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stormyme
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Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:31 pm

This post is going to involve 2 PCs, which I will refer to as PC 1 and PC 2. They are identical except for their graphics card and power supply. They both have ASUS P5E board and Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8400 3.00GHz, 3.25 RAM, running windows XP. They both had the same LG flat screens. Their power supplies were 750's thermaltale but went out a year ago. Unfortunately they were both downgraded

PC 1 ( gforce 8800gt card and a 500 watt power supply )

A month or 2 ago the LG monitor went off and never came back on. My sister had an old vga Mitsubishi diamond plus 91. I didn't have the funds yet to buy a new one so I hooked that up and everything was fine for about a week or two. Then the monitor shuts off and goes into power saving mode. I assumed it was the power supply and it sits waiting for a new one.

PC 2 ( gforce 9800gtx card and a generic 700 watt power supply )

The LG monitor went off and never came back on. I took the Mitsubishi from PC 1 and a week later, the monitor shuts off and goes into power saving mode. I assumed the monitor finally died and I went out and bought a new acer flat screen. I hooked it up and when I booted up I heard 1 long beep and 3 short beeps. The monitor went into power saving mode. I then researched and found that beeping code to be an Award Bios error saying it might be the ram on the graphic card. I pulled the 8800 card from PC 1 and upon boot up I heard 1 long beep and 3 short beeps. Then I found the gforce 8500 that came with my pc originally and put it in and it worked. The beep error was gone, but a couple hours later the new 24" Acer flat screen went into power saver mode. Showing a "No Signal".

Then I found memtest86+ and ran it 7x. The result was 7 passes and zero errors. So I am completely lost. Do I have 2 dead cards and 2 failing power supplies? Where it stands right now is I can boot up and after a few minutes the monitor powers down. The pc stays running. Any help would be so greatly appreciated.
 
LostCat
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Re: Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:53 am

Have you checked the CPU fans aren't failing?

(That's all I could think of that wasn't 'Stop using Windows XP' haha.)

The PSUs could also be overheating rather than dead. They usually have various protection modes that can trip if they get too hot or are getting poor power or whatnot.
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killadark
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Re: Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:21 am

sounds like something common effecting both systems
power fluctuation?
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TheEmrys
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Re: Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:42 am

I suspect its not enough power/failing psu's. If you game or use high powered cpu's, never get a generic psu. Get a good name brand psu with higher efficiancy. I would buy one good psu and test both systems to be sure.
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AdaPop
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Re: Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:20 pm

Hi,

I had similar problems with my monitor, a Samsung LCD of 19". Replacing the power source solved the problem and the monitor works well now. I agree with TheEmrys - it's really important to get a brand PSU. There are also PSU wattage calculators available online, maybe you can use one of those tools to check what PSU would be best for your PC.

Good luck!
 
ozzuneoj
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Re: Is it my graphics card, RAM, ps or worse? Help please

Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:50 pm

Another possibility is that the old 750W PSUs that failed damaged something in both systems. Thermaltake isn't bottom of the barrel, but they aren't one of the top brands either, and depending on what PSU design they used, some can be quite awful or even dangerous in the event of a failure.

Another possibility is that you've got some electrical problems in your house... the fact that you've lost multiple monitors and power supplies in the last couple of years is a bad sign. Have you had problems with any other appliances in the house over the past few years? How old is the house and the electrical system? Though I guess its equally important to ask... all of the monitors that go into power saving mode, have you tested them hooked up to anything else like a laptop? If you can test those and they do still work... then you've probably got bad boards, PSUs, graphics cards or something else in your PCs.

Also, if you do need to replace some power supplies don't bother with such high wattages. A system that will run on a generic 700W PSU will probably work on a decent 500W (or less depending on the model) PSU from a brands like Antec, Seasonic, FSP or Corsair. The 9800GTX and 8800GT are somewhat power hungry cards, but you shouldn't need a 750W unit to run them. I ran an 8800GTX on a mid range 500W Antec PSU years ago. Also, make sure they are Active PFC... that is one of the most important features to look for in a PSU and will improve efficiency and reliability and is generally a sign of a higher quality unit.
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