good one night then bad in the morning???

Okay so my computer's been working fine for years and i've been running off the motherboard. then i got a graphics card for my sweet sixteen back in july and i've been plugging the monitor up to that and it's been working fine. that is, until a couple days ago. everything was working fine for months but then one night i turned the computer off like normal, woke up the next morning and it doesn't work anymore! I switch the computer on like usual and the monitor says "self check, monitor is working, check power cable" or something but i've checked it all and it's all working fine! i looked at the graphics card and it's on and running though. so i unplugged the monitor from the graphics card and directly into the motherboard and it all works just fine. i've tried using different monitors but i still get the same problem. i removed my graphics card and tried using it in a different computer all together and it worked fine. also, i went to radio shack and bought a new dvi to vga adaptor and it's still not working. i mean, how could this just randomly stop working overnight????...can somebody help me please?

 

okay since nobody seems to know what to do, i posted this somewhere else and i'll repost the answer when i figure out it!

 

Check your time and date on the PC, it may be that your BIOS battery is below voltage and needs replacing; this would have the effect of resetting the BIOS to default on each cold boot and if your BIOS default is to boot to onboard graphics ...

 

It could have something to do with that motherboard battery, but I don't think so because you said it would be resetting the bios everytime i start up and i checked that and the settings are always right.

 

A simple reboot isn't enough to trigger switching the BIOS to run off the onboard battery, you need to do a cold boot = shutdown the PC, disconnect the power cable, wait a short time and then reconnect the power cable, start the PC and check the BIOS settings.

Can you feed us your hardware details please (beginning to sound like your PSU may be at fault)?

 

Okay what sort of graphics card is it?

If you open your device manager when using your Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) are you getting any question marks? or !

I was going to suggest that you plug it back in but ti seems you have tried to re-seat it properly.

When you are using he Video Card are you getting any BIOS error beep codes?

 

the graphics card is an XFX NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, and i'm not having any troubles with everything else you mentioned

 

It might be helpful to know what your Motherboard is as well, can you check your BIOS to make that it is set to display from PCIe Adapter firstly, not IGP.

 

Try swapping the Video Cards power plug for another one if you have 2 available.

When you looked inside the case was the Video Card fan definitely spinning up?

Have you updated or changed the drivers for it? Sometimes slightly older drivers will work better as the newer drivers are more geared or the newer series and sometimes will not work.

Here is a list of the cards which one is it?

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/8series/8600gt.aspx

 

-My motherboard make and model is: Foxcon Winfast 6150K8MA-8EKRS
-I've checked the BIOS multiple times and it is set to PCI-e
-The video card doesn't have a power plug - it doesn't use one (as in it doens't have a spot for one and isn't made to use one)
-The video card fan was spinning like normal.
-It is the XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB (PV-T84J-UDD3)
-I've installed the latest drivers multiple times after this happened, and they don't help in detecting it. Did nothing before unless Windows did an update in the background on it's own.

 

Excellent analysis:

If you go here and register the card they will provide the most appropriate Driver XFX Support Central for that make, model and serial number. I recently gave a neighbour an old AGP 9550 I had just lying around and it would "NOT" work with the latest ATI Drivers so I used the drivers that came with and it worked, hence my comment on cards and drivers. Here is an excellent source on all drivers (old and new):

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

When adding new drivers did you "clean up" your old drivers properly? If you just install another driver the older versions can sometimes cause issues and or software conflicts for the Video Card, many nowadays use this to clean up the old drivers (registry etc) to minimise this:

Driver Sweeper beta 2.0.0. Use that first, then restart the system and install the "most appropriate driver.

 

Hey Bold Eagle,
I'm hayleypm93's boyfriend and the reason I'm posting for her is because now she can't use her computer...
She ran the Driver Sweeper program like you said to uninstall the video drivers and uninstalled NVIDIA PhysX, NVIDIA Display, and NVIDIA Chipset - everything listed that it found NVIDIA related to be uninstalled. Then it restarted her computer and she got a message saying that Windows Failed to start, that a recent hardware or software change could have caused this (we all know it was that last software change of course)... She tried booting in Safe Mode and Normal mode and none work... So she said it said something about inserting the Windows installation Disk to fix the problem, so I'm gonna go over there and try that tomorrow... any suggestions?

