RE: [SLE] Need help diagnosing hardware problem

On Monday, October 16, 2006 @ 2:04 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Subject: Re: [SLE] Need help diagnosing hardware problem

On 06/10/16 13:30 (GMT-0500) Greg Wallace apparently typed:

I am having a hardware problem with my machine and am trying to diagnose
it.
The first thing that happens is that my screen freezes. It has always
happened when my screen saver was running, but I'm assuming that's just a
coincidence. After the screen saver freezes, here are some things that
have
happened on reboot.

What happens if you disable the screensaver and DPMS?

Could a screensaver problem cause the machine to not be able to re-boot? I
forgot where DMPS is controlled. Could you tell me how to turn it off?

1) The computer beeps twice and nothing happens. No bios screen comes
up,
no disk activity, nothing.

Check the docs on your BIOS to find out exactly what 2 beeps means
..

What docs. I got zilch in the way of documentation with this Dell machine,
and Dell tech support couldn't tell me what two beeps meant (actually, they
took off on a tangent and didn't even try to answer that question, about
what I've come to expect from their tech support).

2) There is disk activity as if the machine is booting, but the screen
is
blank.

3) Once, the machine actually booted, but what was on the screen was
pure
garbage -- a screen full of letters overlaying other letters overlaying
icons, etc. There wasn't a centimeter of blank screen space. It was
completely covered with this garbage.

My guess would be that I've got a video card going out, but item 1) makes
me
wonder. Could a bad video card actually cause the machine to just give
two
beeps and not even try to boot?

All symptoms point to a video card problem, but this includes a possible
video card slot problem. A BIOS may balk at continuing POST when it thinks
it's supposed to have working video.
..

I'm starting to suspect the video card as the problem myself. Other than
the instance with the two beeps (which might could be caused by a video card
problem, though I have no way of knowing), all of the other cases resulted
in me not seeing any activity on the screen at boot up. I mean I didn't
even get the bios screen. Then there was the time when the screen was just
completely covered in garbage. Even the time when I got the two beeps I
still didn't get anything on the screen. I'm thinking I might just spring
for a new video card just to see if that fixes it. I don't do any heavy
graphics, so I could get by with a fairly cheap bare bones type of card
anyway, so it probably wouldn't cost too much just to try that.

In all cases, if I let the machine sit for
maybe just 5 minutes it will re-boot normally (so far, anyway, but I tend
to
think the problem will get worse over time). Once it's back up, it will
run
for some time with no problems (I don't recall it ever happening back to
back on the same day, but if I left it up long enough the second time I
suspect it would ultimately lock up again). There's some pattern here in
all of this, but also some inconsistency. Any help diagnosing this
problem
greatly appreciated.

These time differences make it appear it may be heat and/or voltage (and
thus power supply) related. If it hasn't had a dust removal since it was
new, that's probably long overdue. If the machine was here, my 3rd move
would be to see what happens with a different video card, 2nd being test
the
PS, 1st being cleaning. If you don't have another card to try, at least try
reseating yours. Try leaving the cover off and pointing a big fan at it to
see if less heat is any help. If you have any cards in slots that aren't
necessary to run the OS, pull them out to see if it changes anything.

1. Cleaning -- Well, I cleaned it out as best I could. I tried a vacuum
and a wisk broom. It's hard to a lot of the areas because of all of the
things sticking up in the air and covering other things up. I have to say,
however, that it really didn't look all that dirty.

2. Power supply -- How does one test the power supply?

Overall, as I said above, I'm suspecting a bad video card as the culprit.

Thanks,
Greg Wallace


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