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Is this graphics card broken? : Pic inside

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2004
Posts
13,445
Location
Écosse
Have a friends eMachines desktop here which he described to me as "not working right". Yeah - Too right it isn't!!!. I get the image below when the system is switched on, this is the BIOS screen :-

cf86d8e287.jpg


Upon trying to have the machine boot up normally you can see everything going on behind all the squiggly lines so I'm assuming it is indeed the GPU that is faulty?. Would it be like that in the BIOS though?. I thought that would show up ok and then go wonky when it started trying to boot Windows up?.

Its an Nvidia 8400GS PCIE that is sat in there just now.
 
Try it on a different monitor to be 100% certain but I highly expect it's the output of the gfx card. The 8400GS is a very low budget card, time for your friend to upgrade anyway I think :)
 
Edit: It is a faulty GPU, my Laptop had a faulty and would only fail with a BSOD during
windows startup.
 
Hi there, cheers. The pic above was taken with his system hooked up to my own LCD monitor which works perfectly fine with my system. I'm pretty sure he will just want another low end card to replace it as he doesn't game on it, it gets used purely for Word, email and surfing the net.

I'll not be able to swap the faulty card out with a working one till tomorrow though as all the spare cards I've got lying around here are old AGP ones.
 
The card was indeed filled with dust, I removed it and cleaned it out with compressed air then reseated it. No difference though. I also noticed what appears to be an onboard graphics connection on the back of the PC but upon plugging the monitor into it nothing appears on the screen and the standby light stays blinking like it hasn't detected any output from the PC.

So it might be RAM too then, kiel367?. :(

**EDIT**

KoubaDZ said:
RJC do you reckon the oven trick would work with this card?
Click to expand...

What's that then?. :confused:
 
Remove the heatsink and and stick in a warm / hot oven for 10min roughly, as the would / should redo the solder joints on the card.

Whether this will work or not is 50:50 chance, if it fails it will be chips for dinner :p :eek:
 
Draeger said:
The card was indeed filled with dust, I removed it and cleaned it out with compressed air then reseated it. No difference though. I also noticed what appears to be an onboard graphics connection on the back of the PC but upon plugging the monitor into it nothing appears on the screen and the standby light stays blinking like it hasn't detected any output from the PC.
Click to expand...

Did you try the onboard graphics before or after putting the graphics card back ? Onboard won't work if there's a dedicated graphics card plugged in.
 
Dutchman said:
Did you try the onboard graphics before or after putting the graphics card back ? Onboard won't work if there's a dedicated graphics card plugged in.
Click to expand...

Took the card out before trying the onboard graphics. There was a blanking plate over the onboard graphics input connection on the back of the PC and a wee sticker saying "Use alternative video connection" or something like that.

I was wondering whether the OBG was disabled maybe in the BIOS but couldn't check as the screens in there were mangled and unreadable. :(
 
Draeger said:
Took the card out before trying the onboard graphics. There was a blanking plate over the onboard graphics input connection on the back of the PC and a wee sticker saying "Use alternative video connection" or something like that.

I was wondering whether the OBG was disabled maybe in the BIOS but couldn't check as the screens in there were mangled and unreadable. :(
Click to expand...

They don't disable it, they just cover it up to stop people plugging it into the wrong one :p
 
Yeah, but as far as I can see from a Google search, this model of desktop PC came with a graphics card as an optional addition. So if the motherboard was originally supposed to be running onboard graphics by default then with the addition of a video card in the PCIE slot would the onboard graphics not have to be disabled in the BIOS?.
 
Have you reset cmos? This may enable the onboard gpu.

Also try reseating the ram, there is a bloke on youtube that claims a lot of graphics corruption may be caused by system ram, (worth a go).
 
CMOS, thats a good shout, I'll see if that does anything, cheers.

Will also pull the RAM and check that. Hopefully nipping over to my brothers this morning to pick up a spare PCI GPU to test the system with as well.
 
Apologies for the thread bumpage. Another issue has arisen now that I have fitted a new graphics card. The display is fine now but after about 5 minutes on the desktop after it boots up, I get a BSOD with BC Code 7f. Have Googled it and there seems to be loads of opinions on what causes it. System will boot and work fine with the graphics card removed and the monitor connected to the onboard graphics, doesn't BSOD at all. As soon as I fit the graphics card back in it just BSOD's again.

In an admittedly desperate effort I took the card back to the store I got it from and they exchanged it for another different make. An Nvidia 8400GS. But it still BSOD's. I've taken the RAM out and swapped that round as well as replacing it with two other sticks and it still BSOD's. So I'm guessing it could be the PCI Express slot on the motherboard?. Any ideas guys?. Some of the Google threads on BC Code 7f suggest a driver or OS issue, was wondering if a factory reset would do the trick?. Reluctant to do so though as there's a shedload of data I'd need to back up first before carrying it out. :(
 
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