anonymous
2009-12-03 11:26:49 UTC
About a week ago, I was playing Modern Warfare 2 and then my computer froze. Thinking it was just something in the background, I waited and then artifacts appeared on the screen and on the desktop. I managed to get back to desktop and decided to restart the computer. On restart, the computer looked fine, no artifacts. I quickly go back to Modern Warfare 2, I'm in the lobby and later at the loading screen to get in-game. As soon as the loading bar finishes, artifacts appear before it can even get in-game though I'm still able to hear the sound in the background. The computer is frozen and I decide to manually restart the computer.
When I boot up the computer again, red lines are all over the screen. I'm still able to see what is displayed on the screen as the lines are thing but what I have also found out is that the computer has reverted the resolution back to 800x600 and it no longer recognizes the video card. I look inside the computer and with the exception of dust, all of the fans were running and everything looked fine.
Needless to say, I assumed it was the video card. I went to the store, bought a new 9800GT 512MB, the same model that one will find in my computer but a different manufacturer (XFX was the old one, BFG is the new one). I install it and the monitor doesn't even display anything. I look inside the computer, the fan on the graphics card is running fine, everything is in place. I manually turn off the computer. Upon turning it back on, the monitor finally displays the start-up screen with no artifacts. Awesome, except now the screen is flickering. The display goes blank in the middle of the start-up (with something that looks like a DOS prompt covering the screen) then comes back on. It continues this until it gets to the desktop where I have noticed it has detected the new video card (as it says in the corner the screen). It even reverts to the resolution that it was set to before the artifacts occurred which is 1920x1080. About a minute after the start-up, the screen goes blank and the monitor indicates that there is no signal.
Okay, the next assumption is the power supply, perhaps this generic 500W power supply hasn't been giving the cards enough power. I take it to Best Buy to have it looked by the Geek Squad (yes, I know people shouldn't take their computers to Geek Squad but I searched for hours for a solution to this problem and it appears no one has experienced this exact issue). I tell them the problem, they agree with me that if it's not the video card, then it's the power supply and if it's not the power supply, it's the motherboard. I pick up a Corsair power supply, a 650W (I don't recall what the amps were and I know amps are often considered more important than the watts but I'm sure they were enough to power a 9800GT). I install the power supply with the old video card inside the computer, there are still artifacts on the screen.
Okay, perhaps this is just a mix of hardware, maybe the computer just needs a new power supply and video card. I keep the new Corsair inside and buy a BFG 9800GT, pretty much the same one mentioned earlier but this was also new. I put it in and just like before, the monitor indicates that there is no signal except instead of displaying this during the start-up, it displays this as soon as I plug it in to the video card, before I even turn on the computer.
At this point, I'm not sure what the problem is with this computer. I take it to another electronics store to get it looked at, they tell me it's the graphics card, I tell them I already installed two new cards in it and that the monitor wouldn't even pick it up. They then tell me that the new video cards were probably conflicting with the existing drivers on the computer, "That's the only explanation." The technician said. I will admit that when I installed the new 9800GTs, drivers for the old 9800GT were still installed on the computer.
Do you guys agree with this solution or do you think another solution could alleviate this problem? The computer pretty much requires a video card because the manufacturer decided to put a cap (yes, a cap) on the port where the integrated graphics card would be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.