a7v8x video card problem

External Since: Aug 15, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi all! Please apologize my poor english...
I'm experiencing a big and strange problem with my video card, but it
could be related to the motherboard (a7v8x). I'll try to the describe it as
precisely as possible.
My system is: amd 2400+, 512 mb ram, geforce4 mx 440; no overclocking since
I'm not a gamer. It worked perfectly since the last two years.

Last week, while I was working, my monitor (a 1-year-old Samsung
Syncmaster) suddenly became black, as in standby mode (green led
flashing)... but the machine continued working normally. After reboot it
remanied black.
I connected a second monitor; it worked for 20 minutes then it shutten down
again as described.
Now I cannot resume the monitors from stanby even if I connect them to
another pc, so they must have been "fried".

I tried with a third old monitor, and it seems to work, but occasionally I
experience one of these problems (that could happen after 5 minutes or
after 3 hours):
- the image disappears and then re-appears in few seconds;
- the image disappears and doesn't come back (but the pc continues
working); after reset, I hear 3 beeps like the machine doesn't recognize my
video card, so I have to remove it form the AGP slot and then plug it in
again;
- pc resets randomly but after reboot screen remains black (I have to turn
it off and wait some minutes)
- the machine (mouse and keyboard) stops responding and the image freezes,
(once happened while I was in BIOS) !!!!

Voltages and temperatures seems to be ok according to Asus Probe; RAM is ok
according to Memtest; refresh rates and resolution are set to standard
values.
It seems a video card fault but I wonder if a bad video card can result in
these symptoms (and could really damage my monitors). Can it be a mobo/agp
slot problem?
It is a random problem too, so it's difficult to identify it.
I'm really stuck since it's the first time I experience something similar,
and I can't test other video cards.

I hope you can help me. Thanks in advance!
M.

External Since: Jul 27, 2004 Posts: 2307

In article , Ministry of silly
walks wrote:

> Hi all! Please apologize my poor english...
> I'm experiencing a big and strange problem with my video card, but it
> could be related to the motherboard (a7v8x). I'll try to the describe it as
> precisely as possible.
> My system is: amd 2400+, 512 mb ram, geforce4 mx 440; no overclocking since
> I'm not a gamer. It worked perfectly since the last two years.
>
> Last week, while I was working, my monitor (a 1-year-old Samsung
> Syncmaster) suddenly became black, as in standby mode (green led
> flashing)... but the machine continued working normally. After reboot it
> remanied black.
> I connected a second monitor; it worked for 20 minutes then it shutten down
> again as described.
> Now I cannot resume the monitors from stanby even if I connect them to
> another pc, so they must have been "fried".
>
> I tried with a third old monitor, and it seems to work, but occasionally I
> experience one of these problems (that could happen after 5 minutes or
> after 3 hours):
> - the image disappears and then re-appears in few seconds;
> - the image disappears and doesn't come back (but the pc continues
> working); after reset, I hear 3 beeps like the machine doesn't recognize my
> video card, so I have to remove it form the AGP slot and then plug it in
> again;
> - pc resets randomly but after reboot screen remains black (I have to turn
> it off and wait some minutes)
> - the machine (mouse and keyboard) stops responding and the image freezes,
> (once happened while I was in BIOS) !!!!
>
> Voltages and temperatures seems to be ok according to Asus Probe; RAM is ok
> according to Memtest; refresh rates and resolution are set to standard
> values.
> It seems a video card fault but I wonder if a bad video card can result in
> these symptoms (and could really damage my monitors). Can it be a mobo/agp
> slot problem?
> It is a random problem too, so it's difficult to identify it.
> I'm really stuck since it's the first time I experience something similar,
> and I can't test other video cards.
>
> I hope you can help me. Thanks in advance!
> M.

Modern multisync monitors measure the Hsync and Vsync frequencies,
and the monitor should disable the output stage if the frequencies
are incorrect. It could be your video card is producing a signal
with a very high Vsync.

Old monitors can be damaged by out of range signals. They can be
fried, so what you are seeing is possible. A video card can damage
an old monitor.

Your debugging results seem to suggest the video card is at fault,
so that is what I would replace first. It could turn out, that
something the motherboard feeds to the video card is bad, but
you'll only find that out when you try another video card.

Paul