weird video card behavior

i have been using this same system for several years and until now th e video card doesn't work

i know that it can't be the os or whatever is on the drive because it happens with 2 different drives with 2 completely different operating systems so for sure its not a programming problem, one drive has windows xp on it and the other has pclinuxos 2009.2 kde version

what happens is that the monitor would click and blink a couple times, the monitor would click shut off and come back up with lines of color

 

sorry for the double post on my psp

as i was saying it shows lines of color that look like gradients, or it will be blurry, no easier way to describe it but you get the idea right

 

i have managed to get this picture and upload it before the video goes wacky again, this is the video card problem i was talking (again sorry for the extra post)

 

can you list your specs like what card you have.
My first impression is that your video card (hardware) is about to bite it.
If you have non passive cooling on it you might want to check it and see if the fan is clean and moving air so its not over heating and giving you artifacts but that seams like the best case scenario. It seams more likely that your card life expectancy has been reached and its time to pony out for a new one

 

just opened up my computer to take a look at the video card, i found a little fan below it and ut doesn't seem to be moving (don't know why and i am too nervious to take the card out of the pci slot i think that i might break it more)

but after a while upon shutting down, it goes back to normal i think because its cooled down
what is the cheapest and most reliable video card out there and will this happen if the video card was onboard

 

If the fan is not working turn it off now to prevent further dmanage to the card.

It sounds the fan failed on your video card.

I don't think this would happen on on-board video.

 

We really need more details before we can suggest a replacement. The Fan has died and may be replaced if you can provide details.

Disconnect everything from the back and unplug the power, then remove your side cover and try and at least take some pics of the Motherboard (please not any Brand and model numbers) and the video card.

 

i wish i could give information but i am only able to do so if the thing would turn on so i could check, willit all work again if i leave it unplugged over night

 

in the meantime i have some more pictures

heres a picture of the motherboard along with everything else inside the case

the vieo card is the one above the other card (sound)

and some more pictures of the madness on the monitor
pic 1

pic 2

 

Your motherboard dates from around 2001 and has a (poor) SIS onboard graphics built-in, can you remove the add-in gfx card and continue to use the PC connected to the onboard gfx until you have enough spare money to upgrade?

 

there is no onboard connection and how can u tell what year my mother board was made

 

Your first picture shows the 'board as being a K7AMA, unless I'm mistaken, Google gives that 'board as this, which seems to have an SIS gfx onboard ... maybe the PCB 1.5 was different or I misread the 'photo?

There's a review of this 'board from June/July of 2001.

 

Well as the fan died the card could shot now. GPU could have overheated and broke due to the fan.

 

well will purchasing and installing a new one solve the problem

where do i plug it in, is it the pci or some other slot on the board

and that makes a ton of sense pclover, it only works after being unused after several hours by then the piece your talking about might have cooled down

 

In the same slot as your video card. It looks like you have a AGP 4x video card.

Also what do you do with your comptuer? I would suggest something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130465

 

that little fan causes all this trouble geeze who have known

if it plugs into the pci slot all i have to do is remove the old one and connect the new one to the empty pci slot, no setup disk or anything just plug it in and thats it?

 

The fan keeps the gpu cool so it won't overheat and when it overheats it can cause issues like this.

What you do is remove the old card and install your new card and then install the drives that come on the disk. It would be best to remove the old drivers off your pc but it seems like you can't do that.

 

I came back with this from "K7AMA - ECS Elitegroup" as well, does this look like your mobo?:

http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/ecs/K7AMA.htm

If so you have an AGP slot and that is where your Video Card is sitting (Black Slot).

I suspect that you have not killed the GPU yet as it is posting and allowing you into the OS, then heating up and screwing up the graphics.

I really want to see a pic of the Video Card as you can get generic fans for $5-8USD. They are very easy to remove. Unplug all cables, lie the case on it's side and remove the single screw holding it in. Then pull the card up and out of it's slot and post a pic if you can.

Examples of VGA Fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...110576&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Page=2
A nice Pink one (looks "Hot")
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835110102

You can enable the onboard graphics (aka IGP) via the BIOS which will allow you to use the system not sure what the settings will be (should be something like INTEGRATED PERPHERALS......INT DISPLAY FIRST [set this to vga or igp (not AGP))].

