Video Card Question

[Konaguy]

I wonder how long those video cards that you buy at Wal-Mart last ? I bought a NVIDIA GeForce MX4000 128MB video card about a year ago.

Yesterday, my LCD 19in monitor blanked out on me. It suddenly popped up blank screen with a message saying no signal. I thought it was the LCD monitor. Today with another monitor it did the same thing.

So I removed the video card and went back to the on board video memory with no problem thus far.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Video Card Question

Hard telling. If you buy a high-end card it may suffer from heat problems. I'd expect an ordinary run-of-the-mill card to last until you're sick of the computer. There's really nothing in a video card to wear out. As long as it's not abused and was made with good quality control, it should last forever.

Now if it's got fan on it, that's another story. I don't trust those little fans.

[Kittrick]

Re: Video Card Question

I don't really trust items that need extra electrical power, like those fans either, because it usually equals getting an upgraded power supply because the card takes more juice. As cheap as an upgraded computer would be, might as well get a new computer with the card added in from the factory (like from Dell), tested with the right power supply.

[Konaguy]

Re: Video Card Question

The good news is it was the video card, not the LCD monitor. . It has not repeated those same symptoms that happened before.The GeForce, was a basic 128MB PCI video card, with no fan.

[Kittrick]

Re: Video Card Question

it could be one of two things that I can think of:

1) the card is conflicting with another piece of hardware in the slot you put it in. If you really want to use this card, you could try another PCI slot and see if that works.

2) You may have pushed the limit of your computer's power supply, depending on how old your computer is...especially if it only meets the minimum specs, and just can't handle.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Video Card Question

Aaron when video cards blank out like that typically it's your RAM that's either going bad or needs a good reseating.

Other than that it could be a power problem. You did indicate a few months ago you had PSU problems right? When you dropped back to the integrated graphics on your mobo your need for power was reduced.

If your memory is going bad it could have tipped the scales on the PSU. Try reseating the RAM and rebooting. If that still fails, try removing one of the RAM modules and booting up with one stick at a time.

Rarely have I seen a graphics card fail, especially an older PCI board that doesn't use a lot of power to run in the first place. Does your computer at least run the POST? If it does chances are it's the RAM.

A bad video/graphics card won't even let you see the POST booting up.

[Konaguy]

Re: Video Card Question

In this case, it seems like it was the video card. I've been running the computer
without the video card (and using the on board video memory) with no problems
for the last couple days.

The computer booted up fine (when I had this problem). It would lose the signal
though. It did this on two different monitors also.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Video Card Question

The computer booted up fine (when I had this problem). It would lose the signal
though. It did this on two different monitors also.

That definately sounds like bad memory.

[Konaguy]

Re: Video Card Question

Well the important thing is this problem hasn't re-occurred since I pulled the video card and went back to the on board video. On top of that the computer has been running fine besides this problem.Based upon my experience, when I have bad RAM the computer spontaneously reboots itself.

See the place I got the RAM from won't replace it for free unless there is problem.

[i-hungry]

Re: Video Card Question

I had a video card that failed before. I changed the card and everything is fine.

Like the other guys are saying, I agree that its not a common thing. But it really sucks when it happens especially when there isn't any onboard video port.

[Konaguy]

Re: Video Card Question

I had a video card that failed before. I changed the card and everything is fine.

Like the other guys are saying, I agree that its not a common thing. But it really sucks when it happens especially when there isn't any onboard video port.

Luckily in my case the Mobo my computer has on board video. Or I'd be really be
in trouble.

I'm just happy that it wasn't the LCD monitor I bought a year ago or I'd be singing the blues.

I did a RAM test yesterday.My 1GB of RAM (two 512MB) tested fine.