Kevin Groat

Dell desktop with a Nvidia PCI card. Switch machine on and I get the Dell startup screen then it goes blank and all I get is the screen switching between a dull grey and slightly lighter grey. When it went wrong last night there was a nasty electrical fizzing noise from inside the box. When the Dell startup screen disappears it does so long before it should. Is there any other way to check if it's the graphics card?

Thanks

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like a graphics card

Dell often ship their machines with some sort of diagnositc tools. Different aged machine have them in different places. Check the boot screen to see if it offers you a diagnostic mode. Or have a look at the disks the machine came with.

Failing that the old tried and tested method is always the best. Open the machine, remove the original card. Look at it carefully, espeically the contact stips that go into the motherboard. If these are not burnt, pop in a different graphics card to see if it works

If they are burnt, then both mobo and graphics card are finished. Do not risk a nice graphics card in a slot where there is any evidence of shorting out.

Diagnostic tools have their uses, but I have seem plenty that have lied. Just like the time when a roomate poured a pint of water into my works laptop.....the diagnositc tools said it was fine. The fact that it was sparking, smoking, and showing strange patterns on the screen suggested otherwise

Kevin Groat

Cheers Lum, no sign of any burning on the card contacts so off to the shed to whip the card out of the old machine.

Kevin.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Although you could argue that the fact you can actually see the dell startup screen means you card does work.


Can you hear it boot up (i.e hard disk thrashing away...the annoying windows start up tune etc.) or is it just hanging after the POST?

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Could be anything, just sounds like its a graphics card. Time will tell

Kevin Groat

Hard disc continues to fire up but display just switches between a dull grey and black. Spare graphics card didn't fit? I thought PCI was PCI? New card has a gap in the connectors in the MB where the old one didn't?

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

You sure the card is not AGP then? Cos there were a few different versions of AGP cards, some with different slots.

Kevin Groat

Hmmm, could be - need to suss out what AGP is first....

The card that I pulled out had 2 slots in the strip of connectors, am I right that PCI just has a single slot? The connectors also sat further back in the MB than the other cards. Any ideas?

Ta

Scooby-Doo

How old is the Dell, ifs its AGP I can give you an old card to test with. Do you have the model number ?

InvisibleMan

yeah AGP & PCI-e connectors sit further back into the MB than PCI. The AGP/PCI-e slot will be the one nearest the CPU

Kevin Groat

Yup, thanks chaps now confirmed it's AGP. Thanks for the offer of the card, I'll probably just purchase a new one from ebay and hope that's the problem - pretty sure it is.

Scooby-Doo

Where in the UK are you, I have a box full of the buggers !!!

Kevin Groat

Aberdeen.....but if you've summit suitable I'm sure we could sort something.

The card that was in was an Nvidia p162 which is a 128mb card, Have you anything like this?

This looks like the type of connector, it has this odd hook thing going on at the end.

Ta