[Stormy]

This post is going to involve 2 PCs, which I will refer to as PC 1 and PC 2. They are identical except for their graphics card and power supply. They both have asus motherboard and a duel core CPU running windows xp with 3 gig ram.

PC 1 ( gforce 8800gt card and a 500 watt power supply )

The LG monitor went off and never came back on. My sister had an old vga Mitsubishi diamond plus 91. I didn't have the funds yet to buy a new one so I hooked that up and everything was fine for about a week or two. Then the monitor shuts off and goes into power saving mode. I assume power supply and it sits waiting for a new one.

PC 2 ( gforce 9800gtx card and a 700 watt power supply )

The LG monitor went off and never came back on. I take the Mitsubishi from PC 1 and a week later, the monitor shuts off and goes into power saving mode. I assumed the monitor finally died and went out and bought a new acer flat screen. I hooked it up and when I booted up I heard 1 long beep and 3 short beeps. The monitor went into power saving mode. I then researched and found that beeping code to be an Award Bios error saying the graphic card was bad. I pulled the card from PC 1 and upon boot up I heard 1 long beep and 3 short beeps.

As I read this back to myself, I am seeing and feeling sick at the thought of....did I fry 2 graphic cards by using that old vga? They are both lifetime warrantied but it means both PCs down for as long as it takes to RMA them. I am currently on my laptop, but my world is on both those pc's.

I am hoping you can help me put together at least 1 PC and not tell me I need a new motherboard lol . Let me know what it is you need to know. I appreciate any input.

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Here is an update. I found the gforce 8500 that came with my pc originally and put it in and it worked. Its been a couple hours and now the new 24" Acer flat screen went into power saver mode. Showing a "No Signal".

[Stormy]

Here is an update. I found the gforce 8500 that came with my pc originally and put it in and it worked. Its been a couple hours and now the new 24" Acer flat screen went into power saver mode. Showing a "No Signal".

[phillpower2]

To avoid confusion we must deal with one computer at a time, you choose which one and then provide as much information as you can about the hardware, is it a brand name or custom build, let us know the MB and Ram details etc.

You mention a 500W and a 700W PSU but no brand and name or model number, can you also provide these details for us.

The beep code suggests a memory problem, this could be the onboard Ram or the Dimm slots or the VRam (video card memory).

Tip

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[Stormy]

They were custom built and bought online at Ibuypower. Both have Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz and Asus p5e motherboard. I am currently running memtest on the 700 watt one. The power supply is a Rosewill. That was not my choice, it was a gift when my thermaltake died on it 2 years ago.

Since putting in the gforce 8500 the beeping error went away. But the monitor gives a "no signal" after about 30 minutes. I'm at 4 pass and 0 errors on the memtest so far. Someone told me to go to 7 passes. Is that necessary now?

[phillpower2]

The 700W Rosewill PSU should be fine, I found two models and both put out 648W when tested and have plenty of amps on the +12V rail.

Memtest is good and should be run a minimum of 4/5 passes, a physical test of the Ram is more conclusive though, details below.

Heat is another possible cause of the loss of signal btw.

How to physically test your Ram.
The following checks require the computer case to be opened so take the following safety precautions 1st, disconnect the power cord from the wall socket and take anti static precautions before touching anything inside, you can do this by touching a bare metal part of the case.

Have a pencil and notepad to hand.
Remove each stick of Ram and blow out the memory slots.
Insert the first stick of Ram in memory slot one, reconnect the power and in the case of a desktop computer the video to screen cable.
Power up the computer and see how it goes.
Make a note of the results.
Repeat the procedure until the first stick of Ram has been tested in each memory slot and the results written down.
Remove the first stick of Ram and put it to one side on top of a piece of paper with the number one on it for identification purposes.
Repeat the procedure with all Ram until each stick has been tested in all slots, the results written down and the sticks identified numerically.
Please note that some MBs (motherboards) will not boot unless there is Ram in slot one so please provide us with your motherboard details, brand, model name/number and any revision number, these details may be found by the CPU, between the PCI slots and/or around the edge of the motherboard, once we have the MB details we can look for the user manual.

[Stormy]

RAM tested fine


Heres where it stands ...I put a new power supply into the pc with the 500 watt.The gforce 8800 and 9800 do not work in both pc's . The 8500 works in both pc's but the new Acer G246hl monitor powers down on both of them.

The new monitor works great on the laptop.The laptop only had the vga connector. We were using the DVI on both the pc's. Could the DVI be the issue with the power down problem??



Thank you for your help so far I really appreciate it.

Edited by Stormy, 10 March 2014 - 12:56 AM.

[phillpower2]

Is the 8500 card the 256MB or 512MB version.
What happens if you use the VGA port on the 8500 (the brands that I found had both DVI and VGA outputs).

You are welcome btw