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PC problem please help
DeadlySwordz
Member UncommonPosts: 91
ill put up my pc specs first then ill expalin the problem
nForce 680i motherboard/chipset whatever you wanna call it, lol
Windows Vista 32-Bit
Intel Quad Core 2.4Ghz Q6600
3GB of Ram
PNY nVidia Geforce 9600GT 512MB (min power supply for this card is 400Watts)
700 Watts Power Supply
now to the problem. iv had this PC since last May. PC was fine and it came with an 8600GT 512MB graphics card before i upgraded to the 9600gt. anyway, my pc happens to lose signal to my monitor (screen turns off and all i see is "no signal") here and there and it only happens when i play games. and when that happens i hear looping sound as well and the only way to get out of it is to do a hard reeboot. there is no cooldown at all, pc boots up again to windows no probs and i can continue using my PC. so back in December is when i called PNY up because i thought it was a card problem. the tech told me seems like an overheating issue. so i sent my 9600gt to them and they ended up sending me a brand new on within days.
go the new one, installed it. everything working fine again until 2-3 weeks ago it started to happen again. so called PNY again, tech told me we sent you a new one and the previous one you sent us, we put it through numerous tests and it passed them all. so they couldnt send me a new one again. my pc was in an enclosed part of my desk so i thought it wasnt enough ventilation. so i took the time of taking apart half of my desk, i actually took my vid card out and dusted it out individually with those air dust removal cans for PC's, took all my ram out and dusted their slots, and basically dusted my whole tower and motherboard.
after all that, now i have my PC on top of my desk with one side of the case off completely for better ventilation. PC has been running fairly well until today march 21, 2009...about a week or so later after cleaning out my PC. so today was playing Left 4 Dead with some friends when the problem happens again. Sound looping, monitor shuts off, PC keeps running, "no signal" message on my screen....hard reboot needed.
im completely confused, and out of ideas on what the problem can be. maybe its another hardware issue? by the way my PC is a Gateway PC Model Number FX541S if anyone cares to look it up. but if anyone has any ideas on what the problem is, please help me out. its getting rather furtrating now, as well even more when i thought i had fixed the problem.
Thanks in Advanced
Comments
It might be your power supply. Power Supplies from OEMs are typically of low quality, and that can often cause shorts or be very ineffecient. Considering it originally came packed with an 8600, the design might not take into consideration a better GPU.
Yes I would also say its the Power Supply not being strong enough. Also make sure you are connecting your power supply to your video card.
same thing happened to me. turns out the mobo was going out.
i suggest you try googling the model of motherboard+issue you are having. thats how i found my answer.
thanks for the replys guys. but can it really be the power supply? i mean the minimum power supply for this 9600gt is 400watts. and i have a 700 watts power supply. so i have more than enough, dont make sense to me. this problem occurs at random times to. i can be playn a game for a few hrs with no problems at all. then it can happen in a matter of minutes of playing a game. or before i did all the dusting out of my pc it was happening like once every few days or so.
If it is the power supply...does anyone know what specs of a power supply id have to look into buying? .....and for Rage9000, how did you end up fixing this problem? you got your motherboard replaced or something? this is frustrating, lol. this PC is gonna be a yr old this coming May.
Are you using the DVI socket? It looks like this www.allproducts.com/ee/fuyao/Product-20056715042.jpg If so try and use the VGA socket and see if that fixes the problem
Edit: If your already using VGA try the DVI. Either way see if it fixes the problem
Did you plug your power supply directly into your graphics card?.
Does the Mobo have onboard graphics?. 9 out of 10 motherboards automatically overrides the internal one once an external one is installed but "some" cause conflicts if not shut off in BIOS.
Did you try different Nvidia Drivers?
Do you have any kind of power saving schemes running that affects the monitor in any way?
Things you can try is
Try resetting BIOS to default settings ..just be aware if you have raid enabled you will have to enable it again since BIOS raid configurations are off by default
Try borrowing or buy a cheap lower end card and see if the problem persists.
I have a feeling however you are not plugging in your power cord directly to the card. If you are try to see if the power cord is damaged in any way.
