Power supply or video card?

[Linux~Powered]

Here's my problem. When i power up my box i have no video output. I don't get any Post Error Codes when booting up either, so i'm sure it's not my video card and i know it's not my monitor. I was told that it my be my power supply. Can that be so? Also, the LED light on the power button was always green before, now when i power up it's orange. I took it apart today to clean all the dust out of it; i thought that maybe it was overheating or something, but that didn't help.

[jrbishop79]

swap out the video card for one that you know works and see if the problem persists. Then swap monitors. If you still see no change, then you know that it isn't the vid card or the monitor.

Just for our info, what are your specs, and what size PS do you have?

[DSwain]

yes it can very well be your PS. In many cases it is, especially if you're running newer hardware on an older PS (300watts or less) so it may very well be that. The video card may also be a problem to try.

[JohnT]

Do cat /proc/pci see if your sharing an IRQ.

[MMYoung]

Same thing happened to my Dad's old 700 Mhz Celeron the other day. Power led lit up, hard drives spun up but didn't bang the floppy drive and zip on the monitor. Monitor power LED stayed green though. All the lights was on but nobody was home.

Tried different video card to no avail. Ended up being a fried BIOS, needless to say he now has a new PC. Hope it's just your video card.

Later,
MMYoung

[Linux~Powered]

Just for our info, what are your specs, and what size PS do you have?

Slackware 9.1 2.6.2 kernel
1500 Mhz P4 128MB rambus
250 watt power supply
Nvidia Geforce2 Ultra

Now should i upgrade to a 300 watt PS or is that a bad idea?

[Wolface]

Originally posted by MMYoung
Ended up being a fried BIOS, needless to say he now has a new PC. Hope it's just your video card.

Later,
MMYoung

how could that happen? maybe a very old mobo?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Linux~Powered
Slackware 9.1 2.6.2 kernel
1500 Mhz P4 128MB rambus
250 watt power supply
Nvidia Geforce2 Ultra

Now should i upgrade to a 300 watt PS or is that a bad idea? I don't se how you can go wrong, but I think a 350 is more readily available.

[MMYoung]

Originally posted by Wolface
how could that happen? maybe a very old mobo?
Yeah, 1999 vintage Soyo. I opened the case to check it out and there was enough lint inside to knit a sweater, LOL!

[MMYoung]

Originally posted by Linux~Powered
Slackware 9.1 2.6.2 kernel
1500 Mhz P4 128MB rambus
250 watt power supply
Nvidia Geforce2 Ultra

Now should i upgrade to a 300 watt PS or is that a bad idea?
If it is indeed the PS, then by all means get a 300 watt as a bare minimum. Most good PS's run around $35 to $60 so get the most wattage you can afford. Better to have it and not use it than to need it and not have it I always say.

BTW, JohnT have I ever told you that you are one WEIRD dude? I love your sig, LOL! You're my kinda' guy :D .

Later,
MMYoung

[jrbishop79]

yeah, definately upgrade and get you a bugger PS... at least 350 Watts....

[MorphiusFaydal]

Originally posted by jrbishop79
yeah, definately upgrade and get you a bugger PS... at least 350 Watts....

so... should i get a bigger powersupply?

Athlon XP 3200+
Shuttle AN-35N Ultra
1x 512 mb PC-2100
WD 80GB Special Edition
DVD-ROM
CD-RW
GeForce FX 5200 256 MB
5.1 Sound Card
802.11b Wireless Card

300 Watt Power supply (one of the old ones that has that wierd monitor-power plug hole on it)

i was told i should, and i was told i shouldnt..

so... do i need a new one?

i keep gettin on newegg.com to get a 450W, but that 160GB hard drive keeps makin me say, 'hd first, power later' despite the fact that i dont need it..

of course... i need to buy a car first..

[cybertron]

Originally posted by MorphiusFaydal
so... should i get a bigger powersupply?

i keep gettin on newegg.com to get a 450W, but that 160GB hard drive keeps makin me say, 'hd first, power later' despite the fact that i dont need it..

of course... i need to buy a car first..

Probably not if your system is running fine, but if you get instability that would be the first place I'd check. Although, if it's a cheap 300 watt that doesn't provide steady voltage I suppose it's possible that it could blow something else in your system, and then you could kiss the hd and car goodbye (or the computer:)) That's my understanding, but I'm by no means an expert on the subject. I've just been doing some research in preparation for building my own system (going on about 8 months of looking but still no buying - just can't convince myself that I need another computer:))

I showed JohnT's sig to some of my linux using friends and they thought it was hilarious, but I'm afraid to show anyone who uses Windows because they might just think I'm a pervert:D Who says computers can't get you laid?

I love jrbishop's avatar too. Twelve o'clock flasher: another potentially suggestive computer geek term:)

[Linux~Powered]

Thanks for the replies, but now i'm getting some Post Error Codes; 1 long and 2 short then 2 more short ones. The 1 long 2 short tells me the video card is bad and the other 2 short ones are errors posted on the monitor, but i can't see what they are. I think i'm going to upgrade my video card first to see if that works. I had plans on doing that in the future anyways. Hopefully that's all it'll need.:confused:

[JohnT]

If you removed your vid card while cleaning ......it and other things might not have seated properly when reinstalling. just make certain everything is in correctly.

[banzaikai]

Well...

MMYoung:

Get the PSU (450W is good) before the HD. Now, the main concern isn't the total wattage, but which rails have the current output you need. On Athlons, they tend to suck up the 3.3V and 5V rails, where the P4s use more off the 3.3V and 12V rails (IIRC, this is the reason for that extra four-pin square Molex(R) connector). Getting a beefier PSU just makes sure that whatever you pop in there has enough of whatever it craves.

Now, you can verify some things if you have a DVM handy:
Check the 5V (red) rail for 4.75-5.25V, with 4.95-5.05 being ideal.
Check the 12v (yellow) rail for 11.5-12.5V.
Check the 3.3V (orange) rail for 3.3V (I like this to be right smack on...).

I'm betting these will be okay. However, some vid cards use the little-used -5V and -12V (white and blue, typically) rails, so check these, too. Tolerances should be equal to the positive voltages. If any of these are off, time for a new PSU.

I also noticed you have a Rambus mobo with 128MB (two 64MB sticks). Double-check them to make sure they, and the other sockets' "blanks" are seated right. Then run out and get another mobo asap, as Rambus really sucks.


from: JohnT
root@around# unzip, strip, touch, finger, grep, mount, top, fsck, more, yes, fsck, fsck, fsck, umount, sleep.


As a "cunning Linux" fan, I noticed you forgot "chown, yum". And there's always somone to "gawk" when you're "get"ting some "head" or "tail". And all this is "apt-get" us "/boot"ed "troff" this thread.

banzai "pun intended" kai

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by JohnT
If you removed your vid card while cleaning ......it and other things might not have seated properly when reinstalling. just make certain everything is in correctly.

That is what I would do.

Remove all cards, memory and whatnot, clean the contacts with Isopropyl alcohol and reinsert ensuring everything is seated properly.

[jrbishop79]

Originally posted by MorphiusFaydal
so... should i get a bigger powersupply?

Athlon XP 3200+
Shuttle AN-35N Ultra
1x 512 mb PC-2100
WD 80GB Special Edition
DVD-ROM
CD-RW
GeForce FX 5200 256 MB
5.1 Sound Card
802.11b Wireless Card



most definitely... 450+ Watts..... I'm surprised you haven't been experiencing system instabilities or performance lags. I would get a nice 450 Watt to start off... it should do you quite nicely..