Topic: Suspected grahics card problem

[Sandra]

A pc that I recenty built has developed an intermittent fault.
At random intervals, after working perfectly for a few hours or a few mins, the screen goes black, no blue screen or error messages just as if the graphics card was disconnected  
Its running XP pro and has a Barton 2500 cpu and 512 mbs of 333 ddr and Nvidia chipped 128mb ddr 8 x agp card.
Any suggestions other than reinstalling the card and getting latest drivers etc, or does someone know of anything other than a card problem that could cause this ?
It will be a few days before I can get over to have a look at the pc and try anything but a few other suggestions as to which areas to look at would be appreciated  

[lobo]

@Sandra
Does the PC switch off when the screen goes black could be the power supply going down.  Check the event viewer for more info and get back to us

Brian
 

[Simon]

Could just be that the graphics card isn't seated properly.  Try taking it out and putting it back in again, Sandra.

[Sandra]

As far as I can remember Brian its just the monitor appears to not be getting a signal from the card, I think the PC is still running at that point.
Its a brand new case and PSU so hopefully the PSU should be ok, as is the mobo and graphics card.
I must admit Simon that was the first thing I though of, re seating the AGP card, although its one of the newer boards with the clip to hold it in at one end and it works ok on a reboot.
Its the easiest thing for me to tell him to do without me having to go over and do it myself so will suggest he tries it, thanks  

[Dack]

Things I'd have a look at:

1. Temperature of the card - probably not a major problem in that you said it occurs quite quickly on some occasions.

2. Try dropping the AGP down to 4x instead of 8x. Another popular one is switching of 'fast writes' and 'write combining' in the bios..

3. Which NVidia and VIA driver is being used - there was a 'black screen' issue with one set of them http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/17256/. This, of course, assumes you have a motherboard with a via chipset.

4. Try changing the memory for different sticks or trying www.memtest86.com to see if you have faulty memory.

5. Try changing the AGP aperture setting in bios to 256.

6. Try running dxdiag and checking the direct 3d settings/tests.

[Sandra]

Thanks Dack I will try all of your suggestions, hopefully next week when I can shake this cold off thats knocked me for six  
May be a bit before I can get over to check it out but as soon as I can I will post a reply  

[Robotochan]

I had a problem once with a monitor where it turned off for no reason. It turned out that it was over heating. Maybe that could be the problem?

[Sandra]

Think he has sorted his problem out, hopefully.

As I put in my original post

just as if the graphics card was disconnected

And as Simon suggested, by re seating the card.

It turns out that even though the card is held securely with the clip at one end of the board, it is in a new fancy case that has sliding plastic clips pushing down onto the metal bracket at the case end instead of being screwed in.
It has screw holes provided but the plastic clips get in the way when you try and use a screwdriver so I suggested that he breaks the plastic clips off and uses screws as normal.
The strange thing is it must not have come fully out as it would work ok after a reboot, until tonight when it didnt and when he checked he could see it was cocked up at one end  

[Simon]

 I got something right!    I think I'll have to have a lie down.  

[measter]

hmm, i get that too, though i'v got a radeon 9600. it only started happening after i switched from my old geforce. maybe sometime i'll take it out and put it back in.

btw, lil' help in my thread please