Help required- has my graphics card died?

[skinnybloke]

Hi - I have an old computer which I use mainly for internet browsing and a bit of audio work and it appears that my graphics card may have died. The monitor displays "No signal".

I have checked the monitor and it's associated cable on my main machine and these are both fine.

I have opened the case on my old computer and everything appears fine when I power it up - no beeping, all fans turning, lights on the front panel lit up etc.

I tried replacing the graphics card but still no joy.

The MOBO in the computer is a Gigabyte 7VAXP Ultra and the original graphics card is an ATI Radeon 9500 . I replaced the original graphics card with a PNY Verto GeForce 6200.

Anybody got any ideas on what the problem may be? Could the VIA KT400 chip have died (even though it's fan is still spinning)?

 

[theforce]

Have you checked your PSU? I would investigate that first. Find a PSU from a friend or another PC and see how that goes.

 

[heb]

Hi,

Normally if it was just the graphics card you would get some beeps from the computer or on a newer motherboard an error number / lights.

It sounds more likely something else has gone wrong. When you say everything looks normal do you mean the fans are spinning etc or is the hard disk being accessed which suggests the machine is booting normally?

If you can, run the machine with only some of the memory installed and anything non essential removed / unplugged. Sounds more likely that the mobo or cpu have gone to calculator heaven though.

Thanks,

HEB

 

[Shakeel]

if you have access to a 2nd psu then try that

 

[Banshee]

Just to check is there a signal now with the 6200 in or not? If there still isn't doesn't sound likely to be the 9500 and is more likely to be the PSU as others have said, although it could be your motherboard or RAM. I once had some RAM decide to die on me for no apparent reason.

 

[skinnybloke]

Hi everybody - thanks for the replies. It is appreciated. To answer some of the follow up questions:

There is no signal on either of the cards.

I have 2 memory cards and have tried booting the system with just the one in - no joy. I also tried it with the just the 2nd memory card in and again no joy.

I have 2 fans in the case and both are spinning. The fans on the chips are spinning also. I am able to open/close the 2 DVD drives. I am not sure if the hard drive is trying to boot - I will have look at this later. I will also try disconnecting everything from the power except the bare minimum and see what happens.

I do have a spare PSU which is in my business machine - I'm afariad swapping this will have to wait till the weekend.

 

[skinnybloke]

A bit more information.

The disk activity light is permenantly on - therefore it looks as if it's not trying to boot.

I have tried disconnecting everything that is not essential but I still have the problem.

 

[skinnybloke]

Hi - I eventually got around to swapping the power supply and I still have the problem.

It's about 8 years+ old so I've had my moneys worth out of it. So what should I do:

1. Take it to a repair shop.
2. Try to buy a replacement mobo
3. Buy a basic system into which I can migrate the following:

3 IDE drives,
a Terratec DMX 6 fire audio card and audio front panel,
DVD writer,
An ATI Radeon 9500 or PNY Verto GeForce 6200 AGP graphics card
2Gb memory

I think my preferred option is option 3 as the case on this existing system is massive and the fans are really noisy. I have a mouse, keyboard, monitor etc. I want to install Windows 7 back on it. It's main use will mainly be for browsing and for running audio apps like Audacity.

I want to spend as little as possible.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards
David