Here are a couple of things you can try.
First if you have on board graphics use that for a bit. It will decrease the load of the power supply and if you still get the same problem. then you can eliminate the video card and power supply.
Then you can run a program such as Prime 95 ( you can google that). which will stress test the cpu. and motherboad.
Also down load a memory tester. and test your memory.
Good luck finding the problem.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
i was using VGA cable, then switched to DVI cable when i got my new 23inch monitor on friday. yes i have a power supply cable connected directly to the card. i even switched cables because i had an additional power supplyl cable. so thought first one was defective. nvidia drivers, i always keep up to date, so since december there has probably been a few new drivers and iv always updated them.. i have no onboard graphics cards on my motherboard.
as for power saving schemes there is :
Balanced - Energy Saving ***
Performance ***
Power Saver - Energy Saving ******
Performance **
High Performance - Energy Saving **
Performance ******
I have mine set to Balanced right now and also have Turn off the Display and Put the Computer to sleep as "Never"
i really appreciate the help and suggestions you guys are giving me. would a full system restore to factory settings help? someone told me that could help but i don't know if it would. and any other suggestions is highly appreciate it. Thanks
Are you running with the correct refresh rate for your monitor, not trying to force it to run with a higher refresh rate than it can handle?
Have you had your monitor checked out? -( just becuse it's new, don't mean it's working perfect.)
I think you just need to update your bios, some other post was complaining about the same problem with a 680i mobo and said a bios update fixed it for him. Try here support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp
You may be able to find a newer bios at the actual motherboard manufacturer site, I *think* your mobo is an ECS PN2-SLI2 but you can just look on the mobo to find out. Some of the things the mobo bios update fixes is pci-e compatibility, ACPI functionality, gpu functionality - could be any of those things.
monitor refresh rate is at 60Hertz right now. the only other option to choose is 59Hertz. and yes monitor is a new Acer but this was also happening on my old monitor as well back in December when the problem started to happen, which was a 19 inch widescreen gateway monitor. so its not the monitor
i was actually thinking of downloading a bios update from gateway as well but wasnt sure if that would help.. and didnt know bios would help out pce-e compatibility, ACPI, GPU etc....i guess i can try that later on. my mobo is an nForce 680i LT chipset.... should i just download it from nvidia site then? as for the actual motherboard number PN2-SLI2 ...i dont see that on my board anywhere. i see a small sticker in middle that says 680iT-GB (SFISSIN) ..then under it is V4311010F82M060B
Sometimes when trying to trouble shoot its good to just start at the beginning. Update bios,then just do a fresh install on vista,get the latest nvidia drivers and ones for your on board sound and nic as well from there website. Then move forward from there. good luck
so i updated my Bios Via the link you posted to gateway Bios update Noquarter. thought file would be bigger ...it was only i think 700kbs....but anyway played an hr of Left 4 Dead with no problems at all. but i can't say its actually fixed yet but thanks for posting that though. gotta try everything till i find a fix, lol. but most likely its not my new 23" Acer Monitor like i sad in a previous post because it did it on my almost year old 19"" gateway monitor back in december when the problem started. and dont think its the videocard either since PNY tech told me the first one i sent went through a bunch of tests and it passed them all. and with that PNY still sent me a brand new card.
and for Mundus01. if what i just did doesn't work then thats prob the next step to take. full system restore to factory settings and if that doesn't work then the only other option is to send it to Gateway to repair, which i really dont want to do. another thing i was thinking but i don't know if it makes a difference is on that my 9600GT i have two DVI connections. i have one connected to my monitor and one connected to my 40"" Samsung HDTV vida VGA adapter. i wouldnt think that would make a difference? but maybe my system or videocard dont like having two connections at once? lol...i dont know im just throwing out possibilities...as you can see this is driving me crazy!!!!
and i thank everyone here that has been trying to help me with their thoughts. but hopefully the bios updated fixed it...ill keep you posted!
