Solved Computer is going out??

[idahjo]

Desktop computer had broken pixels pop up over it at first then went away. Came back more frequently then now it is all over it and visibly unusable. Seems maybe to be a video problem only.



Trying to decide if it is 1)Monitor 2)Video Card or 3)Motherboard. It is an older computer that has been very reliable but maybe it has reached the end of it's life. As usual hoping for a 'quick fix' or something from someone else who has had the same experience.


Thanks and have a GREAT day!

 

[johnhoh]

I'm assuming your specs are correct. If so, in addition to your radeon 4800 video card you have integrated radeon 4200 motherboard graphics with vga, dvi, and hdmi ports. Just try your monitor on one of the motherboard ports. You may have to indicate in bios to use the integrated graphics to do this, or you could just uninstall your video card temporarily. If the problem persists the monitor is the problem. If not, the problem is the video card. One caveat, be sure that your motherboard graphics is loading a radeon driver, because if it just loads the windows svga driver your symptoms may go away only because you are using such a basic driver.

 

[idahjo]

Thanks a million. I'm in the process of moving and wife has packed the manuals. Everything is in a jumble. I will follow your instructions at first opportunity and get back to you. My best 'guess' would have been the video card

 

[townsbg]

Sounds like a monitor issue. Do you have a separate known working computer to test your monitor on or a known working monitor to test on that computer? The best way to test components is to swap out questionable ones with known good ones on other computers or use known good components on your questionable computer. Preferably both. Don't forget to test the cable as well.

 

[idahjo]

Thanks much guys. I had a chance to look at it further and the bios screen was partially hacked-up with the stirred pixels. I ruled out the monitor then. Started to switch over to the onboard video and noted the video card had two output connectors (dual monitors). Running process of elimination decided to reconnect the monitor cable to the OTHER connector on the video card. ..WORKS..

It is currently working normally, so would deduce the first output leg went kaput in a manner that left the second leg functional. At least until I get finished with this long-term move I'll watch it, then change the card IF it does a repeat.

 

[townsbg]

It sounds like your card is going bad.

 

[idahjo]

Indeed- Thanks