Failed to Boot, solved that, now very slow graphics processing, help?

[JimmySmack]

Hello,

I've stopped by the forums before for help with various issues and have found Tom's Hardware to be a great resource with many resolved issues, so for that I thank you all. I come to you now with my first post for a specific problem I can't seem to solve.

I returned back to my desktop after a 2 days to find it would not boot (no beep from the mobo either). The fans turned on but I could not initially get it to startup Windows. So I opened it up and reset some connections, swapped the memory pieces around and removed the graphics card. With the graphics card removed it did boot, obviously with no display, but I got a beep and everything seemed fine. Upon putting the card back in the initial PCI-E slot though and connecting the monitor, it ceased to post once again. So I swapped the card to the other PCI-E slot. This triggered 2 red lights to come on next to the pci-e slots but it DID boot. Unfortunately, the graphics processing was beyond slow. Games (specifically League of Legends and Starcraft 2) run extremely sluggishly, almost as if the graphics card isn't doing anything to benefit the system. Thinking that the PCI-E slot was the problem, I moved the card back to the inital slot, triggering a green light as it was before this whole debacle and switched the SATA cable into the other port on the Mobo and it booted fine.

Description of the Problem: Extremely low frame rate, used to be 50-60 in LoL and is now 8 avg. Similar results for SC2.

This is where I am now:

I rolled back the graphics drivers
Installed the latest drivers
Restored my system to 1/31/12
Messed with fan speeds and the fan works fine so its not overheating

Build: (Its oldish, from 2007-2008)

Windows 7 Professional x32
KN-8 SLI Abit Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800mhz
9600 GT 512mb
500wt psu
2gigs RAM

I have a feeling the Card is on the way out, but if theres any other information that you guys/girls may need to accurately determine that let me know.

Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

 

[GenericUser]

It sounds to me like the issue has to be either the video card or the motherboard. Did the video card get very hot before you messed with the fan speeds? It could have been damaged as a result of overheating, but I don't personally know how hot (or not) 9600's get. Your best bet would be if you had access to another motherboard and put the video card in there. If it boots up and runs games fine on a different board, then the issue resides with your current motherboard. If not, then it would have to be the video card.

 

[JimmySmack]

Unfortunately I don't have access to another motherboard where I am, and the 9600 I know from experience does not get very hot at all. The only tampering I did with the fan speed was put it to max so that wouldn't have fried it. The thing is it played fine on friday, turned it off for the weekend, and now it just started this strange behavior.

If I could get to another motherboard that would give me my answer. Anyone know of any other methods I could use to determine where the fault is besides trying on another mobo?

 

[GenericUser]

Unfortunately I don't have access to another motherboard where I am, and the 9600 I know from experience does not get very hot at all. The only tampering I did with the fan speed was put it to max so that wouldn't have fried it. The thing is it played fine on friday, turned it off for the weekend, and now it just started this strange behavior.

If I could get to another motherboard that would give me my answer. Anyone know of any other methods I could use to determine where the fault is besides trying on another mobo?

You could try the opposite too I suppose, if you had access to a different video card instead of a different motherboard. If the different video card worked fine then it would have to be the original one. Personally I don't know another way to try and test the issue since these methods would completely isolate the parts from each other to determine which one is the problem one. If you don't have access to a second video card hopefully someone else has some ideas.

 

[pjmelect]

It sounds to me (assuming that the motherboard is not faulty) that the graphics card is not pushed down into its slot correctly. It is working in the second slot because it is making contact with only one of the serial interfaces which is why it is very slow. This reasoning means that the graphics card is OK and that the problem is with the motherboard providing you have fitted the graphics card correctly. You could try testing your system outside of the case to make sure that the case is not preventing you from pushing the graphics card all the way in.