Thanks Again
i was actually thinking of downloading a bios update from gateway as well but wasnt sure if that would help.. and didnt know bios would help out pce-e compatibility, ACPI, GPU etc....i guess i can try that later on. my mobo is an nForce 680i LT chipset.... should i just download it from nvidia site then? as for the actual motherboard number PN2-SLI2 ...i dont see that on my board anywhere. i see a small sticker in middle that says 680iT-GB (SFISSIN) ..then under it is V4311010F82M060B
nVidia makes the chipset but the bios is still specific to the motherboard vendor (something nvidia doesn't actually do, they sell the chipset to other companies who design mobos using it). So there won't be a bios update through nvidia. That one from Gateway should be recent enough though - it may be a reference board or a board made just for Gateway so just stick with their bios. A lot of times motherboards have a few kinks that get worked out in bios updates a couple months after release so when you have weird stuff happening it never hurts to check into that - and the kinks can be completely bizarre, the mobo has its hand in everything, so hopefully that update fixes it for you.
monitor refresh rate is at 60Hertz right now. the only other option to choose is 59Hertz. and yes monitor is a new Acer but this was also happening on my old monitor as well back in December when the problem started to happen, which was a 19 inch widescreen gateway monitor. so its not the monitor
Ok make sure that the games you play have the same setting's for your refresh rate,( some games don't check and have high refresh rate set as defualt)
Q) Is it the same power outlet that you plugged the last monitor into and has it been checked? - otherwise the next monitor could have the same problem.
Q) I could also ask about how many USB 2.00 devices you have plugged in? - , althou if these devices are drawing to much power, the pc will turn them off first before it turn a monitor off.
Q) Have you checked your power settings in control panel and checked your standby settings, some games can confuse a pc into thinking that the mouse isn't being used, so the pc put's it self into stand by mode, which means it will turn the monitor off on you while you play, some pc also give an alarm sound when they go into stand by mode.
I guess what I'm saying is, It's not always a problem inside the pc, sometimes it can be a simpler problem outside, power plug not pushed in properly can cuase major problems,( it's usally some plug buried behide the desk covered in dust that no one has seen for years and it's slip out a fraction of an inch and is now causing power shorts and spikes) also don't forget to check the power board you have all the plug's pluged into, make sure it can handle the extra power and it's not fliping the circuit breakers.
If it's not these thing's, power outlet, monitor, V card etc.. I would say i it's the pc power supply or motherboard.
Anyway just some tip's and idea's, i hope they help you find the problem and fix it.
I just wanted to add somehting about the power supply, vid cards usually have a minimum wattage req as well as an amperage req for the 12v rail/s.
Cheap power supplies often have low amperage, so even if you have enough watts it will still be too weak for the card.
monitor refresh rate is at 60Hertz right now. the only other option to choose is 59Hertz. and yes monitor is a new Acer but this was also happening on my old monitor as well back in December when the problem started to happen, which was a 19 inch widescreen gateway monitor. so its not the monitor
Ok make sure that the games you play have the same setting's for your refresh rate,( some games don't check and have high refresh rate set as defualt)
Q) Is it the same power outlet that you plugged the last monitor into and has it been checked? - otherwise the next monitor could have the same problem.
Q) I could also ask about how many USB 2.00 devices you have plugged in? - , althou if these devices are drawing to much power, the pc will turn them off first before it turn a monitor off.
Q) Have you checked your power settings in control panel and checked your standby settings, some games can confuse a pc into thinking that the mouse isn't being used, so the pc put's it self into stand by mode, which means it will turn the monitor off on you while you play, some pc also give an alarm sound when they go into stand by mode.
I guess what I'm saying is, It's not always a problem inside the pc, sometimes it can be a simpler problem outside, power plug not pushed in properly can cuase major problems,( it's usally some plug buried behide the desk covered in dust that no one has seen for years and it's slip out a fraction of an inch and is now causing power shorts and spikes) also don't forget to check the power board you have all the plug's pluged into, make sure it can handle the extra power and it's not fliping the circuit breakers.
If it's not these thing's, power outlet, monitor, V card etc.. I would say i it's the pc power supply or motherboard.
