9800 GTX no signal to monitor

[Tman09]

I know this is probably been posted somewhere, but I couldn't find it, and the ones I did find weren't exactly like mine.

I bought a computer from newegg about a year and a half ago and up until yesterday it worked perfectly. Yesterday the monitor went black and the sound started looping. No matter what I was doing, listening to music, playing a game, surfing the web, anything and it would just randomly go black. The only way to get out of it was to manually reboot it. I was pretty sure it was the video card, so i updated the drivers and that seemed to delay the blackout's for about an hour. But now anytime I turn the computer on there is no signal. I tried a different DVI cord, same problem. Different monitor, same problem. Another different monitor, same problem. I took my video card to my friends house and tried it in his computer, worked perfectly.

I am all out of ideas as to what the problem could be. I've eliminated overheating because it has never had a heat problem ever and i even put a box fan next to the case to see if that was the cause. I have noticed that the fan on the g-card stops spinning at the same time the signal is lost. I don't know if that is related, but just something I noticed. Also the green light at the back of the card is on, which leads me to believe that the power is fine.

I get any test results from the computer because i cant see anything, and I cant quite remember what the exact specs are but here's what i can remember:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400(2.66GHz)
4GB DDR2
500GB SATAII
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB HDCP Ready Video Card
800W psu
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (I upgraded to windows 7 Professional, but this was back in august)
mobo: ASUS P5N-D SLI


If you need anymore info Ill be glad to try and provide it

Thanks

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Since the card worked in your friends computer, I would safely assume it is not a video card problem.

Could be memory gone bad

 

[Tman09]

Well i took your advice and tried booting with just 1 stick of ram, and i tried both of them separately, and same results. I also have 2 1 gig sticks and tried one a time with those, also with the same results. I guess there's a possibility that they could all be bad, but I would think that would be a slim chance.

Thanks so much for the input though!

 

[Tman09]

bump

 

[sabot00]

To make sure the RAM isn't bad you could run memtest86+.
I'm pretty sure it's the video card though, I would try running it in another computer or putting another one in yours.

 

[sailer]

To make sure the RAM isn't bad you could run memtest86+.
I'm pretty sure it's the video card though, I would try running it in another computer or putting another one in yours.

He said he already did that and the video card worked perfectly in his friend's computer. Thus the card shouldn't be the problem.

OK, the first suspect I think of is a failed power supply. Without adequate power, the video card doesn't work. Simple as that. Some power may still be supplied through the PCIe slot, enough to light up the card, but not enough to actually run it. So try a different PSU, perhaps the one from your friend's computer if he will allow it. Alternatively, try your PSU on his computer. But from what you described, it sounds to me like the present PSU was overheating and then it would quit. If it has failed completely, that would explain the lack of signal to the video card. This also relates to the fan quitting at the same time the signal is lost from the card.

The second suspect I see is the motherboard. That's harder to test, as it basically means testing the other components in a different computer and seeing if they work there. If all other components (ram, CPU, sound card, etc) work in a different computer, then that leaves the mobo as the prime suspect. Oh yes, try the ram in your friend's computer and see if it works there. That will clear the ram issue.

Theses things are what comes to mind at the moment. Good luck.

 

[Tman09]

So here's what I have done so far:

My friend came over and brought his video card, and at first it still didn't work. Then we took out one stick of ram and it seemed to last a little longer but still crapped. We then tried just one 1 gig stick of ram. And that seemed to work perfectly for the 15 minutes we left it on. But once we put the other 1 gig stick in to make it 2 total. It crapped out. So we left that one gig stick in that worked and switched back to my video card and it still crapped out. We tried every combination of video card and ram that we could try. Some worked for awhile then crapped out. Others didn't work at all. It seems to be just random.

Thanks for all of the help though. I really appreciate it.

 

[sailer]

So here's what I have done so far:

My friend came over and brought his video card, and at first it still didn't work. Then we took out one stick of ram and it seemed to last a little longer but still crapped. We then tried just one 1 gig stick of ram. And that seemed to work perfectly for the 15 minutes we left it on. But once we put the other 1 gig stick in to make it 2 total. It crapped out. So we left that one gig stick in that worked and switched back to my video card and it still crapped out. We tried every combination of video card and ram that we could try. Some worked for awhile then crapped out. Others didn't work at all. It seems to be just random.

Thanks for all of the help though. I really appreciate it.

While this still points to a failing PSU in that it sometimes works and sometimes does deliver the power to work, it could be the motherboard is bad. If you can, test the ram in your friend's computer just to make sure whether its good or bad and so clear that possible issue up. But I don't suspect the ram at this point.

A few months ago I built a brand new computer and it wouldn't work. I struggled for days, switching parts with a similar computer that I had in order to narrow down what was good or bad. In my case, the brand new motherboard was DOA. So I understand the frustration that can happen. After verifying that the ram is good or bad in your friend's computer, I would try replacing the PSU, assuming that the ram tested good. If the computer works fine with the replacement PSU, problem solved. If not, then the mobo is probably bad.

By the way, what brand is the PSU? The reason I ask is that some brands are known to have problems while others are fairly reliable. I do recognize that even the good brands can have a problem, as I had a PC P&C 750wt fail once, but the odds of a faulty PSU can range widely depending on what company made it.