 

I feel pretty bad and I'm sorry that she is experiencing this problem. I should have been very clear and stated that she never removes the Chipset Drivers but only the nVidia Display and nVidia Physx drivers. I am sure it will be just a matter of using the Windows Disk and it will install the basic Windows Video Driver and then she will want to re install the motherboad driver. But please be patient so that we can be 100% sure that this will work without her losing her DATA.

What OS is she using?

Windows currently has no display drivers whatsoever and there is not getting into he Windows OS environment.

I am researching this right as we speak but can you please look at this article and save it as a bookmark as a last resort:

Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option

There is an option to do a repair install that can involve a complete "re installation" but the option I have linked is the right way to do it so she wont "lose any DATA" or settings.

 

Once we have resolved the issue and can get her back into windows you would need to use the Driver from here.

This is her motherboard can you please save these links for the moment:

Product Page: 6150K8MA-8EKRS

The second one down is her On-Board VGA Drivers:

Drivers

Please be patient and I will find the solution.

 

Thank you so much for all the help. She is runnig Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit.

 

If you can print these steps off and have them on hand it would help. Okay with the CD handy:

1. Turn on the PC and during the start up hit "Delete" key,this will take you into BIOS

2. Select "Advanced BIOS Features" and then make the First/Second/Third Boot Device change it so the the DVD/CD drive will be the first boot device.

3. Hit Esc and then Save and Exit

4. Reboot with the XP CD in the drive, fingers crossed this will automatically extract the Video Driver from the CD and Boot up. If you could post back what options you are being offered this would help a lot and you may not need to do step 5.

5. f it does not "automatically" replace the Video Driver you will need to follow this method and do the re install but she wont lose any data, and you will need to enter the product key again and finally grab the SP3 once it is all finished:

VERY IMPORTANT HIT ENTER AT THE FIRST MENU AND NOT REPAIR, SELECT THE REPAIR OPTION AT THE LATER SCREEN OR YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING

http://www.tips4pc.com/Format your computer/how_to_repair_a_windows_xp_installation.htm

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html


I will check back often tomorrow so try and keep me updated if you can.

 

Excuse me Mr Wedge-tail ^^, the OS is Vista not XP ...

@Hayley/bmbvideo, if the Vista CD is available, the instructions are similar to those already posted for XP - BUT, if the Vista CD is just a recovery CD, you will not get those options and the install will take the machine back to factory condition.

If the latter scenario, you'll need to read Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download and download and burn the resulting .iso file. Boot the PC from it to use the non-destructive repair.

 

Thanks everyone for your help, I think I understand what I need to do now and will be picking Hayley's computer up tomorrow afternoon. I'll either work on it then, or on Monday morning. I'll be sure to post back when progress is made.

 

Lol I noticed after I had made the final post I really don't want them to do the poorly worded "Repair" option previously offered with XP because if you took the first Repair option offered it would do a complete reinstall/reformat.

I have just been reading this:

How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair.

Which looks better than the old XP options.

Please apologise that my earlier posts with Drive Sweeper was not clear and I am sincerely sorry.

 

Satrow any comments here would be greatly appreciated

Remove the Video Card and clean up:

Okay to start can you remove the Video card to rule it out of the problem for the moment. Make sure the PC is turned off, unplugged and remove the Video

Card, While it is out use a Q-tip and some isopropnyl Alcohol and clean up the contact points along the bottom edge of the card. Also use a vacuum cleaner

and clean up the PCI-e socket, being careful to "avoid all jumpers" on the motherboard, when using the vacuum. Leave this aside while we replace the nVidia

Onboard Video Driver.

Replacing the On-Board Video Driver:

1. Turn on the PC and during the start up hit "Delete" key,this will take you into BIOS

2. Select "Advanced BIOS Features" and then make the First/Second/Third Boot Device change it so the the DVD/CD drive will be the first boot device.

3. Hit Esc and then Save and Exit.

4. Follow this link so we can do a "Startup Repair" to replace the on-board Driver:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html

5. Follow all steps until figure 4, here is an option to Load Drivers but this is not what we need. This option is for RAID Drivers and other 3rd party drivers so that Vista can access your HDD and other add on hardware needed to make the system run. The Video Card Drivers are best installed when in the OS at a later point. If she is using a RAID setup (2xHDD or more performing together in an array) now is when those should be installed.

