PruritusAni

As some of you may recall I've put together a build for mom last year. Well as it turns out on two occasions in the last week her monitor would go blank quoting "no signal" as an excuse.

Some relevant info:
AMD Phenom II X2 555 (no overclock, no unlocked cores)
AsRock M3A785GMH - has onboard ATI 4200
Corsair 400W
A-Data 2X2Gb DDR3 1600MHz
Windows 7 64bit SP1


Here's what I've tried so far:
- different monitor: the problem persists even if use my monitor, and her monitor works just fine on my computer
- different cables: tried using VGA or DVI and went through multiple cables, the problem does not lie here.
- connections: made sure everything was plugged in correctly, all the way in, and secured with the screws built into the VGA/DVI connectors.
- BIOS: have the latest bios installed (v1.5)
- Catalyst: have installed 11.2

Yet the problem persists! So I am now convinced that the onboard graphics is at the end of its usefulness. I am not sure what else I should try at this point.

I'm never excited at the possibility of RMA, so I'd rather avoid it if at all possible, especially since AsRock's RMA page seems designed to exude hassle.

Do you know of any other diagnostics/potential solutions I should try? Could anything else be causing the problem?

PS Tomorrow I'll be putting my 250 in her machine (probably along with my PSU as I don't know if her 400W could run the 250) to see if just buying some cheap nVidia card could provide a solution to this impasse.

Tyrsonswood

Pull the board and check the solder joints at the output plugs??? Onboard graphics are usually not prone to fail and you seem to have ruled out cables, so it almost has to be something with the jacks. When a plugged in and set up on Mom's desk is there tension on the cable?

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PruritusAni

I opened it up a few weeks ago and cleared out the dust that had accumulated there. I didn't notice anything off about the jacks when i did, but i'll open it up again tomorrow and look closer.

The case sits under the desk, and there's no tension on the cable other than its own weight.

Tyrsonswood

It's a long shot, but worth a look. A video card may be the fix, but if money can be saved....

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OldBuzzard

If you do need to install a discrete vid card, that CX400 will handle one, as long as it isn't something like a 4870x2

My #2 son was running an X1950XT using the CX400.

Something like this:
Newegg.com - XFX HD-555X-ZNF2 Radeon HD 5550 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
would most likely work fine.

I don''t know if I would go with anything higher/faster. But even that would be quite an upgrade from her onboard.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Judas

does sound like for whatever reason the onboard is failing for no apparent good reason..

which is a rarity but i've seen happen a few times..

Although if you can replace it via RMA.. it's nice.. but waiting for it without a computer doesn't work for most..

You could probably end up saving money in the end (if money = time) by picking up a cheap video card...

considering the fact it's onboard.. almost any video card in the HD3xxx and up of any flavor no matter how low will be better... so it's up to you...

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PruritusAni

Ok so this is rapidly turning into one of THOSE things.

I just opened mom's compy to put in my 250 and I thought just for laughs I'd look at the VGA/DVI jacks on the mobo. The solder joints seemed ok, but there was a bit of give in the socket, so that when one plugged in stuff into the VGA port it would lean back considerably. Im thinking this is where the problem lives, but I'm not sure how to fix it.

But anyways I went on to put in my 250 and its after market cooler hated the SATA ports, so right away I had to take one of the fans off. Furthermore the PSU only has one 6pin power guy, so I had to go searching in my pile of stuff for a Molex to 6pin converter. Fortunately I found one, so I didn't have to manufacture one of them on the spot.

The card is in there now and it's working quite well, but I'm going to wait a day or two to see if the problem reappears. In the meantime I think I'll look for a new cheap graphics card. What do you guys think of this one or this one or the one OldBuzzard recommended.


PS I also checked that the monitor was not doing stupid things like switching the input source on its own. The monitor (a 19" ASUS) does not have a manual setting, and when the problem occurred switching the input source did not make a difference.

Tyrsonswood

Does your Mom need the power that any of those cards have? You can get a good solid card that out performs what she has been using for a considerably lower price any of those three cards. (Not that there's anything wrong with those cards..... Just does she need that?)

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PruritusAni

Well no probably not. I mean the onboard is a mere 4200, so the 5550 and the 430 are miles ahead of that. I don't really know much about that segment of the graphics card market. You always see reviews for the top end cards. She does watch a lot of DVDs, and does some Photoshop at times, but no Crysis or Metro 2033 .

blibbax

If your mum's not doing anything complex (just word processing and web browsing) something like this would be fine (wow PC parts are cheap in the USA, holy crap...). If she is into a bit of HD movie watching and casual gaming, then yeah the GT430 or ATI equivalent seems ideal.

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Tyrsonswood

I've got one of these... Gigabyte HD4550 and it's a quality unit and there are a bunch of cards below that price mark that would do well for what she's doing with that system...... Stick with a good brand name and you'll be alright.

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Takaharu

Just for sanity's sake, have you run a memory test? Onboard graphics are affected by RAM so it might be worth your while testing it out.
If it all works out ok then yeah, go for a cheap & cheerful card.

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