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My monitor just bugged out

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:14 pm
by Molten Prominence
I was on the computer for a few hours and then decided to turn off the cpu. Right before it shut down i noticed the screen bug out with columns of lines going down vertically on the screen. The next day when I restarted, all the lines where there again and its been like that all day.
It looks like when your game fucked up when playing the original nintendo system.

I check the cables but other then that im stuck.

Monitor is about 5 years old. Could it just be old and time to get a new one? Or is there something that can be done. Its a 19 inch monitor and would like to save it if i could.

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:45 pm
by Istik
Sounds more like your video card or even your tower powersupply. Are you sure its your monitor?

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:49 pm
by gelfling
I agree, it sounds like your video card has gone bust.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:01 am
by Molten Prominence
yeah i thought about that when I woke up this morning because when I logged onto swg, i couldnt see anthing but color blotches.

Is the video card the same as the graphics card?

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:11 am
by Molten Prominence
And which video card should i get and how much is it. Ill go buy it today.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:38 am
by Parrot
depends on your system, agp pci or pci express theses are the things we need to know, if not sure do you know your computer brand and modle number.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:55 am
by Molten Prominence
I have a Dell Dimension 8300

Its a ACPI multiprocessor PC

The Display adaptor is a Radeon 9800 series

Under System Devices it says among other things:
PCI bus
Intel(r)60128 PCi Bride-244E
Intel(R) 82675P Processor to AGP controller-2579

Its hard to see so a number or letter might be off.

If u need to know anything else, goto the device manger and tell me the correct terminology to look up so I can give you the info you need.

Would like to figure this out today and go get what I need.

Thanks guys.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:16 am
by Toucan
i'm useless at all this stuf, but i have a dell dimention as well, and it has a pci-e slot for a graphics card

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:55 am
by Parrot
It should be a agp slot card, those are a little hard to find now a days.
A geforce 7600 or a radeon 1900xt would be good choices

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 11:41 am
by Istik
What parrot said. Often on those old cards, especially 9800 ATI cards, the fan would stop working and the card would fry itself. Also sometimes the connection to the powersupply gets a little hot and it can melt the connector, which prevents it getting the power it needs. Usually this stops it working entirely.

Power supplies are one of the most common things to go and can cause a number of symptoms that can look like other things.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:38 pm
by Molten Prominence
Well i unplugged everything and opened up the tower to clean it and look at all the connections. I noticed a connection that was unplugged which I never noticed before.

I looked to see where it might connect to and there was only one spot that I saw. But this spot had 20 pins sticking up and the lose connection had only 16. So I didnt touch it.

I cleaned everything and hooked it back up and when I got back to the desktop, it was all back to normal.

However my happiness lasted for only 10 minutes cause then it fucked up again. I guess ill buy a new graphics card to see if that works but does anyone know whats up w/ that loose cable?

If this helps it was connected near the memery cards and on the banded wires it read:
28 AWG Keen top CSA AWN 105'c 300v FTI

:D

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:34 pm
by Istik
Often powersupplies come with multiple cables to fit differetn types of boards. So there is usually spare plugs sitting around inside the case.

Now if it only starts after using it for 10 minutes, it sounds like your vid card is overheating, or your powersupply.

is the fan on your vid card and powersupply working?

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:04 pm
by Molten Prominence
It was the graphics card. It was a little damaged and so I replaced it. All working good now.

Thanks for the help.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 4:31 pm
by Istik
Good to hear its fixed.