Tach's monitor issue

[Hammer]

yes - do you have a video card power connector or do you need the hard drive to video card power adapter?

would you like that one?

if so, PM me your address and i can likely get it out tomorrow.

[Tach Deneva]

yes - do you have a video card power connector or do you need the hard drive to video card adapter?

would you like that one?

if so, PM me your address and i can likely get it out tomorrow.

As for the connector or adapter... I have no idea.

[Hammer]

you will have to open your case and look at the power supply. it would be good for you to look at the label and see how many Amps of 12V it can put out.

also look for a 6 pin connector, usually black but sometimes white. it is laid out on 2 rows of 3 pins. often it has yellow and brown ro black wires going into it - 3 of each.

they look like this (the cable from the power supply and the adapter to correct connector - you will need one or the other):

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnec ... pciexpress

failing that, see if you have two available hard drive power connectors. they are the larger, 1 row of 4 pin connectors, usually with 1 yellow. 1 red and 2 black wires. don't mistake this for the smaller floppy drive power connector.

they look like this:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnec ... peripheral

[Tach Deneva]

Okay...

Looks like there's a 6-pin connector with 3 black and 3 white wires plugged into the video card. I can't see what the other end looks like, those wires are bundled with several others and the hard drive is hidden by some sort of cowl thingee.

375 max
+5v 22.0A -12v 1.0a
+12va 18.0a 3.3v 17.0a
+12vb 18.0a +5vfp 2.0a
Max combined power on +5v and +3.3v output is 150w
Max combined output current on +12va and +12vb is 30.a

That tell ya anything?

[Hammer]

yes - that would be the same one you plug into the 8800gts.

[Softball]

Back when LOTRO first came out, I had a 7900GTX nVidia card. After about a month of playing, the card crapped out while I was playing LOTRO. There was severe texture tearing and traingles flashing all over my screen. The card started doing the same thing in other games, so I sent it to XFX for diagnosis. They determined my card was bad and replaced it with an 8800GTX. I'm guessing that LOTRO is a graphically intensive game and requires some robust GPU technology.

It's hard to believe that a 375W PSU will run everything in your computer and a 7900GS video card; let alone a larger more power demanding card. 375W seems borderline and I would think would be really taxing on your PSU during your gaming. I guess if it works, then there's no need to profess. But damn, more power to ya. (No pun intended, heh)

[Tach Deneva]

Well, hell.

I opened the side panel and blew some dust out and then vacuumed a little using a straw on the end of the vacuum cleaner nozzle and now I can't get the thing to even boot up.

It will sometimes ALMOST make it, then the screen goes black and the monitor power button light goes orange. Every once in a while a message will appear on the monitor saying it can't support that resolution, use 1280x1024 or whatever. So now I have no idea what the heck to do.

Any ideas?

I'm using my old PC to post here.

[Softball]

Check cables, power, HD, etc... Hopefully you did't short out anything on the MB while cleaning it out. Try removing the video card and re-seating it. Make sure you ground yourself before doing this (Touch the metal on your case first). Have you tried another monitor (you said you had other monitors) to eliminate your current monitor as the culprit?

Based on your comments, I'm going to guess it's either the video card dying, or it's not getting enough power (power supply dying). In my experience, 99% of my computer problems have been power supply related. But it really sounds like the video card is crappin out; strange behavior indeed.

[Tach Deneva]

Well, it turns out the video card in my ex-girlfriend's PC was the same type (that is, fits the same slot) as mine, so I put it in, and the PC booted up. Looks like that card is an NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache.

So it does seem to be a video card problem. I'll try putting the old one back in and see what happens.

[Tach Deneva]

Put the 7900gs back in, the PC booted up normally, Trend Micro took its usual sweet time loading up... and then BOOM, black screen, monitor on standby.

Gonna go out on a limb and say it sure seems to be a problem with the 7900gs.

[Softball]

Dang, well hopefully Hammer's "loaner" card will fix your problem. Is your current card under any kind of warranty? I usually buy XFX video cards, as they offer a lifetime warranty on their products.

[Tach Deneva]

I put the 6200 back in my PC and have had no problems so far.

Hmm, wonder if it will run LOTRO...

EDIT: Yup, tried CoH - had to stop using the new Ultra Mode graphics setting entirely to get it to run smooth, but hey, it works. Tried LOTRO - not bad. Not quite as smooth as with the 7900, but definitely playable.

[Hammer]

cool. at least you have an interim solution.

[Tach Deneva]

Well, I had one, anyway...

I played LOTRO several hours yesterday, and a few earlier today, and then logged on around 7:30 this evening and turned in a few completed quests. Then I turned my character around and started off to do more, and the screen flickered... and froze...

...and, evidently, the 6200 gave its last gasp. Rebooting would get me just past the windows start up screen, then when my desktop background picture appeared it would do that same flicker as previously seen in LOTRO and BOOM. Gone. I tried reinstalling the drivers, just for the heck of it. No good.

It's almost 2 hours later and I've discovered if I uninstall the nvidia drivers I can boot up and get online - it's hell watching the screen redraw and redraw and redraw whenever I try to scroll. But it's better than nothing. Of course, I could use my old PC - but it's all the way over there on that PC stand thing.

Anyway, I got my burglar to level 19. And LOTRO ran better on the 6200 than CoH. Which doesn't make sense, as that old video card has... er... videoed a helluva lot of CoH! Ms Purple even ran the Quaterfield Task Force on it. Oh, well.

salute GeForce 6200 TurboCache

[Softball]

You really should look into the power supply as well. Like I said earlier, 375W does not seem like enough power to run everything at optimum levels. I'm guessing that these cards have a minimum spec on PSUs for their use.