Ok, I am not a hardcore overclocking ubertechhead, but I built my own machine (Akasa Eclipse, Akasa 450wPSU, A643400 clawhammer, Asus KV8, 1gb crucial 3200, ATI oem X800xtpe with ACrev3 cooler) a couple of years ago and have been hugely cheerful with it ever since. I play everything I can on the highest settings I can because of my love for the eye candy, and although I have had a fiddle with ATItool, everything has been left at stock speeds in the end for that feeling of security.
It all seemed nice and cool, CPU rarely above 50ish and GPU at 70ish coming out of gaming, and I thought all was as calm as could be. The only thing that ever bothered me was strange power off reboots when trying to play Tomb Raider Legend, but never a BSOD or any serious errors.
Then one day this week I powered on the PC, and monitor didn't wake up. PC powers, fans spin, HD whirrs etc but no vision, no POST beep, nothing on screen. I fiddle with connectors, try another HD, no help, then swap out the X800 for an old Geforce 2 64mb. Suddenly everything works fine. So has my X800 just expired sometime in the hours of darkness? I thought a graphics card would go out with a bang when it was working, not a whimper when the machine was off. Any ideas anyone?
P.S. by a strange coincidence, even though I had ruled out upgrades until a new system next year, I had noticed these Gainward 7800 AGP cards and read some great reviews of them a couple of weeks ago, but dismissed the idea of grabbing one as a silly notion. The prices even dropped this week! Since my graphics death I have a 7800(7900?) GS+ 512 on the way. My girlfriend thinks I killed the X800 on purpose.
...but I didn't! Do graphics cards often give up like this? Any suggestions what I do with the card?
It all seemed nice and cool, CPU rarely above 50ish and GPU at 70ish coming out of gaming, and I thought all was as calm as could be. The only thing that ever bothered me was strange power off reboots when trying to play Tomb Raider Legend, but never a BSOD or any serious errors.
Then one day this week I powered on the PC, and monitor didn't wake up. PC powers, fans spin, HD whirrs etc but no vision, no POST beep, nothing on screen. I fiddle with connectors, try another HD, no help, then swap out the X800 for an old Geforce 2 64mb. Suddenly everything works fine. So has my X800 just expired sometime in the hours of darkness? I thought a graphics card would go out with a bang when it was working, not a whimper when the machine was off. Any ideas anyone?
P.S. by a strange coincidence, even though I had ruled out upgrades until a new system next year, I had noticed these Gainward 7800 AGP cards and read some great reviews of them a couple of weeks ago, but dismissed the idea of grabbing one as a silly notion. The prices even dropped this week! Since my graphics death I have a 7800(7900?) GS+ 512 on the way. My girlfriend thinks I killed the X800 on purpose.
...but I didn't! Do graphics cards often give up like this? Any suggestions what I do with the card?
