Video Card bad?

I'm not exactly sure what kind of video card I currently have, but I think it may be going bad. During boot up and video games, I'm getting what looks like a glitter effect or sparkling. It normally happens around the edges of something like the edges of icons or writing.

Would this be my video card going bad?

If so, is there a website that can tell me the type of video card I need for my particular mother board?

thanks in advance..

 

If you have on-board video, check the PC or motherboard mfrs. support site for the latest video drivers.

If it is an aftermarket video card, go to the card mfrs' support site for the latest video drivers.

If updating the drivers doesn't solve the issue, go to the manufacturer's support website for your PC (or, if custom built, motherboard) and look up your make/model. This should tell you what type of video card slot your PC has. From there, you can research your options on sites such as NewEgg or Amazon.

Important: Most newer video cards require a power supply of at least 300-400 watts (even higher for advanced gaming cards). Check the required wattage against your existing PSU. Deduct 5% from its listed wattage for each year of age (example: A 350 watt power supply that is 4 years old may actually be putting out 20% under its rated power when new. 350 watts - 20% = 280 usable watts)

If the PSU is older or barely meets the new card's power requirements, it's a good idea to upgrade the PSU at the same time.

 

The original thread is somewhat old, but rather than start a new thread.......anyways,


I have a Radeon 9600 series video card and I'm not certain who the actual manufacture is. Also, it's a AGP.

As stated below, when I log onto Windows (XP) there's a lot of distortion, almost like a snowing screen, but not as bad. After the comp. loads for a few minutes and gets a chance to settle in, the distortion is much more limited....more like a sparkling effect around my icons (desktop). Internet and videos seem to OK. But when I play a game that requires a disc it gets really bad. Same with certain screen savers. They'll be a bunch of lines shooting and flaching on my screen almost like a bunch of prisms...hard to explain.

I have a 350 watt (max load) power supply which is about 5 years old.

I have my suspicions that it may be the power supply for the simple reason that the sparkling/snow effect is at it's worst when the computer is loading (more stress and more power I'm assuming) and when it calms down then it's much better.

I wan't to avoid throwing money at my machine without knowing exactly what is wrong. Is there anything I can do? Also, I recently downloaded/installed the recent drivers from AMD for the 9600 series and that didn't do anything.....atleast I think I properly downloaded/installed the proper drivers.

Any help would be great, thanks!

 

Based on the power supply (PSU) age alone, I set the odds at 85-90% a new PSU will solve the issue.

The typical PSU's max. output degrades up to 10% per year of use. At 5 years old, your "350 watt" PSU is likely putting out around 200 watts at most.

If you plan on getting rid of the whole PC if/when you upgrade, a 350-400 watt unit should be OK (spend a few bucks more for a quality brand - it's worth it for reliability). Here are a few suggestions:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182006

If you plan on doing a new build soon and trashing the old board/CPU only, I'd invest in a higher wattage PSU that will handle it such as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

Hope this helps.

 

So it's definately not the video card? I have no problem throwing money at my machine, but I would like to be certain it is indeed the problem. I know it's difficult to diagnose a problem over the internet, but if you feel confident in your assessment with the information I offered then I will get a new power supply.

Also, thanks for your help.

 

I'm basing my assumption on situations I've run into repairing PCs over the past several years. In this case, my experience states the PSU is the most likely suspect.

Even if you replace the PSU and it turns out to be the video card, it won't be wasted money. At 5 years old (even if not the cause of this specific issue), the power supply is still running on borrowed time. My advice is to replace it; the odds are in your favor doing so will solve the problem.

 

10.4

Thanks for your help!

 

Couple more questions....


Are all the Power Supplies the same physical size? Just want to make sure it will fit in my box.

What are the top 3 brands in your opinion?


Thanks again...

 

Please post the brand/model of your PC (or if it is a custom build).

Is it a standard tower type case or a smaller "desktop" type?

