crashed, and I got a new MB. It didn't have a AGB slot, so I grabbed the 64 MB PCI card.

anyway, since It had more memory then any AGB card I had, I went ahead and put It in the new MB I have now. the last one got fried by a Faulty Power supply. Anyways, I'll check into It today, and see what I can figure out, as I still have a few other Video cards lying around.

stephen

[vsfedwards]

Lol, my connector cable for my monitor is so crappy, that if I knock my comp a lil hard "cable is disconnected", I find that hilarious. In a few months Im thinking of getting a new G card anyway...I heards some bad things about geforcefx 5200...but its half the price of the 5600...also Ive never touched any other graphics card other than Nvidia, any reccomendations on any other decent manufacturers? Something in the range of £50 - £90...?

 

[digi]

   Its that AMD you computer hacker you!!!!

Generally though I agree with the other posts.  I'd start small though and check the pins in the monitor cable.  Try a different cable or buy another one.  If that doesn't fix it move onto the graphics card.  See if you can borrow someone elses graphics card and test to see if thats the problem.

Andy - I'm a nVidia nut myself but at the moment I'm still sticking with my Ti4600 128Mb.  My work machine has a FX5800 and it sounds horrendous.  But we're all told that the FX5900 and FX5950 are much better on the sound.  However those are real pricey cards so I'd check out the FX5700 which is replacing the FX5600 for christmas.  The best manufacturer I've heard of is Gainward but I think recommendations may vary between people.

Just looked on  dabs.com :

 Gainward FX5700 128Mb   £121.00 inc VAT
 Gainward FX5700 256Mb   £140.00 inc VAT    

[vsfedwards]

Thanks buddy, always on dabs. Got my Geforce 4 there, it was 70 when i got it (4 months ago) and its 45 now lol.

[Kmelew]

Quote:
thanks Guys, I'll look into It a bit more. It's relativly new system I put together, and yes the Graphics card is PCI. From back when my old system crashed, and I got a new MB. It didn't have a AGB slot, so I grabbed the 64 MB PCI card.

anyway, since It had more memory then any AGB card I had, I went ahead and put It in the new MB I have now. the last one got fried by a Faulty Power supply. Anyways, I'll check into It today, and see what I can figure out, as I still have a few other Video cards lying around.

stephen  

The reason why I asked is because the PC on first bootup is applying the necessary PCI resources to the video card, and the second reboot puts those resources in effect.  You may want to go into your motherboard setup and see if you can lock down certain interupts and DMA channels to the PCI bus.  

[Dash Jones]

Here are two other rather simple tests.  Have you tried booting in safe mode.  If not, try.

If the screen shows up in Safe Mode, then the following is occurring.

#1- Your settings have the resolution over the point which your screen can handle it, change it to a lower resolution in Safe mode

#2 - You have a problem with the refresh rate coordination between your monitor and the Computer/card.  change the refresh rate to show up on your screen.

A simple check that is cheaper and easier to do.  Used it all the time when installing OS to a computer and hooking it up to an older monitor, the monitor would not show a thing (in bios it would, but the monitor would not show anything after the OS started to boot), then my uncle came in and did that simple thing, and everything worked wonderfully.

[Towelie]

 I get the impression that this is happening during the POST and BIOS startup screen.

  Does the monitor ever display anything during the initial startup? Does your monitor light indicate a power saving mode and does it ever power up on these failed attempts?

  I would suspect monitor and video card as prime suspects. I have had problems with bent pins before. I just use an old video card that I will never use again along with needle nose pliers and straighten them out. I use the old video card as a guide to help me re-align them.

[Sirgod]

Quote:
 I get the impression that this is happening during the POST and BIOS startup screen.

  Does the monitor ever display anything during the initial startup? Does your monitor light indicate a power saving mode and does it ever power up on these failed attempts?

  I would suspect monitor and video card as prime suspects. I have had problems with bent pins before. I just use an old video card that I will never use again along with needle nose pliers and straighten them out. I use the old video card as a guide to help me re-align them.  

Hmm without changning anything yet, I have noticed that when I shut down the system completly and then start up the PC , everything works fine. however, When I do a restart , the monitor does not display anything, but I can turn It off (ie. t shows amber, then off) , then turn It on, amber to Green. and everything is ok. It might be The moniter, But just in case, I'll check the Bios/ Cmos just to make sure Everything is set right as far as Energy saving, and to see If there is possibly a conflict.

I know I just flashed my Bios recently, But If there was an error there, nothing would work right?

Stephen

[Stormbringer]

some mb's have dual bios as a back up. I don't know the particulars of how that works.

[Towelie]

Quote:
When I do a restart , the monitor does not display anything, but I can turn It off (ie. t shows amber, then off) , then turn It on, amber to Green. and everything is ok.

   I would now very strongly suspect the monitor is staying in power saving mode/off when it should be powering up. It would seem most likely just a minor nuisance for the time.

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

In the BIOS does it have an option to choose which video card to start with AGP/PCI?  You may have it defaulting to the non existant AGP card.   Also try resetting the video card.  It may (due to heating and cooling cycles) have come a little loose.  On the reboot it may have warmed enough to make full contact but not on the intial bootup.  

[Barabbas]

Quote:
In the BIOS does it have an option to choose which video card to start with AGP/PCI?  You may have it defaulting to the non existant AGP card.   Also try resetting the video card.  It may (due to heating and cooling cycles) have come a little loose.  On the reboot it may have warmed enough to make full contact but not on the intial bootup.  

This is where I'd look first, although if you do have an AGP card available, it would almost certainly be better to use that than a PCI card, even if the PCI card has more memory.

[Sirgod]

BTW, I switched the PCi Card with the one that you had sent me Barrabs, and It still does the same thing. I'm going to examine the Bios settings abit more, and See If that works. If not, I'll swipe my wifes monitor. I like It better anyway.

<what's that Dear, Oh nothing Denise Nothing at all, just chatting with the guys.  >

Stephen

[Javora]

Quote:
BTW, I switched the PCi Card with the one that you had sent me Barrabs, and It still does the same thing. I'm going to examine the Bios settings abit more, and See If that works. If not, I'll swipe my wifes monitor. I like It better anyway.

<what's that Dear, Oh nothing Denise Nothing at all, just chatting with the guys.  >

Stephen  

IMHO I would switch out the monitor first as I think that is the problem.  However if you think there is a COMS/BIOS error I would suggest unplugging the power cord from the power supply.  Hold the power button for about 7~10 seconds, then remove the battery and clear the CMOS jumper.  Then put the battery back and power up the system and see if the error remains.

However from what you described, this really sounds like a monitor going bad, and again I would look at that first.