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Monitor intermittently breaks up then loses signal
I recently did a rebuild on my PC upgrading the MoBo, CPU, and Memory. Worked fine for about a week - then I upgraded my hard disk from an IDE to SATA drive. Since then I am sometimes unable to boot the PC - no POST beep, no signal to monitor.
When I am able to boot, I intermittently get a problem where my monitor will break up (pixelate? sort of), computer freezes, and then loses the signal to the monitor. This happens sometimes almost immediately after boot, sometimes hours after booting up. It is pretty random, it seems.
I have updated all drivers to all hardware, including chipset, video, camera, scanner, etc. etc. - everything.
Any ideas out there????
P.S. Sometimes when I reboot after this happens, it will post and startup just fine. Sometimes I get no post, sometimes if there is no POST, I just wait a few minutes, hit the reset button, and it will then POST. Sometimes this doesn't work either. One time it ran for about 3 hours, after not POSTing all day with many attempts, then hit the reset and off it went with no problem. Seems to be possessed!!
I'm out of ideas, can anyone help? Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Last edited by cinjeffp; 13th June 2009 at 05:19.
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Check all power connections to the motherboard by unplugging them and plugging them in again - this sounds like a power problem and I would look at the PSU.
Are you sure that the PSU is large enough to cope with the additional load you may have placed on it?
Is the upgraded CPU in the list of those compatible with the motherboard? You don't mention doing a BIOS upgrade, it may be required for the new CPU as well as "Clearing the CMOS" or making a "Default Settings" in the BIOS.
I expect the thermal compound between the CPU and Heatink would have been applied correctly? When you get to go into the BIOS, there should be temperature and voltage readouts. Are there any places where there is a build-up of dust (check intake vents).
Can you go back to the IDE drive and see if it runs correctly?
Those are just some of the things I could possibly think of, but Pete's suggestion about the PSU is what I would concentrate on.
Check all power connections to the motherboard by unplugging them and plugging them in again - this sounds like a power problem and I would look at the PSU.
Are you sure that the PSU is large enough to cope with the additional load you may have placed on it?
Yes, the CPU is an AMD Athlon X2 (2X, whichever) and is a socket AM2+ . The board is an ASUS M4A78-E which supports both AM 2+ and AM 3 cpu's. I did flash the bios to the then most recent version 0901, I think it is. There have been some further updates since then, but they don't address the issue I'm having so I didn't flash it again.
ASUS provides a program to monitor the board's fans, voltage, and temp which all read in the normal range.
The PSU is brand new which I bought with the rebuild. However, I did just recently discover that the PSU carries only 17A on one of the rails, and 18A on the other, so I replaced the old PSU I was using which carries 23A or 28A (don't remember exactly, but I know it was much higher than the new one) on both rails. I originally replaced it because it is a 20 pin and the board wants a 24 pin. It didin't make a difference.
I just finished pulling the heat sink off of the GPU and cleaned and reapplied heat conductor stuff on it (thermal compound). I'm using the computer now, and so far so good - but sometimes it will run for hours before it blinks out on me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the suggestioins all of you.
I'll let you know if it continues to function OK, or if it blows up on me :-).
Cinjeffp
Last edited by cinjeffp; 14th June 2009 at 03:06.
Reason: Forgot some stuff
This is a good program to monitor voltages & temps - SIW.
Hardware > Sensors - let it run as it gives 3 values for each reading - Min, Max and Current.
Thanks for the tip on that software. It provides tons of info.
I have had one incident of my monitor breaking up and shutting down since I reapplied the thermal compound to the GPU. I thought I had the problem totally fixed, but after running for ~16 hours or so with no problems, it did it again. I am wondering if anyone knows if a virus under the other user account might cause this? It worked fine until after the other user logged into his account, and then I switched back to my account using the quick user switching feature in Windows (XP SP3). I have been logged into my own account since I had to restart for about an hour now with no indication of any poblems. Could this be a user connected virus or corruption of some sort?
BTW: The values in the SIW for the heat seemed normal to me.
I just went back to that program to verify values and noticed tht the 12V. value is 3.78! Is that even possible? Would it even run with that low of a value on the +12V ????
Also, I tried to install ASUS ProbeII and it won't install w/error "Failed to install ACPI driver" What does that mean? I know ACPI has someting to do with power consumption/saving - doesn't it?- but what if the driver is missing? Is this critical?
Thanks for any further input. You have all been very helpful.
I am wondering if anyone knows if a virus under the other user account might cause this? It worked fine until after the other user logged into his account
A virus is extremely unlikely IMO, but easy to check with Malwarebytes or Superantispyware - update before use and be logged into that account to run. Could be corruption in that user account - create a new one and see if the problem remains .....
Yes, the CPU is an AMD Athlon X2 (2X, whichever) and is a socket AM2+ . The board is an ASUS M4A78-E which supports both AM 2+ and AM 3 cpu's. I did flash the bios to the then most recent version 0901, I think it is. There have been some further updates since then, but they don't address the issue I'm having so I didn't flash it again.
ASUS provides a program to monitor the board's fans, voltage, and temp which all read in the normal range.
The PSU is brand new which I bought with the rebuild. However, I did just recently discover that the PSU carries only 17A on one of the rails, and 18A on the other, so I replaced the old PSU I was using which carries 23A or 28A (don't remember exactly, but I know it was much higher than the new one) on both rails. I originally replaced it because it is a 20 pin and the board wants a 24 pin. It didin't make a difference.
I just finished pulling the heat sink off of the GPU and cleaned and reapplied heat conductor stuff on it (thermal compound). I'm using the computer now, and so far so good - but sometimes it will run for hours before it blinks out on me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the suggestioins all of you.
I'll let you know if it continues to function OK, or if it blows up on me :-).
Cinjeffp
That didn't work so I purchased a pciE video card and disabled the onboard video. Well, it ran for about 12 hours just fine w/several restarts. I left it running doing a virus scan overnight and when I got up the next morning it had a black screen, and would not reboot again.
So, I gave up and RMA'ed both the board and the cpu. Now i'm stuck on my old standby computer for about the next 3 weeks while I wait to see what the manufacturer finds on the board and the cpu. :-(
Thanks for all the help, it is greatly appreciated.