 

Well, i'm sitting at desk at work so I'm not by my PC, but I'm looking at the Dell Optiplex 780 in front of me and my tower seems to be almost twice as big as this.

It was a custom build.

Also, do I have to worry about the cables that come with the power supply? Or are they all compatable for different types of motherboards, processers, etc?

 

Good news: Since you have a large, custom built tower, the odds are 99.9% you have a standard "ATX" size power supply - the most common type.

Don't worry about the "2.1", "2.3", etc. after some "ATX" descriptions. If you get a better power supply, it will have built-in connector options (20 or 24 pin main cable, 4 or 8 pin 12-volt cable, etc). Put simply, it'll be plug and play without the need for adapter cables.

The power cables are attached to the power supply itself. Since it sounds like you have a taller tower case, I would get one with longer cables.

I've done some research for you. Here are a few options that appear to fit the above criteria:

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Memor...-600CX/dp/B0044R93S0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

430-watt is $39.99 or 600-watt for $59.99 - free shipping - no sales tax - plus, in the unlikely event it arrives DOA, Amazon pays the return shipping costs (unlike Newegg or TigerDirect). In my opinion, Corsair is the Gold Standard of power supply brands.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CMPSU...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1299183161&sr=1-5

At $79.99, you upgrade to a 650-watt with a 5 year warranty and an 80 PLUS efficiency rating. The lower energy use of 80 PLUS should save you $10-$25 per year off your electric bill versus a standard efficiency model. This is the model I have in my main PC that I leave on 24/7 as my Homegroup server. It will also power even the beefiest video cards if you ever rebuild your system.

 

I purchased the 430 watt unit. Thanks for the time and research.

My PC is getting a little older, but still has some kick. My buddy who built it about 5 years ago said he was building me something that would stay relevant for awhile, and it has. I may just give this PC to my daughter and do my first build!

Thanks again!

 

Alright...I just received the new power supply and I've ran into a problem. The main power plug to the MB is a 24 pin 20 pin compatable. My MB has a 20 pin on it. In a perfect world I should be able to plug 20 pins in and have 4 pins over hanging, but the outlet for my DVD Drive cable is right next to the power outlet for my MB so I can't push the 24/20 pin power plug in all the way.

Question I have is can I snap the 4 pins off so I can push the plug in all the way or will this make it inoperable?

I wanted to get some advice first before I did this just in case I would need to return the power supply.

Thanks in advance!

ps...I apologize if this doesn't make sense, but I don't know the technical descriptions of each plug, etc...

 

Look at the 24-pin connector on the power supply carefully.

When viewing it from the side, you might see a "bump" in the plastic between the main 20 pins and the last 4 (unneeded) pins. If you see this, the last 4 pins should slide off the main 20-pin connector (you can then push the 4-pin connector aside safely).

If you do not see this, I would NOT cut or attempt to modify the power supply. This could ruin it or (worse yet) cause a short that could fry your motherboard.

I just checked the tech details for the Corsair 430. It does NOT appear to allow you to separate the final 4 pins.

http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx430.html

Given this, you have two options:

* Return it and get a power supply that has the feature to easily separate the final 4 pins:

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1299706368&sr=1-7

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2743

* Get a 24 to 20-pin adapter cable

http://www.amazon.com/CablesToBuy-P...4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1299706766&sr=1-4

Sorry for the confusion. If I had known you had a 20-pin board I would have checked this before posting my previous recommendations. :-o

 

I'm going to buy an adaptor locally. Hopefully everything works fine. I've never replaced a power supply and when removing the old one, I noticed I was removing numerous plugs....I hope I can figure out where everything goes.

 

It wasn't possible to unplug one by one....it was a big cluster fug. Also, I had taken a few pictures a couple days ago. I wasn't going to attempt this without pictures. Pictures definately came in handy. Thanks for the advice though, it's always appreciated.