Anyway just some tip's and idea's, i hope they help you find the problem and fix it.
i have all my power settings like turn display off to "Never" and Put the computer to sleep to "Never" as well. and yes its the same outlet, i actually have my whole PC hooked up to a surge protector. but when the no signal thing happens it seems my montitor stays on and it just loses signall....if the monitor had shut off completley the red led light wouldnt be on my monitor when this happens.....as for USB connections the only thing i have hooked up is my optical mouse and my printer but my printer is always off....other than that i have an external HDD which i only hook it up when i transfer things over to it, otherwise it stays disconnected.
also through control panel in power settings screen i see a "change advanced settings" when i click it a different screen comes up with a few options i can change... Turn of Hard Disk (after 20mins) , Wireless Adapter (Maximum Performance), Sleep (all settings set at Never), USB Settings (set to Disabled), Power Buttons and Lid (doubt this makes a difference) , PCI Express (this is set to Moderate Power Settings) , Processor Power Management (min 5%, max 100%), Search and Indexing (High Performance), Display ( Turn off Never, Adaptive Display On) , Multimedia Settings...i have never changed any of those settings. and overall my settings in regualr Power Setting is set to Balanced...other options are Power Saver or High Performance. and so far i have updated the bios through gateway site...maybe that fixed the problem, cant tell yet.
and to add on i looked up my power supplly model online ...this is what i have on my system www.barebonekit.net/itemdesc.asp
Looks like a pretty nice PSU to me. I doubt it's the problem, unless it went bad.
so i thought i had fixed the problem. i updated the bios from the gateway site. it was fine for 2 days with no problems playing a few hrs of Left 4 Dead, and some World of Warcraft. then we come to today and it did the same thing once again!!
...as you can see it does it at random times. but now its getting really out of hand. i have no idea what it can be anymore so my next step now is basically to back up all my files to my external HDD, call Gateway and have them walk me therough a full system restore to factory settings. if that don't work then the last option is to send it to Gateway to figure out the problem and for repairs.
but like i said im out of ideas...this has been going on when it started back in December. some say its the videocard, some say its something else. but i got a new PNY geforce 9600GT graphics card from PNY already back in December. was good for a few months until it started to happen recenlty like i said in my previous posts. but i thank everyone that has tried to help me with their many suggestsions to solve this problem. although it hasnt been fixed. does anyone else have any other ideas of what i can do before i take the step of possibly sending it in for repairs?
Thank you all again.....
Have you tried to plug the pc into a diffrent wall outlet in diffrent part of your home and see if it still dose it?
no i havent tried that yet. the thing is that only the monitor loses signal. the monitor doesn't completely shut off...the red led light is still on. to turn monitor off completely id have to pussh the power button on the monitor itself. and also my PC keeps running no probs...but i do have to do a hard reebot....thats the only way out of it......my brother said something about newer nvidia cards past the 8800's have trouble with vista? not sure if this is true or not but i was thinking if i should just give ATI graphics card a try as well...although i do have an nForce motherboard, i wonder how that would react with an ATI?
Normally I'd suggest grabbing parts from a spare PC or a friend's and trying them out but given that it can take a few days for the problem to occur that might not be as doable. Unless you have a friend that doesn't mind swapping power supplies for a week or video cards for a week. Other thing that works is to buy a power supply and try it for a week and if the problem is solved keep it otherwise return it
no i havent tried that yet. the thing is that only the monitor loses signal. the monitor doesn't completely shut off...the red led light is still on. to turn monitor off completely id have to pussh the power button on the monitor itself. and also my PC keeps running no probs...but i do have to do a hard reebot....thats the only way out of it......my brother said something about newer nvidia cards past the 8800's have trouble with vista? not sure if this is true or not but i was thinking if i should just give ATI graphics card a try as well...although i do have an nForce motherboard, i wonder how that would react with an ATI?
Only other thing I can sujest is to borrow another monitor for a few days and see if it happen's without the new monitor, I'm thinking by this stage that it is the new monitor, might be fualty, might have some standby mode that just needs to be turn off, best to grab the paperwork that came with the monitor and check thru that, otherwise I'm Stumped sorry to say.
Edit; sorry I forgot you already tried a 2nd monitor, that just leaves me at stumped.