6. If no RAID drivers are needed hit "next". Vista is now doing a search of the OS files and will replace any that are missing here it should load and replace a generic Windows Vista on-board graphics chipset driver.

7. In figure 6 we can see that it is best to ignore this first "Restore" option as there are better options later.

8. Hopefully this will get us to figure 7 & 8 saying that it has found and replaced a missing driver.

9. There is an option in Figure 9 for a system restore but if you can get into the OS I would avoid this for the moment.

10. Hopefully you can now get into the OS with the on-board graphics (IGP), if not we will need to access the most recent system restore point.

11. If in OS download and install the On-Board VGA Drivers from Foxconn, 2nd one down and reboot:
http://www.foxconnsupport.com/downl...01&series=en-us0000004&keywords=&sort=Drivers

12. If all is working with the IGP also download the Video Card driver and save the driver install to desktop (so it is easy to find later), but DO NOT try and install yet as it wont find any Video Card and will abort the process:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Selecting the Geforce 8 Series, Vista 32Bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_190.62_whql.html

13. No turn off the system and place the Video Card into the PCI-e Slot, with the side cover still off just plug in the power lead only (no monitor etc etc) and do a power on to check that the Video Card fan is spinning up and the card is powering up. If all is looking like it is working switch off the power. Are you getting any BIOS Error beeps here??

14. Now enter BIOS again by hitting "Del" key. Goto PnP/PCI Configuration and ensure that Int DIsplay First is set to [PCIEx]. Hit Esc, while in BIOS head back to Advanced BIOS Features and change "First/Second/Third Boot Device" to HDD then CD/DVD then floppy, hit Esc and then Save and Exit BIOS.

15. If just a single BIOS beep plug everything in and boot up the PC, hopefully when you get into the OS you will get the "Found New Hardware" option. If so just cancel these and install the Driver install package that was saved to desktop follow the install process and reboot. If all has gone well and there are no problems with the Power Supply Unit (PSU) you should be up and running.

Hopefully this will have resolved all issues. Drive Sweeper is a good program but when ever you use any app like this find and look at the Read Me file.

You should never have to uninstall the motherboard graphics chipset Drivers , in this case nVidia Chipset, unless they have been updated (which happens rarely after the motherboard is 1-2 years old). In that case I would just overwrite chipset driver with the latest. On the otherhand Video Card Drivers are constantly being updated and should be removed properly before installing the latest version to minimise any potential conflicts.

 

hey you don't have to apologize so much lol It'll all be just fine I'm sure. ^-^ There's another computer in the house anyhow. Thanks for all the help I've been getting though!!!!!

 

Thanks for all the instructions and help.
I worked on her computer for most of the day yesterday, and have everything running like normal again (except the graphics card).
I ended up having to back all of her files up over on my computer while I did a fresh install of Windows. The drivers weren't detected or installed the way you and I hoped they would be thru the repair. But everything's okay now and I appreciate all your help.
We're pretty much narrowed the problem down to being a problem with the motherboard at this point, so we'll have to wait until we can afford to get a new mobo, ram, processor, etc. before we can use the graphics card again lol

 

Well if you followed all those steps and the Video Card is working in another system it could be the power supply (PSU) is on it's way out as Satrow said. You can check the PSU voltages using EVEREST Free Edition 2.20>>>>Computer>>>>>Sensors and have a look at your 12v (rail) values which can be an indicator of not enough power for the Card.

 

we've tried a higher quality PSU and it didn't work either

 

But the Video Card did work in another PC?

 

Correct.

 

The only thing I can think off to try is to reset the BIOS, by unpuggling the power and removing the battery for about 10mins. As Satrow mentioned earlier you could try another battery from a known working machine. Replace a battery, turn it on, change the BIOS settings to make sure it will Display the Video Card, save the BIOS and see what happens.

Otherwise Im at a loss.

 

We actually already tried that believe it or not.
So I think we're just going to look at replacing the mobo all together at this point.

 

k well I'm out of ideas if you need help with a new mobo just say so. Maybe start a new thread for it, you will get a lot of "informed" advice.