Video Problem or worse... please help


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Ok, first here is my hardware:

Athlon XP 2100+

512DDR 333

80gb ATA 133 Maxtor 7200 drive

40GB ATA 100 IBM 7200 Drive

Geforce 4 Ti4400 PNY

Gigabyte GA-7VRXP

using onboard sound

and LAN

2nd RealTek Ethernet PCI card

350Watt Power Supply

My PC runs fine 90% of the time, It doesn't crash in games or on desktop, although It did at first untill I moved my PCI ethernet card around.

My problem...

When the computer has been off for a while, an hour or more and I switch it on, it NEVER works first time, it all boots up, powers hard drive, cpu etc, but the monitor led just flashes on and off. It's not a no signal, because my monitor tells me that when that happens, it just sits there blank with the LED flashing. I have an optical mouse and i've learn't if I time it right just after that flashes if I press reset it and then rapidly press DELETE it will then go to the BIOS screen and funtion normally.

Why does it do this everytime?

it's a brand new computer everything is new.

If I leave it sometimes the video comes on and it looks like an old spectrum with black and white stripes, all messed up. Lately it's getting worse, because it's taking me more and more resets to get it to initialise properly.

Any light you can shed on my problem is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

PS.

I never get a problem when in Windows, it's always when it boots from cold, I can restart fine, or resume from standby fine too.

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check that your vid card is all the way in tight, that your monitor is plugged into your vid card tight.. and that there are no kinks, bends, or tears in the monitor wire... try using a different monitor, and see if it happens on that one... that is all i can think of for now... (or just don't turn your comp off)

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Originally posted by Phatm1ke

Ok, first here is my hardware:

Athlon XP 2100+

512DDR 333

80gb ATA 133 Maxtor 7200 drive

40GB ATA 100 IBM 7200 Drive

Geforce 4 Ti4400 PNY

Gigabyte GA-7VRXP

using onboard sound

and LAN

2nd RealTek Ethernet PCI card

350Watt Power Supply

My PC runs fine 90% of the time, It doesn't crash in games or on desktop, although It did at first untill I moved my PCI ethernet card around.

My problem...

When the computer has been off for a while, an hour or more and I switch it on, it NEVER works first time, it all boots up, powers hard drive, cpu etc, but the monitor led just flashes on and off. It's not a no signal, because my monitor tells me that when that happens, it just sits there blank with the LED flashing. I have an optical mouse and i've learn't if I time it right just after that flashes if I press reset it and then rapidly press DELETE it will then go to the BIOS screen and funtion normally.

Why does it do this everytime?

it's a brand new computer everything is new.

If I leave it sometimes the video comes on and it looks like an old spectrum with black and white stripes, all messed up. Lately it's getting worse, because it's taking me more and more resets to get it to initialise properly.

Any light you can shed on my problem is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

PS.

I never get a problem when in Windows, it's always when it boots from cold, I can restart fine, or resume from standby fine too.

Have you checked the connector pins on your monitor as well to make sure that they aren't bent or loose? Have you plugged the connector in correct side up? It could also be something in the monitor itself which is defective and only functioning once it has heated up.

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Welcome to NeoWin m8 :)

Have you referred to the monitor manual?, have you tried another monitor?

Check the AGP card to see if it aint out of place on the motherboard.

Check in the BIOS for the Power Options for the monitor.

I think you might have to Degauss the monitor, it should tell you in the monitor manual, newer monitors have it build in.

Hope this helps m8 ...... :)

Radish.

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Thanks for your quick reply, but I forgot to mention I have tried another monitor, Flashed the bios 2 times since then but it there is no change. Also, my hard drives are both on IDE 0, master, slave, I have Promise RAID onboard which can be used for ATA 133 also, but it is currently disabled due to some stability problems in windows when this was enabled.

I seem to remember when I had my ATA 133 drive in the ATA/RAID controller, it booted up normally but was unstable in windows, I can try that again later, but if that is the case I won't have a stable computer :(

Any more suggestions?

Thanks

Mike

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Wow the response is amazing :)

yes, I've deguassed the monitor, the Pins are not bent and it does the same on my older Monitor. I don't have another video Card to try (incase mine is faulty) although I doubt it is, as it runs fine in windows and all games. I do still have the receipt though, but it is 2 months old so I doubt the store would take it back (Circuit City) i'd have to send it to the manufactures which could take ages if it is this.

Keep 'em coming please

Mike

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I had a similar problem a while back with an old Diamond Viper 770. I had the black screen, blinkin cursor, and the white stipes occasionally. What cured it for me, was that there was a bios update for the card itself. It seems there was some sort of timing issue, with the card. Also found that if I set the MB bios IRQ settings manually, it helped. Sometimes the auto setting got confused and gave away my IRQ to the nic.

Just a suggestion on what you might check. If its an AGP card, you might also check your "aperature" setting in the MB Bios.

:D

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Thankyou Crash and everyone for your help.

I'll see if I can find a bios update for my AGP PNY geforce ti4400 card. I have my aperture rate set at 128, I don't really know what is a good setting, I have 512 mb RAM and the card has onboard 128, so I just left it alone on default (128). If that doesn't work I'll try setting the IRQ manually because I do have a nic card in here and Onboard LAN too, so it could be conflicting there. I am certain it is NOT a monitor problem, and I know it is seated correctly (have reseated 2 times) the only thing that sux about trying to fix this is that It only happens when I boot from cold, so every time I attempt to make a change I have to leave it off for an hour or so or it will boot fine.

