Video Card and my new PC

[johnstexas]

I posted a message about a computer I was building as a Christmas/Birthday present back in Nov in the motherboard area, IIRC. The system I ultimately got (and most purchase decisions were driven by price and rebates) was a K7S5A with Athlon XP 2000+, 256 MB SDRAM, Kaser AGP 2x, Best Data v.92 modem, Inland Firewire, Pacific Digitial 48x12x48 CD-RW, Maxtor 80GB (7200 rpm, 8MB cache), Soyo BayOne AVI 6 in 1, Sony Floppy Drive, Windows XP and MS Works.

I didn't get around to building the computer until a couple of weeks ago and it took several days. Had to go out to Fry's to get a grounding strap, was unsure about how to put the fan in, etc. When I finally got it all hooked up, it gave one long beep followed by 8 short beeps and then a couple of long beeps. Ultimately, I disconnected the drives and got the same results with just the modem and Firewire and k/b. Adjusting the video card, I finally got it to work and then reconnecting the drive cables, lost it for a while but finally got it working.

I installed Windows and Works. Then, moving it to my house (because I built it at my mom's), it didn't work when I connected it again. Same problem. One time I got it to apparently work when I tried it w/o a monitor connected, but reconnecting it wouldn't work and subsequent attempts without the monitor didn't work either. I have opened it up twice and have tried disconnecting the drives. I have tried adjusting the video card, but to no avail. I don't want to keep removing/inserting the video card so as to damage the contacts. Also, once, this morning, the aligator clip on my wrist strap came loose and crashed into some resistors near the video card on the mobo. The mobo's guide mentions that the clip for the fan can scratch the resistors, damaging the mobo. I hope this didn't happen with the wrist strap.

The video card does not appear to fit in as well as I would like it. The end with the face plate won't go all of the way down as it runs into the case.

Any ideas?

BTW, OT, but does anyone know how to set up a dialup account on ThizLinux on a GQ PC? I have one of these computers, w/o Windows and I don't know how to do it.

Thanks.
-John

John Seeliger Limited but increasing content
jseelige@yahoo.com <http://www.freewebz.com/hudathunkett/>
jseelige@aaahawk.com

 

[LTJLover]

Well I will give you a list of things to try so bare with me if you have tried them already. First of all, the line about how your vid card doesn't go in all the way raises a flag for me. If the card is not in the slot securely or slightly on an angle, this could cause it to work sometimes when you push on the monitor connector or after a bumpy car ride. Due to this, my first suggestion would be to use some long nose pliers to slightly bend that metal tab on the bottom of the vid card bracket. Do it carefully and just enough so that the card sits all the way in the slot without hitting that part of the case. While you are at it, make sure everything is snug...motherboard, RAM, CPU, etc. Ok now if the problem still exists...you want to make sure you only have the necessary things hooked up to boot. So CPU, RAM, video card, KB/mouse. Don't even hook up the hard drives. See if you can boot consistantly like this. If it looks good, you should add one thing at a time until it goes unstable. Another few things to check...do you have one stick of RAM or 2? If you have 2, swap the DIMMs or just put one in at a time. Bad RAM will give a beep code error. Also make sure you have a decent power supply. If you try to run modern video cards with a cheapo supply, sometimes you have issues. I will try to think of some other things for ya. Good luck.

 

[johnstexas]

Thanks to all who helped on all the forums (Tom' Hardware, freetechhelp, 24hoursupport, comp.sys.*, alt.comp.periph.mailboard.elitegroup, pub65.ezboard.com/fk7s5amotherboardforumfrm9.showMessage?topicID=153.topic
. Basically, I had considered bending the plate myself, but was not sure. One person emailed me suggesting this (I think he has done this himself.) and a couple of others suggested bending the plate as well so I did it and it worked. Other ideas were trimming it, getting a hacksaw, jiggling it until I get it fit and buying a new card. Fortunately the bending worked.

John Seeliger Limited but increasing content
jseelige@yahoo.com <http://www.freewebz.com/hudathunkett/>
jseelige@aaahawk.com

 

[Crashman]

I NEVER bend the bracket when it doesn't slide in all the way! Why? Because there's a right way, and a wrong way, to do things. You see, if the thing doesn't fit in all the way, it's because the motherboard is sitting too far into the case. Usually this is the fault of a poorly built case. It can be fixed by bending the motherboard's mounting plate, or if it's screwed in by adjusting the screw points, or by using longer standoffs to raise the board higher from it's mounting plate.


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