**Life not worth living** PC IS DEAD!!!!

[kenc51]

My PC is a gonner!!! (sort of)
Yesterday my rig crashed and won't reboot........

I started to play Black & White 2 and then it locked up.....
I rebooted and got as far as windows login then the GFX was messed up......The GFX card was not OC'ed as only reinstalled drivers earlier last week.....

I tried pulling out the battery and clearing the CMOS.....It booted but gave me a warning the Bios was in safe mode.....It gave me the option to press delete to change the settingts for press F1 to contiume booting

If I press delete --> it's ok untill I save the bios settings, then nothing.....
One diagnostic LED on the board stays lit (gfx prob?)
If I chose F1 --> It boots into windows fine, untill it gets to the XP screen then gfx is messed up.

I re-flashed my boards bios twice, once via Tmods boot cd and once via floppy (blind flash)

Now I can't get any display.....the monitor gets no signal @ all
I have no internet access as my Intel rig is running Linux and I have a crappy usb wifi adapter which won't install on linux (using NdisWrapper)

I was thinking of doing a blind flash of the GFX bios.......but the card is still under warranty and if I mess up the Bios then I may not get an RMA

The worse thing is my Linux box has no Video Codecs installed and my XP rig was my TV and entertainment centre........I have nothing to watch @ all or no web access and I'm on lates this week

It could be the mobo or the GFX card, but I don't have a second PCIe card to test with.......
I've taken apart the rig and tried to boot with just the GFX / 1 stick of ram and nothing......

I'm going to bring back the card tomorrow morning and hope that was the prob......I'm also thinking of paying a bit more and upgrading the card for an ATI card....

I'm thinking it's the card as If I only have the my OS HDD in and press F1 I it loads windows...I even hear that poxy welcome to windows sound, but the monitor gets no signal
I'm using the stock bios in the GFX card.....I did try a modded bios, but that was 4mths ago.....adding more voltage didn't help my OC so I reverted back to the origional Bios......

This week and prolly next week will be a killer for me as I now have nothing to watch @ all.......I'll haveto revert back to using ethernet to connect to the web via my Linux box......

someday I will have a stable pc.....yeah right!!!!

[Apoptosis]

dude that is a complete bummer... think any local shops will let you try out a PCIe card for a bit or let you try your card on their machines?

[FZ1]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I feel for ya!

[Kerii]

Sucks to hear, hope it works out for ya. Got a good RMA policy on the card I presume?

I know your pain, my old graphics card died on me sometime ago as well.

Though... I'm not entirely sure if it was my fault or the PSU's.
Don't think I'll ever know.

[kenc51]

I'm going to bring the gfx card back to the shop tomorrow morning.......I'll also get a loan of a PCI GFX card from someone here in work so I'll only have to suffer no pc for tonight...........

I can only hope the shop will test and replace the card themselves as I don't think I can wait if it must be sent to PNY for testing........

[FZ1]

I started to play Black & White 2 and then it locked up.....

OK, there was your first mistake - you should have been practicing BF2

[kenc51]

I started to play Black & White 2 and then it locked up.....

OK, there was your first mistake - you should have been practicing BF2

Nahh.....I Never play online games!!!!

I tried once here with CS....but that was a joke......

I'm not sure to get another GTX or pay a bit more and get an ATI X1900XT instead??

[ikjadoon]

I personally would get another GTX if it can be RMA'd, but the 7900 Series cards don't look that shabby either.

I would say a nVidia card, since you have a SLi motherboard, but the x1900 is a powerful card as well.

~Ibrahim~

[Black Mesa Scientist]

Last time something like this happened with me on my last K7....
Too bad, I hope you will survive, comrade.

[Razorbacx]

I just went thru this myself. My gfx card took a dump and it was better than 3 weeks before I got it back fixed under warranty. Talk about torture! I feel your pain and wish you a speedy recovery...

[DeusEx]

thats what u get for playing boring games like black and white.

[kenc51]

thats what u get for playing boring games like black and white.

I've only ever seen ~10 secs of the intro then.......blue screen

[Sovereign]

I thought my life was bad, my Seagate 'Cuda has been threatening to take a dive on me, but my computer still works. I'll consider myself lucky.


**language: /infinite**

[KnightRid]

That REALLY sux! I have all AGP cards here or I would send you one to use...

I had a video card go bad once in all my computing years, and that one was over 5 years old, so for some reson they wouldnt let me get a warranty exchange the bastards..hehehe

Let me know if I can help somehow!

Mike

[kenc51]

It's alive again
I left the card in earlier this week.....then yesterday I got an e-mail saying I could pick up a replacement......

Instead of getting another 256Mb GTX I decided to pay some extra cash....

Sapphire X1900XTX stock


Old card
3DMark06 Score: 4798 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score: 1923 Marks
SM 3.0 Score: 1909 Marks
CPU Score: 1937 Marks

I need to watercool this baby! The stock cooler is a POS.....it's way too loud!
Whoot!

[pcrobot]

Niiiiice!

[gvblake22]

HOLY CRAP Ken!!!
Sorry to hear about your problem, but it's awesome to see you got such a sweet a$$ card!!!

[goose]

Good deal, man, It's always good to hear that it all worked out in the end!