Of what is this indicative?

[Overkill]

I have a second computer that is an Asus A7V-133 running 1GB of PC133, AMD T'Bird @1.1ghz, Ti4400 and a Maxtor 30gig HD. It recently started showing artifacts in the display. Lines across the screen, green, blue dots appearing everywhere. The mouse would become unresponsive. The HD would begin to thrash. It was completey unstable. I have cleaned out the computer. Checked all fans. I even set up a small fan next to the computer for more ventilation as I thought it may be a heating problem. I even reinstalled XP Pro on it. Check Disk says that the HD is okay although Windows has told me a few times it couldn't load because of a Kernel problem, but I think that is a separate problem.

Is the heatsink on my Ti4400 going bad? Do I have bad memory? I am really stumped on this one. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Geffy]

possible motherboard failure maybe

 

[Bootsy]

Yup, sounds like the mobo is on its way out.

 

[canadian_divx]

u say that this is your second pc then the best way would be to test each part on its own on the other pc, but it does sound like the MOBO.

 

[Bootsy]

i say that the mobo is bad just because you are having such a wide range of difference with problems ie: unresponsive mouse AND all the display problems...they have nothing to do with each other SO....its the mobo

 

[Taurus]

well, an overheating video card could give you an unresponsive mouse... it's the thrashing harddrive that worries me.

i don't think it's your memory. it could be your board. but try to replace the video card first. then try a different harddrive. if it still happens, try a different mobo..?

 

[Overkill]

Ugh! My mobo? Well I guess that it could be that but I'd rather not think about that. Oh well. I guess I could find one for an AMD T'Bird pretty cheap now. It is just having to take everything apart and putting it back together again. Glad I'm on vacation. This is first AMD board I have had that went bad. That is too bad. I guess this computer is about 4 years old, perhaps just three, but dangit! Ok thanks for the replies. If anybody else has some other recommendations, please post.

 

[Taurus]

like i suggested, try a different video card and even harddrive. just in case.

 

[Overkill]

We must have posted near the same time taurus. I didn't see your post. I am going to find my old GF2 that I have and put it in there to see if the problem is corrected. If not, I'll download some HD diagnostics from Maxtor. If that doesn't pan out, I'll look at the PSU, memory and mobo in general.

 

[Taurus]

good luck. let us know how it turns out.

 

[Krux]

when you installed your cpu into that computer did you use the thermal pad on the bottom of the heat sink or did u strip it off and use thermal grease? if you used the pad take your heat sink of and clean all that crap off then put thermal grease on it and see what happens the reason I say this is because that stuff goes bad after a certain amount of time and it turns into this hard clay like stuff that doesn't transfer heat worth anything.

 

[Overkill]

It seems as though it was my vid card, the Ti4400 by Gainward. Grrr! I am thankful in a way because I had a spare vid card and it is one of the easiest ways to fix the computer but man, my wife's computer goes from having 128mb of vid ram to 32mb. So much for running Photoshop with that. I don't want to upgrade the card because I will be updating my own when the Athy 64s and Prescotts come out and then hers will become my kids "knock-around" computer.

I've looked over the Gainward card. I can nothing wrong. No transistors are leaking. No broken parts. The fan works. The heatsinks on the memory is in place well. It just gave out I guess. It was used maybe 1yr and half. I'd expect more from Gainward, but I guess there are few bad ones in every lot. It still seems strange how it just went kaput.

 

[Overkill]

Krux,

I never touched he CPU on this computer. I ordered the parts and had it built for me.

 

[Krux]

I would say send it back but since they only offer a 1yr warrenty it wouldn't matter so... sorry about your card

 

[LeeJend]

Go with Krux's advice. Call gainward and see if they will fix it for free or for cheap! The GE4 and even GE3 seem to be dying prematurely and I hear the Vid card makers are standing by them. Especially gainward and PNY. Have friends who got "out of warantee" cards replaced when they died. One lucky SOB even got an upgrade to the FX5600 since his was out of production.

Now my usual warning. I ditched Nvidia for ATI because I'm hearing of too many premature card deaths on the GE3-TI/GE4 series GPU's. These video cards are too dman expensive to trreat as throw aways! (Yes I have unresolved issues.)

 

[Overkill]

I am going to contact Gainward and see what they say and I still have the original receipt I believe.

And I hear what you say about ATI. Their cards are looking very tempting and it seems they have resolved their poor driver support. My only concern is when I see problems posted with the type of games, flight sims, that I am interested in, almost always it is an issue with an ATI card. So, I like the hardware but still wary. We'll see how their R420 looks as well as the NV40.