 

yeah the components in the picture look similar to the one i have, except there is no onboard video connection, also one question, since i don't have onboard video could the computer not wanting to turn on be the cards fault, yes i have been having problems turning it on, i push the button and nothing happens and i mean nothing no fans start or anything i might blame the power supply for this

also i am not using the computer to post in this forum i am doing it with my psp

 

after taking everything apart and putting it baqck together i found that the plg in the motherboard where the power supply attaches to, the contacts and insulation was burnt to a crisp but luckily the leads on the motherboard were still conductible (able to contuct electricity ) without any plastic melted on it, the plug on the powersupply itselft had several of the plugs burnt and plastic covering the leads which explains alot wonder why it decided to do that

now i have a new power supply (well not exactly new, i found an old power supply salvaged from an old windows 98 computer, and just plugged it in and my computer came back to life, but now when i connect to the video card nothing comes up on the screen, i connected it exactly where it went before i took everything apart. but the only difference is that the slot that it plugged into has the wall torn off from it (the side of the slot is gone but it was just plastic i don't think there were any leads on it to make it work. or do i have to get another motherboard (scraping off the burnt plastic from the plug for nothing)

 

Some pics would be really great.

Are you getting any BIOS beeps?

Are you saying the Black Plastic AGP slot has broken?

 

no the slot has the left wall of it broken off but i don't think it would be a problem since there weren't any contacts broken off but i still need an explanation as to why it won't display anything

there isn't any beeping, everything sounds like its booting up find there just isn't any thing appearing on the screen

i would but my camera doesn't take good close up pictures but i guess i'll try anyway so look at them carefully

 

here are some pics like you asked for

here are some pics of the video card
pic 1
pic 2

and here are the pictures of the agp1 plug
pic 1
pic 2

this is then plug that i took the wall off of as you can see the right side corner is missing

and here is a picture of the slightly burnt power supply plug and as i said that everything sounds like it boots up fine (but the leds in the front are acting weird now) but there is just no picture that come up on the monitor and i know its not the monitor it works as a projector on my brothers laptop, please be aware that this isn't a very clear picture sorry my camera sucks
pic

hope this helps

 

Well the Video card may have died by now and can only really be tested by plugging it into another system if you can.

I would be a bit concerned about the mobo power socket and would seriously consider another one.

 

yeah your right so i was looking at motherboard from stores here where i live through the internet and i think i foundthe perfect one for me
here it is
and it says it takes intel processors, my current motherboard has an AMD Athlon tm 1.40GHz, it also doesn't come with the processor (which is i guess why its so cheap) and i have an INTEL CELERON sl5xs laying around, but i want to know if it will work in this board if it does then SWEETNESS!!!

plus it also has onboard
sound
video
ethernet plug
and 4 usb ports

my current motherboard doesn't have all of those onboard (except for the 2 usb slots)
my question here is weather if my intel celeron sl5xs processor will work on it

 

Can you link what stores you can use locally?

Personally I hate MSI mobo's but only because they have locked/crippled BIOS and I can't OC with many of their mobo's, so it's a personal issue it may suit your means perfectly and is at "the right price".

That mobo's CPU support list is here:

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodcpu2&prod_no=1833&maincat_no=1

I can't find SL5XS on there. If that is the right code then it is a Socket 370 form factor, it wont run on an LGA775 mobo.

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL5XS.html
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL5XS

What are all the specs of your AMD CPU?

 

so your saying that tgme intel cpu that i have won't work on it

if this is true then where can i find a motherboard within the same price range and will work with my celeron and my athlon processor

all i can say about my AMD is that its an athlon tm with 1.44GHz, but thats all i can come up with at the moment, if the computer came up i would check and if i could do that i wouldn't have posted this thread, but i am sure that there are a large number of motherboards that work with my athlon

 

Let's be clear "I'm not saying anything" but the research (links) indicates that you cannot use that CPU in that mobo. Just want to make sure we have things in the right context . That is my comments are not subjective but based on links/articles of the web (most have been presented).

For example if we look at the 370 socket we can see that the CPU has pins which go into the mobo whereas with the LGA775 form factor the mobo has pins that contact the CPU. So on that point alone it is physically impossible to put that CPU into a LGA775 mobo, unless you want to smash things together with a hammer:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket 370 (PGA370).html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_775

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but to find a "new" 370 socket mobo will probably be pretty tough and you would be best looking for a place that recycles PCs (it is quite old Pentium III era). IMHO it would be a waste of money to spend $50US on one. I recently had the opportunity to buy a complete system for $65AUD with DDR2 RAM (1GB), LGA775 CPU, PCI-e x16 slot basically the whole unit. Try and look on some "local" PC for sale forums. Another guy was giving away a complete AMD system because he had just upgraded to an I7 build.

 

I just realised there are for sale forums here as well keep your eyes on those for some decent "free" stuff from some of the decent geeks who visit here. Maybe you'll have to pay for postage:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28
Example:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=199704

To put it bluntly I wouldn't spend any money trying to get that older gear up and running when you may be able to find something that is free and has a lot greater performance potential.

