[Techtalk] Re: Hardware issue, probably...

[Raven Alder]

Heya --

Quoth James Sutherland (Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 12:31:59AM -0000):
> You've tried known-good monitors, cables, software and AGP cards? 

	Yep.

> Which leaves either the motherboard, or power supply (or possibly some
> other card doing something stupid?). Do you have a PCI video card
> around to try? I've found a couple of machines having what appear to
> be PSU problems: the AGP card and motherboard together were drawing
> too much power, presumably on the 3.3v line; changing to an old PCI
> video card (which uses the 5v line) fixed it.

	We might -- I'll check that when I get home.  If the power from
the wall is flaky (I would not be surprised -- 30 year old home wiring,
it's probably aluminum or something... [grin]), then that might be it
right there.  Maybe I should get the boy on a nice UPS... and hire an
electrician...
 
> You said "pretty much immediate" - not quite immediate? Does it come up
> as normal, then fade away quickly, when powering up?

	Only insomuch as the initial screen is black, and then the
memory test and BIOS stuff comes up.  So, if you don't count the
pre-BIOS moments, immediate.  It never displays correctly.

> If you can see well enough on screen, trying a hardware monitor
> program (mobo dependent) will often tell you what the voltage on each
> line from the PSU really is - if something is out of spec, it'll be
> very obvious.

	Will research that and try it -- thanks.
 
> Another, related possibility: dodgy contact on the AGP slot affecting
> the power supply to the card? (Try the same card, cable and monitor
> in another PC to check that.)

	We don't have another sacrificial PC in the house (they're all
doing Very Important Things and cannot be dismembered), sadly.  We did
try cleaning off the contacts and reseating the cards, but that didn't
seem to make any difference.

Cheers,
Raven 
 
Davei says, "And when the network gets really bad, we combine into one
 big engineer."