Computer Crashed

[beanzontoast]

Worth double-checking all your monitor leads are seated correctly (with power off) and also trying it with a spare monitor if possible just to rule that out, since you mention the corruption is right from the point of power up.

 

[ian turner]

They also mention it crashes unless in safe mode which would tend to rule out monitor and cable problems

 

[JtB]

The PC is a Dell and its nearly 3 years old.

I tried the monitor on a different computer and the monitor works fine, so I bought a new graphics card. Before opening the graphics card though I'd like to understand better what the likelihood is of the problem being with the graphics card rather than the motherboard (if the problem is with the motherboard then I can't return the new graphics card once its been opened). I have an old graphics card in an old Windows 98 machine and I was wondering whether inserting this old graphics card into my computer might give any clues as to whether the problem is with the graphics card or the motherboard. I doubt though I'll be able to find any Windows Vista drivers for this old graphics card.

 

[Tigerbiten]

At 3 years old your prob looking at an AGP slot in the MoBo.
If the old vid card will just slot in then it will work fine.
If it won't then the AGP slot runs at the wrong voltage for the card.

If the old card is a PCI slot card then it will work.

The old vid card won't be a PCI-E slot so that type of slot can be ruled out.
But if it is then it will work.

So basicaly, if the card fits the slot then it should work.
If it does fit but does not work, you'll just get no output and bios beeps for a bad vid card.

Luck ...........

Edit:- You only need to boot into the bios screen, so new/old vid drivers are not needed.
If the screen is still corrupted when you boot, then it not a vid card problem.

 

[JtB]

The old video card has the wrong type of slot, so that's no good. Now my computer screen is completely blank, as is the small moniotor screen built into the actual tower. So I'm not even going to open the new video card. Instead I'll return it up-opened and pay someone to fix my computer.

 

[ian turner]

Er at almost 3 years old it will be PCI-E. I scrabbled around for an AGP 1950 card for my aging machine 3 years ago due to PCI-e being the norm. Even if it had been AGP then odds on the 98 machine would have been x2 and wouldn't have worked in a x8 slot due to voltage differences.
As more has gone down I'd say it's the 12v or 5v rail on the PSU that's died.

 

[fossyant]

PSU = Power Supply box thingy in the top - not expensive and known to fail. Will cause issues like this !