So I've got a problem...

[middeneast]

Basically these are the specs of my computer:

AMD64 3500+ (Socket 939) O/ced to 2.6Ghz, original 2.2ghz
A8N-SLI Premium
Corsair 2x1GB TWINX2048-3500LLPRO (Spent about as much money on my ram as on my GPU...)
XFX GeForce 7800GT Extreme Edition

Yesterday, when I was playing Oblivion (This was the first time I played the game. I had the game for a long time already, but this was the first time I actually tried it out.) - I had a lot of mods installed for Oblivion - my screen went completely black. Like... my screen was still on, it just didn't get any input.
What I did was Alt-Tab back to Windows, and I got my display back. Then I Alt-Tabbed back to Oblivion, and it worked again. The problem I had then is that it kept going black every 10 minutes, mostly during combat scenes and such, which was quite a pain, but I got into the habit of pausing the game and alt tabbing back and forth. I thought this was merely an error in the game since I had so many mods installed that the game just kindof fucked up. Later on I tried to play Counterstrike Source, and had exactly the same problem; only this time it was more annoying since I found myself dead every time I came back. And the blackouts became more and more frequent. By that time I realized it wasn't a problem with Oblivion's mods, so I checked the temperature of my GPU, but before I could, I got a BSoD (Damn you, blue screens of death!). I can't remember what it said, didn't pay attention to it.
When I wanted to reboot, I couldnt even see the start up. My computer booted as usual, with the annoying windows tune that goes *du du du* on startup, but my monitor doesnt get any input. Not even during the BIOS.

Now, I'm a very sad boy.

I checked all the cabling, I took my computer apart and put it together again, I took everything out but the GPU and the MB, and nothing helped.
I've contacted the company I bought it from, hoping for a guarantee (I hope they dont notice I o/ced my GPU at one point...)

Any ideas?

 

[xeenrecoil]

hmm this is a interesting problem, if you have access to other hardware you might want to start swapping some stuff out starting with your graphics card, and see if that solves the problem, the card may have simply gone bad, if that doesnt solve the problem then start changing out other hardware and find out what piece of hardware is the culprit, you just need to do some trouble shooting here, let me know how it goes.

late

 

[middeneast]

Yes, I do have access to the hardware... or at least when I get home, that is, because right now I'm at school.

I could try swapping the RAM, though that would do no good. In any case, I can't swap my GPU with anything else, because I only have one PCI-e card at home. I could try giving the supposidly broken GPU to a friend for him to try at home (The poor bastard has a 7950GX2 >.<)

Either it's the Motherboard or its the GPU, I guess.

 

[mkaibear]

If it gets to Windows, it's *almost certainly* the graphics card. When did you buy the card?

 

[cme2c]

Does your mobo have onboard graphics? I had a problem where the psu couldn't power an addon card ( A geforce 4200 Ti AGP) so switched back to onboard graphics.

A new psu fixed it

If your mobo does have onboard graphics, try plugging the monitor in to the onboard graphics when the screen goes black

 

[middeneast]

Yea I bought it Jan 2006, and nope, my mainboard doesn't have onboard graphics, kinda wish it had.

Suppose that (I certainly hope so ) I hadn't enough power, why hasnt this problem occured before? I really wonder why this error occured so suddenly... Damn you, Oblivion!

 

[cme2c]

Yea I bought it Jan 2006, and nope, my mainboard doesn't have onboard graphics, kinda wish it had.

Suppose that (I certainly hope so ) I hadn't enough power, why hasnt this problem occured before? I really wonder why this error occured so suddenly... Damn you, Oblivion!

I feel your pain. What is the power supply? As to why. psus can go bad, contact resistance can increase, etc etc.

Also, I could be on the wrong track altogether. Can you think of anything that is different coincindental with the problem (apart from oblivion)

 

[middeneast]

Right now I'm using the old PSU for my old computer, with 4 HD's, 2 cd drives, etc.. while I tried the PSU with only my graphic card and mainboard before...

Apart from Oblivion I can't think of anything, except for after playing Oblivion, I restarted my computer once, and when windows loaded I got an error message saying my GPU wasn't getting enough power and several functions were disabled. Furthermore when I restarted my computer again and windows started up, my resolution was set back to its defaults, (800*600, 16 bits) and suddenly Windows "Found new hardware", the GF 7800GT, which it then configured and installed. Apart from that, nothing really comes to mind.

 

[cme2c]

I still think its the psu but anyhoo... Look in device manager to see if you have more than one video card installed (best done in safe mode). If so, delete ALL of them, restart and let the computer redetect the 7800 and install it.

 

[middeneast]

I've given my gpu to a friend to try it out;
but it's fairly hard to go to device manager and etc.. simply due to the fact my screen never even turns on ;-)
But i do hope its the PSU... (I must admit my PSU wasnt the most expensive PSU, but it did what it had to do.)

Cheers