AGP or Monitor Problems

Hello to all those that can help me.

I have currently have a ATI Sapphire Radeon 9550 256Mb AGP in my computer and my monitor is a 17" Acer AL718 LCD Monitor. This morning, I had this fuzzy little square graphic related gesture from my AGP (I think ) and it killed my 80Gb hard drive. Luckily I have another 120Gb Hard drive. I would like to know whether it is a hardware incompatibilty issue, or, if my AGP card has been damaged. I can assure you that I have not played around with my computer, it just started to play up. Also, I can't press any buttons on my monitor's front panel. I am not sure what has happened but please, I need help.


Kryptic

 

I've not heard of a video card killing a hard drive, rather, you may have experienced a power surge or a faulty Power Supply. Either case could ruin many components in your computer.

Is the computer old? (if so, strongly consider a new power supply) is there another computer available to you that you might swap AGP cards or try the monitor on a different machine to see if it is bad?

 

Hi there InYearsToCome, well, what I can tell you is that my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M (Rev 2.x), 1Gb RAM, with a AMD Sempron 3000+ Processor. I checked in the BIOS and it tells me that the Vcore is OK and many other features that it has. I have changed Monitor now and using a LG 700s 17" Standard Monitor. When I had the LCD Monitor, I got this message saying that it was out of range and it went to 14Hz as far as I remember. My PSU is 450watts and I only bought that last year. Have you or anyone else have any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Kryptic

 

now don't take this the wrong way, but that doesn't make any sense. i'm not sure what you mean by a little fuzzy square graphic, but i can say that i have never ever heard of any video card causing Disk failure in a hard drive. your computer may have been hit by a power surge, you psu could be dying, your hard drive may have just gone bad, or the data on it become corrupted, ti is hard to tell from your description what is actually wrong. I can, however, say with near complete certainty that your AGP card and your hdd problems are not directly related to one another.

Does it boot into windows now?

 

Thank you Bogus for your reply. What I can tell you is that I was running was an Acer 17" AL718 LCD Monitor and I have had a couple of warnings regarding that it was 'Out Of Range'. I am agreeing that it may be the PSU. I have another one that I can install but I need some opinions before I can install another PSU. The 80Gb Hard Drive that apparently 'died' is loading Windows. All it does is, starts up Windows and then restarts without actually going into Windows. I tried to reinstall Windows but I get this error saying that NTFS.sys error and it won't let me reinstall a new copy of Windows.

My current configuration is: 1x LG DVD Ram, 1x LG DVD Rom, 1x 120Gb Samsung Hard Drive (Primary Master), 1x 60Gb Western Digital Hard Drive (Primary Slave), Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2, 1Gb RAM, 1x 256Mb ATI Radeon AGP, 450 PSU and I have changed my monitor from the Acer to an LG Studioworks 700s. I have had problems with the computer freezing due to power problems and now I use a different power connector, seems to work fine, but I agree that it may have had a surge. Please help.

Kryptic

 

Also, what I can tell you about that fuzzy little square on the left hand side of my display, I think it's graphical. So far, a couple of times when I have installed my AGP's drivers, the whole screen goes fuzzy and then I have to restart it a few times before it actually looks right. I am not sure if it's the driver, the power consumtion or if the AGP card is playing games with me. Every time that I get this little fuzz picture, that's when it says that it's out of range and I have to restart my PC just so I can see the display. I have uninstalled the onboard VGA drivers and only using the AGP as my display. Still I have problems.

Kryptic

 

Ok, to add to my thread would be- I have uninstalled the 450watt PSU and installed a 250watt PSU. I know that I lose 200 Watts but wouldn't it better to lose the 200 Watt and see if everything remains stable or do you think that the 450watt PSU had a malfunction? Well, whatever the case, I am going to see how this PSU stands against the test of my PC. Please verify with me whether this was a good reaction to my problem or not.

Thanks in advance.

Kryptic

 

I do't think so ,thanks all the same .

http://www.apple-tv-converter.net

 

When you tried to reinstall windows, did you delete the existing partition first?

 

Yes, I did delete the original installation, but still it would not initiate a new installation. Bloody Machines, lol.

Kryptic

 

What is the exact error you get whenever you try to install windows? also, what resolution and refresh rate do you have the monitor set to?

 

Hi again Bogus. Well, I get a big dark blue screen saying that there has been an error in the file (ntfs.sys) and it tells me that it has stopped and can't continue as it is preventing Windows and my PC for being damaged. If you mean the refresh rate for the LCD, I had it on 70Hz and resolution was 1280 x 1024 pixels. This monitor is on 1024 x 768 pixels and the refresh rate is 72Hz and this monitor is a LG Studioworks 700S. I honestly think that the 80Gb Hard Drive was close to extinction but if I can salvage the 80Gb, that will be a great bonus. Thanks again.

Kryptic

 

do you have a secondary xp installation cd at your disposal? it sounds like the one your using may have damage that is causing file corruption. will it allow you to install using the 120gb hdd?

 

Yes, I have a couple of back up disks hanging around that are newer including a Windows XP Professional Upgrade with Service Pack 2. They all seem to be telling me the same thing. I can try it again as it won't really hurt, I suppose. Well, I have also initiated my LCD Monitor again and so far so good. I am currently using my 120 Gb Hard Drive. Windows is fully installed and working fine. This is where I question whether it is my installation CD or my 80Gb Hard Drive. If you guys can help me get to the bottom of this and get my 80Gb Hard Drive running again, that will be great.

Thanks

Kryptic

 

i'm sorry to ask so many questions when you're the one looking for an answer, but just to clarify, you didn't try to install into the same partition right? When ever the windows installer came to the drive selection screen you highlighted the partition pressed d or whatever the key is to delete the partition and then another screen came up asking you to press L to confirm so you pressed L and completely removed the partition from the disk drive and then created a whole new partition from the empty space to be formatted, right?

Also, are you still having problems with the display going out of focus or little fuzzy squares obscuring the screen while using the 120gb hdd?

like i said before, sorry if it seems like i'm repeating the same question.

 

Hello there again Bogus. Please don't apologise for asking questions as it's the only way that we can get to the bottom of this. So, Ask Away. I usually delete the current Windows installation and recently, I have formatted to whole partition. I can't seem to use FAT only NTFS and it won't let me format it any other way. I am so surprised that I can't change my filing system. Even before I get to do all the deleting and formatting screen, that's when I get the message. It's kinda annoying. I don't even get to the Licence Agreement screen. Thanks

 

that's very unusual, i suppose your drive may well be fried. what brand is it? you can probably find a diagnostic tool on the manufacturer's website that can give you a more definitive answer as far as that goes. What about the video problems? have they returned? did you still have the problem before you swapped out the power supply but after changing the hard drive? If the problem went with the disk drive, it may be safe to reinstall your 450 watt psu, if it's been stable since removing the 450 watt psu, then that was probably the problem, and if you're still having problems then we still haven't figured out what's wrong with it.