Weird video card failure.

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ToolPackinMama

My personal computer is a homebuilt - Lian Li aluminum case, MSI K8N
Neo4 platinum (SLI) motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (ClawHammer 1GHz
FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939) CPU . I have a gigabyte of Patriot
"Extreme Performance" DDR 400 RAM.

For video I originally chose a Zogis Geforce 7900 GS (PCI-express, 256MB).

My PC also has a Western Digital Caviar 250GB (7200 RPM 16MB Cache) SATA
Hard Drive (dual-booting WinXP Pro SP2 and Kubuntu), a NEC DVD-RW drive,
and a TEAC floppy drive. I use a 19" Viewsonic VP191B LCD display.

The system ran perfectly for about three months. Suddenly, the vid card
was unrecognized. I did a system restore, witch temporarily solved the
problem. When the problem recurred, I tried updating the video drivers.
This seemed to fix it for a day or two, then the problem returned.

I checked for other updates, and flashed the BIOS with an updated
version that seemed aimed at addressing the problem. Didn't help.

Finally, I decided to replace the Zogis Geforce 7900 GS with a Foxconn
7950 GT. The new card worked perfectly for three whole days. Now it
too is similarly unrecognized, and therefore not fully functional.

I'm puzzled and frustrated. I can't imagine what the problem is, why the
symptoms are intermittent, or what to try next.

Do you have any ideas for me?
 
ToolPackinMama said:
My personal computer is a homebuilt - Lian Li aluminum case, MSI K8N Neo4
platinum (SLI) motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (ClawHammer 1GHz FSB 1MB
L2 Cache Socket 939) CPU . I have a gigabyte of Patriot "Extreme
Performance" DDR 400 RAM.

For video I originally chose a Zogis Geforce 7900 GS (PCI-express, 256MB).

My PC also has a Western Digital Caviar 250GB (7200 RPM 16MB Cache) SATA
Hard Drive (dual-booting WinXP Pro SP2 and Kubuntu), a NEC DVD-RW drive,
and a TEAC floppy drive. I use a 19" Viewsonic VP191B LCD display.

The system ran perfectly for about three months. Suddenly, the vid card
was unrecognized. I did a system restore, witch temporarily solved the
problem. When the problem recurred, I tried updating the video drivers.
This seemed to fix it for a day or two, then the problem returned.

I checked for other updates, and flashed the BIOS with an updated version
that seemed aimed at addressing the problem. Didn't help.

Finally, I decided to replace the Zogis Geforce 7900 GS with a Foxconn
7950 GT. The new card worked perfectly for three whole days. Now it too
is similarly unrecognized, and therefore not fully functional.

I'm puzzled and frustrated. I can't imagine what the problem is, why the
symptoms are intermittent, or what to try next.

Do you have any ideas for me?
Click to expand...

First, do you have the same problem in kubuntu AND WinXP?

Assuming the answer is yes, you are looking at a hardware problem. Most
likely suspect has already been eliminated, so you are looking at a
mainboard or power supply problem. More likely is mainboard. But power
supply is easier to replace. See if you can borrow a good power supply from
another system to test. -Dave
 
Dave said:
First, do you have the same problem in kubuntu AND WinXP?
Click to expand...

Well, in Kubuntu I have to enable a generic NV driver manually, but it
works. However, I don't get full functionality no matter what, and
never have in the past, either, with any hardware.
Assuming the answer is yes, you are looking at a hardware problem.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, but it's all working at the moment. Why
would it work, stop working, then start working again?

Thanks for caring.
 
ToolPackinMama said:
Well, in Kubuntu I have to enable a generic NV driver manually, but it
works. However, I don't get full functionality no matter what, and never
have in the past, either, with any hardware.


That's what I was thinking, but it's all working at the moment. Why would
it work, stop working, then start working again?

Thanks for caring.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty common with electronics components that are failing.
Sometimes they just DIE, more often they wear out slowly, so that they do
not perform up to design specifications. Capacitors in particular have been
quite troublesome lately. If a 'cap' in your power supply or mainboard is
failing, it could easily cause an intermittent failure. Oh, and don't make
the mistake of thinking that a new system can't have bad components.

