Think my Graphics card is faulty, any help please!

[holman210]

Hi,

Where do I start!!

Firstly my pc freezes during, Startup, before the post beeps, during Bios setup and while logged into windows. Its completly random, gets worse and worse everytime I manually restart the machine, sometimes it takes serveral attemps just to get to windows then it would crash anyway within a few minutes, doing something or not. It was due a format to clear everything on the hard drive so I done that and re-installed everything, fresh.

I thought it was my Hard drive so I tried another one and it still did it. I tried different RAM modules and tried various other internal hardware and it still froze. It came to my new graphics card, a Geforce 6200 256mb AGP. I took it out and put in my old previous graphics card, a Riva TNT2. Everything was fine! it didnt freeze! So I presume its something to do with my new graphics card. Well, I say "NEW" graphics card, the Geforce has actually been in my machine for a couple of months and its worked fine.

I cant be 100% sure but it started freezing when I installed XP Service pck 2. Or maybe it never crashed within the first 2 months because I wasnt using my pc as much as I started to do. These are the only two ideas I can come up with. Below is my system spec.

AMD Athlon XP 2200 1.7mhz
120gb HDD
512md DDR
DVD RW
CDRW
Motherboard is a K266b Via KT-266a/VT-8233a chipset
400watt ATX PSU

Average system temp - 47degress
Graphics card (Geforce) average temp - 49degress - Nvidia have automatically set the limit to 145degress.

I also have an extra internal fan

Windows XP Professional SP2


Thanks!

 

[holman210]

ok.... Update. I put bck in my old graphics card and its still freezing. Cant even get into windows before it freezes! It can only be now my motherboard, PSU or the CPU. Theres nothing else in my PC to change.

Does this sound like it could be my PSU? Can faulty PSU's cause problems like this? Im going to change it anyway. When my PC Freezes the PSU changes sound slightly.

Thanks

 

[COCOCOOKIE]

Hi. It sounds like a PSU failure but it can also be a drivers/application issue. Did you try to boot into Safe Mode yet? Try that by pressing F8 when your computer starts and choose Safe Mode from the Options. Run some programs for a long period of time to see if it freezes, try it a couple of times. Post back with more info and/or results. Good Luck!

 

[holman210]

Hi, I changed the PSU and it still did it. It freezes in safe mode! I really dont understand whats going. I took out all my PCI cards and turned it back on and it works fine!! So I turned it off again and put them back in again but in different slots, and its working!

I bought a PCI USB 2.0 and put it in thinking my pc was ok again but its freezing again now! Took it out and it stopped.

I only need around 360watt for all my hardware (360w including 50w for extra) I have a new 400watt psu so its not that. Can a PCI slot on my PC just become faulty? i doubt it but thats what it seems like. I now have 2 internal fans and it really cool in there.

Thanks!

 

[bmxfreakrider]

yea, i would have to say either bad drivers, or a faulty card. try the card in another system to see if it still does it, and if it does, theres your problem.

 

[COCOCOOKIE]

Basically, if it freezes in Safe Mode, that means you have a hardware failure. It's not faulty drivers, otherwise you will be able to boot into Safe Mode successfully. You're gonna start doing trial and error with your PCI cards and consider a PCI slot failing or/and Motherboard failure. Test the cards in another PC to make sure they're not defective, that's the easiest way without spending more money. Post back with more info or results.

 

[holman210]

Thanks for the advice. Right, All the PCI Cards I have in my PC at the moment are what I had in there when it was crashing. All I have done is moved them around and its not crashing at the moment.

I pressume this sounds like either PCI or motherboard failure. Im going to try putting in that USB device in a different slot and see if it crashes still.

Thanks again ill post back soon!

 

[holman210]

This is really giving me a headache! I tried that USB PCI Card in another pc and it crashed that one too, so it must be faulty. But what I dont understand is my pc was crashing before I even bought the USB PCI! Also before I formatted my hard drive I swapped my graphics card and it stopped crashing.

After all this crashing and freezing im back to my original setup and so far it hasnt froze! The only thing I have done is moved around my PCI cards and installed a new PSU. Im going to get another USB PCI card and see what happens.

But whats even more strange is when I first put in the new USB Pci card it worked for about half hour then froze! Maybe I have had really bad luck that my PSU was faulty and this new USB card was faulty. Strange how it did the same freezing though.

Thanks