Tipstaff

Just be careful as they will say anything to get you to buy something. Go in there with a plan, sound like you know what you are talking about, and specifically ask them to try a new power supply first, and/or another video card if they have one they can try out.

In all honesty I'd buy a new PSU at this point. Even if it turns out to not be a problem it'd be better than the one you have. If I remember correctly it only comes with a 300watt power supply, and is sold with the onboard video card (an Nvidia 7100). I have to assume that either the people you bought it from added in the 9600GSO, or you have since buying it. Either way it's generally recommended that you have at least a 450watt power supply in your system for that card. The card doesn't need that much (usually the total system drain would be about 180watts, as much as 250watts under load), but it's good leave some headroom.

BTW, just one thing before you take the system in. Can you take a look at the capacitors on your motherboard, and see what condition they are in? See if any of the tops are bubbled up, or if anything has leaked out from the tops of them (pay specific attention to the ones around the CPU and near the main power connector from your PSU to the motherboard).

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JewCrew

Okay, hate to re-open this thread, but I'm SeenBean's Bro, and now i have multiple problems... ugh.


Okay, so that GeForce 9600GSO i guess was fried, put it in another computer and it didn't recognize it. But whatever.

Though, My dad JUST bought a GeForce 250GTS Core Edition, so i threw it in the Acer and BAM! same shit happened...


So-- I have disabled and uninstalled the onboard GeForce 7100, disabling via control panel won't do anything, and uninstalling only reinstalls it... I can't disable the onboard via BIOS because my BIOS doesn't even have that feature So i have no clue what else to do.

It isn't the PSU, because it is a 650W ATX power supply, and the minimum for the 250GTS is 450W. All the other requirements for the 250GTS are over exceeded, like they were for the 9600GSO.

The problem is this- On the Acer both the 9600GSO and 250GTS start and their fans run, though, when you hook up the monitor to them the screen goes black as if it were in sleep mode, not no imput. Normally, such as on this computer, when the monitor is hooked up to the graphics card, the display is re-routed to the onboard (For the broken GSO, havent tried the GTS)

So on the Acer, i am forced to use the motherboard port for video, and that only lets me use the onboard, which i cant get rid of...

Its very confusing, very annoying, and i think im going to kill some one... And i just got GTA 4, Dammit!

I hope this made remotely any sence to anyone.
if not ill try again- but please feel free to try and help.

I appriciate whatever you guys have to offer.

JewCrew

Also, for a little refresher-

The GeForce 9600GSO did the black screen thing one day, so after a few times restarting it, it was back to normal- eventually it stopped fixing, and stayed black, no matter how many times you restarted it, so i had to start using the motherboard video ports (Have 2 motherboard ones, and the standard 2 graphics card ones).

Now, even with a brand new graphics card, the screen still goes black when you plug the monitor into the graphics card. And, unfortunately, the damn thing still works if you use the motherboard ports.

Ohh yea, forgot to mention-- When i put the cards in, both the 9600GSO and the 250GTS it wont even detect them as new hardware. I have installed the latest 250GTS driver, which did nothing. And still, the only card that the computer recognizes is the 7100, or onboard one.

So if i can't disable the onboard through control panel, nor through BIOS, can i do it through pulling a cord? or is that old cards only?

Also, as a last resort-- Would reformating the computer, re-installing vista, ect., ect. do anything? or is the slots that you plug the graphics card into possibly shot?

BTW, if it is those slots, anyone know where to find extras? or what they are even called?

Once again thank you for your time, and for any help you may have I will smile for you while roundhouse kicking the crap out of my computers.

ET3D

It's definitely possible it's the slot. They're called PCI express (or PCIe for short). Had this happen to me with an AGP slot (which was where you put the graphics card before PCIe was invented). Symptoms were a little different, but close enough that this could be the problem.

If that's the case, the best solution would be to replace the motherboard.

JewCrew

Still got warranty on that computer, might as well just take it in :P

But thank you for your contribution, I'll check and see if any of those slots are having errors or are missing under the hardware list.

Thank You, - though, discussion is still open, for whoever wishes.