PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: crazyjoe_uk on January 16, 2003, 21:23
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:'(
I have a shiny new MSI Ti4600 Geforce 4 graphics card, and I have only had it for two weeks.
My system now won't load correctly with it in. Most of the time it won't display anything on screen at all, not even the bios screen. When it does eventually come on screen( after several reboots) there are little blue dots randomly placed over the screen (this is before windows has even started up!) when windows does eventually load, it has vertical yellow lines down the screen, and the system is unstable as hell.
When I reboot the pc from safe mode, windows appears to be shutting down ok, but then the screen stays completely blank!!
I have a gigabyte 7Z-x motherboard with an AMD Athlon 1.3 cpu.
I re installed my old graphics card, and although the screen remained blank, after rebooting a couple of times, all is well (no blue dots or yellow streaks)
I know this sounds like an obvious case of the graphics card being at fault, but was wondering if anyone could shed light on possible problems (i.e why its suddenly broken etc)
I have also replaced the PSU as I thought this may remedy the situation, but it didn't. Thanks in advance
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Welcome to the zoo, CJ! I had a similar problem with a Voodoo card about a year or so back. It turned out to be the card in the end, but I recommend you talk with one of our grown-ups, who will try to sort your problem with a bit more technical knowledge. :)
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thanks mate, but not sure what you mean by talking to our grownups ?? :)
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Don't worry CJ, Adept has just walked in and is probably on the case already. Welcome to the forum.
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Hi Crazy Joe, (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apax34.dsl.pipex.com%2Fsmileys%2Fwelcome1.gif&hash=f93d4bc8d2a54714364c834e98f05d10a87eb9d5)
You'll soon know what Rodders meant if you stick around for a while, and explore the forum! ;)
I'm definitely not an expert, and sorry if this is too basic for you, but when you installed the new card, did you update the drivers for it? Also, did you remove the old drivers for the old card? I'm just wondering if you had some sort of clash of old / new drivers?
Sorry if that's no help - I'm sure someone with lots more knowledge of this will be along soon!
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Hi crazy_joe
I presume you uninstalled the hardware (your old graphics card) first, before installing your new one.
As it seems to not want to work, when you load the drivers etc, yet works ok with the old card, seems to suggest that the card is faulty.
I'll have a little think about this and get back to you later
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As it appears ok in safe mode when the drivers havent been installed and has problems even displaying the screen prior to booting into windows I am 99% sure its a faulty card. Have you made sure its inserted correctly and not being pulled out of the slot slightly when the screw is tightened up?
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:'(
I have a shiny new MSI Ti4600 Geforce 4 graphics card, and I have only had it for two weeks.
Hi crazjoe,
assuming the new card worked OK for the first two weeks, then just went walk about. And your old card has settled down to work as it did before your installed the MSI card. I think it is safe to say you have a faulty card, the litmus test would be to try that card in another PC, hell what are neigbours for if not that, get round there. ;D
You sneaked that in Sandra :-*
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Sounds like a memory fault on the card to me :(
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>:( You're right, the card is faulty!! I am sending it packing, and sticking with a pen and paper from now on.
Thanks all for your quick and friendly responses, shall definately be sticking this site in my Faves!!
Take care everyone, will let you know when the new card turns up! ;)
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Glad its sorted so swiftly Crazy Joe :-*
Hey Rodders does this mean I am now a grown up :'(
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Glad its all sorted out. It was definitly not the drivers as stated because of what you said during the bios problems. It does sound like the cards memory is running too hot and too high. Probably just one defective memory mod.
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Sorry it was the card, that's tuff when you get something new to make a difference and it goes the other way. Still, you'll get another one and be zooming the pixels at warp speed very soon again.
Thanks for the kind words crazyjoe, and we look forward to welcoming you even more into this fun community :D
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Hi All again,
Adept, you said it sounds as if the memory is running too high, and too hot for the card?
When I first installed it, on the Display Properties, it had a tab for MSI Clock. I clicked into it and it showed two items that had something to do with clock speed. I clicked Auto Adjust, and the speed "slider" went up. I did this 2 weeks ago, when i first installed the card. Could this be the problem? I know you're not supposed to overclock things, but it was just like an option that was bundled with the card, so surely should be suitable to use !! Also, now because the system won't load into windows, i can't get back in to bring down the clock speed! On other MSI cards, they have something called Twin Bios, which is like a Safe mode option for the graphics card, but suprise suprise, mine hasn't got it!! Is there anyway to get the card to "reset" its clock speed? I had the case open last night, with a big desktop fan trying to cool the card down, and although the system was a lot more stable, windows starts to load, then reboots the pc at the point you'd expect to see the Desktop.
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Sorry, it was DualBoy, not Adept!
Sorry both! :-[
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Generally, the default setting is with the slider in the middle of the bar. Try this and then only a little at a time do you move it up, and see if everything is stable for a while before doing it again.
I presume there isn't a button on the program with "Reset Defaults" on, or an option in the menues.
I have the MSI software, so I'll have a look when I get home, and have a little play and see what I can find out for you
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Yeah, when I first installed, the slider was in the middle. But after I changed it, everything was ok for a couple of weeks, but now it won't boot into windows normally, and so I CAN@T change it back to defaults. In fact, the Settings Tab that holds the offending click speed setting isn't there in Safe Mode. I need someway to try to get the chip reset, before windows starts! ARGH!! Its broke, and I sure its my fault! Doh! :'( O0
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*cough* don't admit to anything ;)
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....and I really like ----> O0
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The reason the settings option isnt available in SAFE mode is because it hasnt loaded the drivers for it at that point.
Have you tried uninstalling the card and letting it detect it again as its starting up? This may give you the option back again of its default setting or setting it at a lower rate :-*
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...yeah, thanks, will try this but windows is only starting 1 time out of 10 at the minute :(
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Which OS are you using Crazyjoe? I used selective startup a few weeks back when mine wouldnt go into windows at all (98SE) and if I left a couple of files out it started ok,cant remember which ones now,one was autoexec.bat I think other was config.sys but not 100% certain :-*