Mainframeguy

Hi - as some of you may know I have recently been evolving my old XP3000 rig to quiet it before I take the plunge and spend out for an AMD64....

Last night I though I had virtually completed - it was late and everything was sweet - the system whisper quiet with my new passively cooled 9600XT snuggly in place alongside the Zalman 7000B on the CPU... Job done I though....

Next day (today) me decides, hey - I got tin snips - that case could do with some venting anyways plus I want to move the fanmate external so I can turn it up when gaming.... also I knew I had left a CD signal feed lead trailing because it was obscured by the heatsinks on my AGP card.

So in I go for what I think is real easy cosmetic finishing touches - all done and me pretty happy - power up and....

mobo beep - CD spin - DVD spin - HD clatter - DEAD MONITOR!

Swap out 9600XT for noisy fanned 9700 pro - still dead.

Test monitor on laptop - it is fine.

Assume sliver shorting from my illicit tin snipping - so micro vac and turn and shake case - also apply judicious isopropyl algohol gently to AGP slot and card insert (after observing apparent micro traces of thermal paste there )

Eventually after numerous shakings upside down - micro vaccing etc. I get a BIOS boot screen! Relieved put case back on - power up - DEAD SCREEN!!

Go back through the same sort of routine - until I get a live screen again - the last time I get it by physically wiggling the DVI plug whilst machine is running (but trust me that baby is screwed in good!) - this time I put case together with power on

Anyone got any idea? I am dreading powering down or rebooting! (Luckily machine is so well quieted now I can leave it powered up until something demands a reboot or Windoze crashes!!)

Just thought I would share this afternoons horror story for my part....

And see if anyone had any ideas what caused it....

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Taggert_LOA

is the card seated firmly and correctly in the slot?

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Heeter

That happened to me as well, and it just because it was not pushed all the way into the slot. And I am talking about it being out about 1mm or so, enough for it not to be noticed, but enough for it to give me a blank screen. There was no lock on the back end of the AGP slot on this one, so I never noticed that as I was screwing in the card, the back end of card was ever so slightly lifting out of the slot.

Heeter

soldier1st

having something not firmly in place can cause something not to work
it's obviously the video card since thats what you played around with or maybe one of the cables

Mainframeguy

thank to everyone - this was my first line of enquiry also (hence trying two cards!) PLUS I seriouslt cleaned the whole slot with isopropyl and took MAJOR care in my seating! Then again these are triple layer cards with tricky dicky slots....

Mine does have a lock, and I ALWAYS made sure it clicked! Infact one of my suspicions was more to do with the releasing when reseating - since I could no longer unlock with my finger and had to press latch with screwdriver was worried I had shorted board by clipping - looks like that cannolt haved happened since working now...

All suggested solutions valid - just none seem to fit my circumstances.

So long as the fault is history all is well!

BTW I liked my 9600XT plenty - seemed near equal quality on Doom 3 and Rome: Final war! so I am quite a happy bunny - so long AS IT WORKS! hehe

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LeeJend

You may have shifted the MB while snipping the metal. It only takes milimeters to make the case attaching screws short out to the MB. Jiggling an add in card will also shift the MB slightly.

If it dies again take the MB out, check under it for stray metal scaps. Then put the MB back in being very careful to center the screw holes. Make sure you screw the mounting screws down firmly also. Not too tight or the multilayer board could be damaged.

When I run into something quirky like what you have I strip everything out of the case and hook it up on the bench where there is no chance of shorts to case or metal shavings casuing problems. Same with a new build.

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Mainframeguy

Bug**r !!! Just gvot a BSOD and had to reboot - on repowering guess what? Yes dead screen! Shall be attempting to apply what I MAYBE have learnt here - any further ideas appreciated though - I am right p*****ed off!

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Mainframeguy

Predictable.... but happy news nonetheless.... stripped out and blew air all over mobo, reassembled... currently running again.... Hopefully end of "quirkiness" as Leejend calls it

I shall not post on this thread again, consider this as the fix to the issue.... I just want to leave that rig to run happily now (fingers crossed) and someday soon move it to it's new serverdom home when I can run the CAT cables and buy the new AMD 64 rig (current overdraft making this look like a Christmas sort of issue )

So anyway, particular thanks to Lee - that was the right idea, just took me a day to get the enthusiasm going to get in there again. Also distracted myself in the meantime by running my laptop as extended display over to monitor fun fun fun

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