 

so the botton line here is that all hope is gone for motherboard that i am using now, and that i should go out shopping for a new one

gone news is that all the devices that plugged into the pci slots still work so that would save me a little money, also the problem here wasn't the video card, it was the power supply burning out

 

alright i did a little more shopping for a motherboards and i am still wanting to get the atx i saw earlier and i also think i found the processor for it fresh out of the box

here it is

 

Well I'm not a Electrical Engineer but I would have serious "Health and Safety" concerns recommending you persist with that mobo, who knows it lead to a house fire?

 

Do you have any OC forums near you or in your part of the world? These guys turn there hardware over very quickly and sometimes they give away complete older systems or sell them very cheaply.

 

but if i buy these parts i only spend $100 while a completely new system would've cost about a thousand, plus all i need is a motheraoard and a processor, i already have everything else
powersupply
IDE cd and dvd drives
floppy drives (in case i feel like it)
and most of the ide cables (all of these parts were salvaged from previous systems that bit the dust and all of the parts function perfectly)

 

Well that CPU is on the mobo support list and you can get $20 cashback if you spend $100 or more with those guys via "paypal" chat to them and see if the 2 parts will allow you to qualify.

What RAM do you have? The mobo wants DDR2.

 

i salvage the ram sticks that were on tgme motherboard that just recently broke they are the same type as the description says 512MB is all of this good will the processor work with this motherboard, i know that its compatible but will it work on it

i don't plan on using paypal i am going to go to the bestbuy in town and buy it

 

Well if this is the old mobo:

http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/ecs/K7AMA.htm

We can see that it supported DDR and SDRAM only and they will not physically fit into a DDR2 slot and will not work!

The CPU is on the support list for that mobo they infer it will work I can't personally guarantee it but they have certainly implied it.

 

how much ar ddr2 ram sticks (since they appear to be new technology i am guessing an arm and a leg and that the only way for me to get one is when i start pooping gold) lol

you were right aboutthe model of board i have i guesr i gave you alot of clues right

 

Well DDR2 is later technology but they have DDR3 now. You can often find although it is later technology it is actually cheaper than older tech (DDR, SDRAM, etc) because it is being "mass produced" on the assembly lines and price per unit production cost is cheaper.

Anyway you can get it pretty cheap from $12USD+. I would get at least 1GB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE

Crucial is a very good brand and for $21 you can get 1GB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148239

Make you sure you assess "shipping costs" as some come with free shipping in the price.

 

Dude to be honest IMO your better off getting a new system because

1. the parts for your PC cost WAY MORE then they should do to the fact no really makes them any more and you will end up buying used parts a lot of times

2. With every passing week less and less parts are available for you to upgrade/repair

3. By 2009 standards its not cutting it for most apps.

If your finances will permit it you can get a cheap HP (nothing special) for $289+ Tax and shipping (no monitor) that will out perfome your current PC by a land slide and is upgradable

HP Specs:
Operating system: genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor: AMD Sempron(TM) LE1300 [2.3GHz, 512MB L2, up to 1600MT/s bus]

Memory: 2GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [1 DIMM]

Hard drive: 320GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive

Graphics card: Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE [VGA]

Primary optical drive: LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive

Networking: Integrated 10/100 Ethernet, No wireless LAN

Front Productivity Ports: 2 USB, front audio ports

Sound Card: Integrated 5.1 channel sound with front audio ports

Keyboard and Mouse: HP multimedia keyboard and HP optical mouse

Productivity software Microsoft(R) Works 9.0

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=desktops&a1=Category&v1=Everyday+computing&series_name=p6200z_series&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/desktops/Everyday_computing/p6200z_series

If you can afford it this seams like the cheapest rout to go if you consider the future cost of parts and software Not to mention it seams like you just starting to get into the nitty gritty of PC's and you can get a warranty and tech support for this even though HP tech support leaves some thing to be desired.
If 289+ tax and ship is to much I would save up for It.
Also if you fell like you really want to build your own PC then I would just take the 298 to a place like Newegg , Tigerdirect or Ebay and see what deals they have
http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.tigerdirect.com/
http://www.ebay.com/

 

i guess it all works out i buy the motherboaqrd, ram and processor and i have all of the other parts (nothing obsolete i checked) and all i have to do is put everything together

i am looking at some ddr2 ram sticks at bestbuy and they want $30 for 1GB (i can't find anything smaller but it will have to do)

proof
but the i think i foud a better deal at radioshack 2GB for the same price as the 1GB sticks at bestbuy
proof

 

Look Paradoxdream may have something here worth considering.

 

and what would that be