Re: [SLE] Need help diagnosing hardware problem

On Monday 16 October 2006 19:19, Greg Wallace wrote:
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.
This is one of four things, which can be checked in order:
1) memory
2) video card/memory
3) power supply
4) main logic board

Before you do anything else, take the thing apart (use an ESD wrist
strap) and reseat all of your connectors. Actually unplug the DIMMS (memory
modules) and replug them. Unplug the power supply connectors and reseat
them. Gently unplug all connectors on the main board and reseat them. Unplug
your cards (particularly your video card if its not on-board) and reseat
them. Reboot and see what happens.
Is your video card an nVidia chip set? If so, try another one... voodoo,
etc.
I keep an 250 watt power supply in the closet for this purpose...
basicly, swap out the power supply with a known good one and see if the
problem goes away. Bad supplies are notorious for causing this type of
failure.
If the problem does not go away with another power supply and the video
is on-board, then your main logic board is probably bad.
Intermittent problems are almost always hardware related... however, some
flaky problems can be due to drivers also... have you upgraded any of your
systems drivers that might correlate to the hardware problem you are
experiencing?
Oh, one more thing... instead of rebooting... when your screen locks up
have you tried bringing up a black screen console with ctrl+alt+F1 ?




--
Kind regards,

M Harris <><

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