It's unfortunate that you haven't experienced the problem in kubuntu.
Basically, this doesn't help you diagnose the issue. kubuntu won't work
your hardware as hard as winxp does. So, a pending hardware failure might
not display symptoms as often (or at all) while running kubuntu. On the
other hand, if your hardware was giving you problems while running kubuntu,
that right there would CONFIRM that you have a hardware failure. -Dave

On a side note, I'm surprised you had to load a generic nv driver manually.
I have a fairly recent nvidia card, and it runs just fine in xubuntu, no
manual tweaking needed.
 
ToolPackinMama said:
My personal computer is a homebuilt - Lian Li aluminum case, MSI
K8N Neo4 platinum (SLI) motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 4000+
(ClawHammer 1GHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939) CPU . I have a
gigabyte of Patriot "Extreme Performance" DDR 400 RAM.

For video I originally chose a Zogis Geforce 7900 GS (PCI-express,
256MB).

My PC also has a Western Digital Caviar 250GB (7200 RPM 16MB
Cache) SATA Hard Drive (dual-booting WinXP Pro SP2 and Kubuntu), a
NEC DVD-RW drive, and a TEAC floppy drive. I use a 19" Viewsonic
VP191B LCD display.

The system ran perfectly for about three months. Suddenly, the
vid card was unrecognized. I did a system restore, witch
temporarily solved the problem. When the problem recurred, I
tried updating the video drivers.
This seemed to fix it for a day or two, then the problem
returned.

I checked for other updates, and flashed the BIOS with an updated
version that seemed aimed at addressing the problem. Didn't help.

Finally, I decided to replace the Zogis Geforce 7900 GS with a
Foxconn 7950 GT. The new card worked perfectly for three whole
days. Now it too is similarly unrecognized, and therefore not
fully functional.

I'm puzzled and frustrated. I can't imagine what the problem is,
why the symptoms are intermittent, or what to try next.

Do you have any ideas for me?
Click to expand...

Stop dual booting :D

Keep a backup copy of Windows (the whole partition). Works wonders
for troubleshooting and/or nuking difficult problems.

I would tend to agree that it's a hardware problem. Of course you
know the first secret is to reproduce the problem. I guess you
aven't/can't do that yet. You know that adjusting things is
pointless when a problem occurs without previously adjusting things.

Did you change any BIOS settings between installing the new card and
when it is unrecognized?

Can you try going without booting into Linux for a while to see it
that has anything to do with it? Not likely but who knows.

Do you have the video card auxiliary power cable connected directly
to the power supply?

Good luck.
 
John said:
Did you change any BIOS settings between installing the new card and
when it is unrecognized?
No.

Do you have the video card auxiliary power cable connected directly
to the power supply?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Do you have any ideas for me?

I really suspect that K8N mobo. I had a K8NS Gigabyte
mobo, and watched it go through 17 revisions of the BIOS.
One of it's little tricks was to be incompatible with XP
security updates. I tried updating the BIOS about 9
revisions, and sure enough, my video card crapped
out. I had to drop the thing back to revision 4 to restore
video function above SVGA. If you have autoupdate
turned on, I bet Microsoft is handing you something,
and your OS restore just set you up for it again.
And that would also explain the 7950 ... same
problem. Go on the web, and look at revisions of
your mobo, and see if it hints at those problems.
If it does, the best tweak might be to restore the
system BIOS to what it was when new, and use
only the chipset drivers that came with it. Or, you
might have to get the latest version of that mobo.

johns
 
johns said:
I really suspect that K8N mobo. I had a K8NS Gigabyte
mobo, and watched it go through 17 revisions of the BIOS.
One of it's little tricks was to be incompatible with XP
security updates. I tried updating the BIOS about 9
revisions, and sure enough, my video card crapped
out. I had to drop the thing back to revision 4 to restore
video function above SVGA. If you have autoupdate
turned on, I bet Microsoft is handing you something,
and your OS restore just set you up for it again.
And that would also explain the 7950 ... same
problem. Go on the web, and look at revisions of
your mobo, and see if it hints at those problems.
If it does, the best tweak might be to restore the
system BIOS to what it was when new, and use
only the chipset drivers that came with it. Or, you
might have to get the latest version of that mobo.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
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