If anyone else has any other suggestions I might try incase these don't work It'll be a while before I can see if these do work, so It would be great to see some more help if after hours of testing it still doesn't work

Thanks again

Mike

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Okay, I think I have eliminated the problem futher, but I still have no solution. (well none I like, I don't fancy running my 2100+ 1720ish Mhz cpu at 1300Mhz)

I have tried everything you guys have suggested so far and nothing has worked yet, but! I changed the System bus speed from 133 to 100 (it's on auto multiplier (at 13x) AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY.

Does it require signifcantly more power to run at 133 over 100?

I have removed my one pci card, turned off every else (onboard sound, lan etc) and it still doesn't help

I declocked my CPU from 13x in .5's all the way down to x5 and it still doesn't work! which means it's running alot slower at that rate (x5 is rougly 665mhz with my cpu)

It will run perfectly at 100 System bus, BUT it is a 133 CPU definately.

it's an athlon XP 2100+ (which needs to be 133 to reach that speed)

Soooooooo, Any more help? would buying a 450Watt power supply fix my problem do you think? I don't want to buy it if it won't as they get expensive at that wattage.

Many Thanks

Mike

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Originally posted by Phatm1ke

Thankyou Crash and everyone for your help.

I'll see if I can find a bios update for my AGP PNY geforce ti4400 card. I have my aperture rate set at 128, I don't really know what is a good setting, I have 512 mb RAM and the card has onboard 128, so I just left it alone on default (128). If that doesn't work I'll try setting the IRQ manually because I do have a nic card in here and Onboard LAN too, so it could be conflicting there. I am certain it is NOT a monitor problem, and I know it is seated correctly (have reseated 2 times) the only thing that sux about trying to fix this is that It only happens when I boot from cold, so every time I attempt to make a change I have to leave it off for an hour or so or it will boot fine.

If anyone else has any other suggestions I might try incase these don't work It'll be a while before I can see if these do work, so It would be great to see some more help if after hours of testing it still doesn't work

Thanks again

Mike

Or you could try it at the highest setting? My vid card GF2 MX 400 has 64 megs and I have my AGP set at 256megs.

BTW, have you tried disabling the Video Shadow RAM and the like settings in your CMOS? From what I understand is that these settings are a hold over from when video RAM was slower than system RAM and since this isn't the case anymore you can disable them now. This may help with this as well.

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Originally posted by NOS482

BTW, have you tried disabling the Video Shadow RAM and the like settings in your CMOS? From what I understand is that these settings are a hold over from when video RAM was slower than system RAM and since this isn't the case anymore you can disable them now. This may help with this as well.

I have looked but I can't disable Video Shadow RAM in my CMOS

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Either buy an 450w new power supply, or send your card back to get it checked out ...... thats all of i can think of right now m8 :)

Radish.

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Look to your memory. I had a ton of random problems (not booting up, crashing, etc) and it turned out to be faulty memory. If you have more than one stick, try booting with just one. Change them around and see if you get anywhere.

Anyways, that would be my guess. (Especially since I just went through that about a month ago.)

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I only have 1 memory module, 512 ddr 333, I have no other ram to test.

:( there are so many things it could be, power, ram, mobo, video card

everything is new (3 months) but parts brought were from different places

I wish I could just borrow a 450 watt case, or some more ram but I don't know anyone with the stuff I need to borrow :(

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I messed around with it a bit more, in the bios I can overclock my FSB speed, so I set the dip switch to 100, and "overclocked" it to up to 120 (which I thought would still be actually underclocking it really as that's 13mhz slower than it's designed. Reach 120 though it totally went crazy, the screen made a horrible crash screen that wouldn't go for ages, I thought it was dead. So after I changed my pants, I turned it on (after it sat for a while) and it automatically flashed my bios (it has this dual bios technology if it gets a problem) and I am no better off, infact worse off as with this bios "update" windows crashes all the time, BSOD.

Hmm, I just found out there is a NEWER BIOS update than the one I had before, maybe it will work!!!, here's hoping it will.

I just this works, or that I could rule some stuff out to save me money and time

Mike

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I doubt it is a power problem. I would suggest it is your graphics card or the mother board itself is defective. Have you tried your graphics card on another machine? What about memory, have you tried removing each DIMM one at a time and rebooting? If you really want to know if it's your graphics card, I can tell you what to do... GO down to London Drugs and pick up some cheap POS graphics card and bring it home and sit it in place and boot up. THis way you can determine if the video card is indeed defective. Then, put the card back in the package and return it to london drugs. Tell them it is defective or that it won't work or something.. THEY HAVE TO TAKE IT BACK regardless of your reason.

Give it a shot. GOod luck.

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Originally posted by Phatm1ke

I only have 1 memory module, 512 ddr 333, I have no other ram to test.

:( there are so many things it could be, power, ram, mobo, video card

everything is new (3 months) but parts brought were from different places

I wish I could just borrow a 450 watt case, or some more ram but I don't know anyone with the stuff I need to borrow :(

Didn't you say that your system bus speed is 133MHz and your RAM is 333MHz? Shouldn't your system bus speed and RAM speed be at most the same? Could this be the problem where your RAM is just too fast for your system bus and it is throwing out the timing at startup?

Around Xmas I got a new case and it came with a 400 Watt powersupply. At the price I got it they basically sold me a powersuplly and throw in the mid-tower case for free and it had a case fan included as well.

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Well, I Have fixed it, Though I don't know really what I did to finally fix it. I have noticed though that if I run the FSB at 100 it runs stable without problems. I have now finally got it working at 133 FSB too but I don't really know what I have done to fix it, I removed everything from the mobo, tweaked everything possible, it now works so I won't tinker with it no more :) honest. :evil:

Oh yeah, when I say 100FSB or 133 FSB I actually mean 200/266 but the jumper is called 100/133 switch.

Thanks for all your help

Mike

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