Okay, I believe I successfully replaced my power supply. Everything seems to work fine- harddrives, cd drives, fans etc. One thing that doesn't work fine......my video card. Unfortunately I'm still getting the same distortion as before. Do you think it's because I hooked something up wrong? If not, would my video card be bad? I'd hate to buy a new one and come to find out my MOBO is bad. Reason being is if my MOBO is bad I would do a new build and my AGP video card would be worthless with all the new boards having PCI-E nowadays.

I could try my on-board video plug-in and see if the distortion goes away, but that wouldn't necessarly mean my AGP outlet is or isn't bad.

Please advise....THANKS!

 

Before you got the new power supply, did the display show distortion on the POST screen (the first screen you see before windows starts thinking about loading)?

If so, that would have been a big indication that the video card needed replacing. Power supplies DO NOT solve video or display issues on old cards like the 9600 that use ultra low power AGP.

If you want to replace the video card ATI still produce some good cards for this connection. Search for Radeon HD 2400, HD 2600, HD 3650, HD 3850 and the Radeon HD 4650, HD 4670 - all of which are DirectX 10 capable AGP cards. You can pick these cards up cheaply.

Drivers for the AGP cards are a little more difficult to come across and may use OEM drivers or legacy drivers (not sure, so don't take my word for it)

Best advice - replace motherboard with a PCI-e x16 connection.

 

If I remember correctly, there WAS distortion previous to the windows loading screen. I think it is my ASUS Motherboard screen that's distorted before the windows screen.

I'll look up some new video cards and probably replace mine. I just hope this works, I don't really want to keep throwing money at this old machine.

Thanks for the advice....

 

I previously stated that I updated my drivers for my card, but I think I didn't do it right. My device manager shows I have a ATI Radeon 9600, but when I open my case and physically look at my card, it's an ASUS A9600pro TD series 128MB.

I did an internet search for my card and downloaded some drivers and other stuff. It was a zip file, so I unzipped to a folder on my desktop. There was numerous things in the folder, but one of the folders was called DRIVER. So I right clicked my card in device manager, selected update driver and selected the folder DRIVER to search for the drivers. It then appeared to be installing the drivers. After restarting my pc, I went to device manager and my video card listed now shows ASUS 9600. Weird.....I wonder why it showed ATI Radeon 9600 previously.

Anyways, I'm still getting the same distortion as before. I'm not sure if I downloaded the correct drivers or if I installed them correctly. But one thing is for certain, I have an ASUS A9600pro TD. If anybody can point me in the right direction as far as drivers, I would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Here you go - http://www.userdrivers.com/Video-Graphic-Adapter/Asus-A9600Pro-TD-Graphics-Card/download/

click on the one related to your operating system

 

This is where I got the drivers from already. I downloaded version 8.592 for XP (not 64 bit). I'm not sure if I have XP 64 bit or not, but I know my settings only go up to 32 bit.

Problem is, after the download, it was a zip file. I unzipped to a folder. After I unzipped, that folder had numerous things in it. I really don't know what to do with all this stuff. So I directed the Wizard to the folder called Driver (one of numerous folders in the unzipped folder) and it appeared to be installing something. Not sure if I did it right, half right or not right.

 

Okay. You have a 32-bit operating system, so download the ...8592 for Windows XP NOT Windows XP 64-bit.exe, to your desktop

When the file has downloaded, use WinRAR to open the ZIP file. Extract the folder named ati8592_winXP32 to your desktop.

Once done, open the new folder and look inside - there's a file called setup.exe. Double click that file and go through the installation process. This will ensure that all driver elements are installed in their respective places.

Let me know if you managed to do that ok.

 

Alternatively, the driver catalyst software is here:

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/10-2_legacy_vista32-64_dd_ccc.exe

This will be of more benefit if the other driver is doing nothing

Try the other driver first, then try the above which is direct from ATI.

Keep me updated - I know it can be difficult with our time differences but we seem to be able to find a slot where we both are online!!!

Moozer

 

One thing I meant to ask - what is your moinitor resolution set to?

To find out - right click on any free area of the desktop and choose PROPERTIES

The display properties dialogue box will appear. Click on the SETTINGS tab at the top right of the box.

The area worth noting is:

"Screen Resolution"

This slide bar is what you use to change the resolution, the options you have will depend on your graphics card and monitor, but the standard options are 800x600, 1024x768 and 1152x864.

Normally the default (in XP) is set to 800x600 which means the display will be 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high.

Let me know first what the resolution is showing - this could be an issue if things are set too high or too low.

 

I did everything as you described but after I extract, there's numerous "Setup" files in the folder. None of which end in .exe.

 

1024 by 768 is my resolution. I've already tried changing that to every other setting and I get the same distortion.

 

Attached is a picture of the contents of the folder "ati8592_winXP32" - you should have the same. The one you need to select is highlighted by my cursor in the picture.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/noomoozer/moozer.jpg

 

Sorry - resizing went wrong!!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/noomoozer/moozer-1.jpg

 

Okay, when you have managed to setup the drivers, restart the PC and then go here:

http://majorgeeks.com/SlimDrivers_d6737.html

Download, install, run.

Update ALL drivers found out-of-date and/or obsolete

Restart PC when software suggest to do so and let's see how things are once ALL updates are completed with SlimDrivers

Okay. Speak soon. :cool

 

adouble11

Do you know the brand and model of the motherboard you're using?

If not, go here:

http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw32_370.exe

Install.

When the box pops up, click "Run"

2 windows will pop up. One shows detailed information about your PC. Close this one and look at the one behind.

Click on "Report" on the menu at the top and click "create". Don't change anything and just click "Next" then "Finish"

The file saved is located in "Program Files\HWiNFO32" and will be named as your computer name with a HTM extension.

Attache the file to your reply - this will give me some more detailed info and hopefully I can give more focused help.

Thanks.

 

Sorry for the delayed response. But my PC doesn't want to get on the internet anymore and I had to get to a PC that could to respond.

I installed the Driver software SlimDrivers. It said I had 17 outdated Drivers so I started downloading/installing all of them. When I did the one for my network adapter, something called Marvel (I think), my internet doesn't work anymore. After a restart, I opened slimdriver again and it began to install a driver for Intel Chipset without me clicking on anything.

Anyways, I'm stuck at this point and I still have 12 outdated drivers to install via slimdrivers, but can't because of no internet capabilities.

I did set a restore point before I did any of the driver installs through slim drivers. Should I roll my PC back to the restore point?

 

I have a ASUS P4P800 SE motherboard

 

I think if you re-open Slim Drivers you may be able to restore the network adapter by clicking on (guess what?) the "Restore" icon

Re-run the scan but choose not to downlaod the newer network driver - to be safe.

 

Alright....I'll give it a shot. I won't be by my PC for a couple hours but I'll post back later today. Again, thanks for your help.

 

No worries. Speak later.

 

This will be useful to you:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=YNlDkmz5gSNpiCr6

But do the report first and get that to me ASAP.

 

Here's the report......I think

 

The HTML doc won't upload, lets try this....

 

Also, I downloaded and installed all of the outdated drivers via slimdriver. Upon restart, I had 3 unsuccessful attempts to load Windows. I got the DOS looking screen asking if I want to restart in Safe Mode, etc. I chose the option to restart at last known good configuration or something like that. It then loaded Windows but it took longer than normal.

Also, when powering on my computer, before the Windows loading screen, I get a screen that shows my motherboard. Since installing the drivers, between the motherboard screen and the Windows screen, I now get a blank black screen with a flashing cursor on the top left. This screen will stay on for a few seconds then it will go to the Windows loading screen.

 

So, is Windows loading now? Usually when drivers are updated, Windows does a lot of background installing, moving, copying, etc, and we as the user don't see what's going on (sometimes this is frustrating!). It does take the system a little longer than normal to get going but once everything is done, startup will return to normal.

Keep me posted regarding startups or any other problems and in the meantime I'll have a look at the report and see if there's any more help I can offer - we may have to look at settings on your monitor.

Let me know the brand and model of your monitor and we can look at that if needed.

Regards

Moozer

 

The report mentions your monitor's supported resolutions:

1152 x 864 75 Hz
1280 x 960 60 Hz
1280 x 1024 60 Hz
1280 x 720 60 Hz
1600 x 900 60 Hz
1280 x 800 60 Hz
1600 x 900 462 x 272 mm, Pixel Clock 97.75 MHz

The video card supports these modes.

As you mentioned (above) you are currently set to 1024 x 768.

Switch it to any of the above supported modes. Restart.

Is the screen still blurred on the POST screen?

 

Don't worry about what the monitor is - I think I found it; Acer LCD G205HV

Attached are a few files related to your monitor. I'm not sure if you have manuals for it, but I have a "Quick start" manula and the regular manula PLUS a recent driver for the monitor.

To update the monitor driver - go to the Device Manager in the Control Panel

Double-click the monitor
Right-click the specific device and then click Properties.
On the Driver tab, click Driver Details.
Click Update Driver to open the Hardware Update Wizard. Follow the wizard instructions.


Hopefully this will update/renew the monitor driver.

 

I just recently purchased the Acer monitor. My previous 2 monitors had the same distortion. The first monitor that I used (before the distortion and when the distortion first started), the resolution settings were never changed. But, I'll still try and change the settings and see what happens. I'll get back later cause I'm at work.

Thanks

 

I think the best thing to do here would be to check that all cables are secure and check all connections to your monitor and video card - make sure the connectors are comforatable positioned and that no pins are bent.

Also, could the motherboard/CPU coller/video card need a good clean? It's amaing how much dust and dirt can cause a system to fail.

If there is a collection of dust around these parts, turn the PC off, unplug mains power and carefully remove video card. Check inside the housing and use a small, soft brush to dust inside it (if you have a can of compressed air - this would be ideal). Using an eraser gently rub the gold contacts of the video card to remove any dirt (you should notice a difference).

Also, do the same with your memory modules - carefully remove them and rub the gold contacts with an eraser.

Reinsert the video card and memory, making sure they are seated securely. Reconnect the power and trun on the PC.

If problem remains after you have had a look at the monitor settings, then we will have to put this down to a failing video card.

Let me know how you get on.

M

 

Just a question, since I'm at work and can't do anything to my PC....

On my motherboard, is there a specific plug that generates power for only my Video Card? I think I read that PCI-E cards require a special plug designated to powering the card....does this apply to an AGP card as well?

Reason I'm asking is, my new power supply had a 4 pin plug that was labeled PCI-E and I didn't plug it in anywhere. There was, however, a 4 pin socket on my MB that the PCI-E plug plugged into. But, I didn't think this was right and I removed it and plugged in the 12v 8pin 4 pin compatable plug instead.

What would happen if whatever is made to plug into the 12v socket wasn't plugged in correctly?

 

Okay. Your motherboard has a 20-pin main connector and your power supply (PSU) has a 20+4-pin connector. Is that right?

Have a look at the picture attached

 

Yes, my MB has a 20 pin connector and my new PSU has a 24 pin plug. The 4 extra pins won't slide off and they won't over hang either because there is a connector in the way.....so, I purchased a 24 pin (female) to a 20 pin (male) adapter.

And, I have something plugged into the ATX 4 pin connector. My PSU came with 2 plugs that would plug into it. One was a PCI-E 4 pin plug and the other was a 8 pin plug (I think it's a 12v plug???). I left the PCI-E plug unplugged because I didn't think I would need it considering I don't have a PCI-E slot on my MB. I currently have the 8 pin plug plugged into the 4 pin ATX power connector with 4 extra pins hanging over.

 

I doubt the PC would start.