Strange symptoms with 7600GS

GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
edited September 2006 in Hardware
I bought my wife a passively cooled Gigabyte 7600GS card for her PC. I had it running at completely stock clocks. Everything was fine for two weeks since I put the PC together for her. Suddenly, last night while she was playing Oblivion, I was summoned from my reading chair (no, not the "throne") to hear that she had a problem. Her entire screen was black, but the backlight was still on, and the monitor knew it still had a connection. The PC was not locked up.

Here's what happened next:
  • I rebooted. Still the same.
  • I shut down the PC, unplugged her monitor from the VGA port on the card, and plugged the DVI connection from my monitor into the card. Then I booted up, and the monitor worked... until partway through the Windows loading screen. Then my monitor blanked.
  • I booted into safe mode with my monitor hooked up to DVI. It worked. Then I removed the video card driver and rebooted, and it booted into Windows just fine.
  • Then I shut down and plugged her monitor back in to the VGA port. Blank screen.
  • I plugged my monitor back in to DVI, and... black screen here too, not even able to boot to safe mode.

As one of my former coworkers used to say: "What the problem is?"

Any ideas? Thanks!

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    This is an interesting one... Do you have the option to test it in another PC?

    I don't think it is a power issue, but could be either the card or the motherboard. 90% of the time it is the card. The good thing is if it is bad.. it is under warranty.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Right now I can't test it on another PC, because none of the other Cincinnati Short-Medians has a PCIE mobo.

    I'm going to try a few more things, but I'm guessing it's the card as well, based on the strange progression of failures.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    OK. I revise my earlier statement - I can still get a picture via the DVI connection only, when the video card driver is not installed. I can't get a picture through the VGA connection regardless of what I've tried. Even though I can get a picture through the DVI connector, if I use the DVI-VGA adapter that came with the video card, I can't get a picture using a VGA input to any monitor. :wtf:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Sounds like your RAMDAC has one foot in the grave.

    //EDIT: Added link
    //EDIT 2: Is the nationality of your co-worker Middle Eastern? My supervisor is Chaldean and say that all the time. ;D
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    That seems odd for a two-week old video card - would you suspect it was simply a fluke? Although, since this is a passively-cooled card model (by design) would heat cause the DAC to fail like this?

    My coworker used that phrase mainly because she watched WAY too much Jerry Springer, and she liked to make fun of the phrases she heard on the show. "That baby looks nothin' like me!" :hiding:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Maybe a manufacturing glitch. It happens, as we've all sadly learned over the years. The DAC is just a guess, but the idea that it doesn't work on the VGA port and w/o drivers on the DVI port made me think of that. Frankly, I don't really know, but I'd RMA the card post-haste, and then slap your coworker for crimes against humanity. ;D
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    The RMA is approved and ready to go back to Newegg. Hopefully they can get it back to me quickly, my wife needs a PC. ;)

    Thanks for the guidance, guys.
  • WeAreNotAloneWeAreNotAlone
    edited August 2006
    GHoosdum wrote:
    That seems odd for a two-week old video card - would you suspect it was simply a fluke? Although, since this is a passively-cooled card model (by design) would heat cause the DAC to fail like this?

    My coworker used that phrase mainly because she watched WAY too much Jerry Springer, and she liked to make fun of the phrases she heard on the show. "That baby looks nothin' like me!" :hiding:

    Not strange at all.... mfg defect, something out of spec, going out of spec.

    Just because it's new, (2 weeks old) doesn't mean it's good.

    Many years back I had a fairly new Matrox card, was running a demo to get a fps, (stock clocks, card maybe a week or so old)... Started the demo... came back ten minutes later and the card was dead, dead, dead...

    Looked prefect though:thumbsup:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    I just checked with Newegg, and the package has been delivered by UPS, signed for by "Porch" (of course). :rolleyes:

    Unfortunately, it was not delivered to my house. :werr:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    ??? not good!
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    ??? not good!

    You're telling me! ;) I'm looking at my account in Newegg for clues... if that fails, it's off to UPS customer service.

    I wish Newegg still gave free FedEx Super Saver shipping. Those were the days! The package couldn't be delivered to someone else's porch then, because it had to be signed for... that wouldn't stop a dishonest person from stealing your stuff if the shipping company went to the wrong house, but at least if nobody answered the door, I could still pick up my package at the depot. Now, I have to track it down myself!
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    We found it. Apparently UPS delivered it to my parents' house. I haven't lived there in two years, but apparently Newegg still had their address on file, and automatically sent my RMA replacement to my parents' address. Good thing they still live there, otherwise someone would have gotten a free video card! Now I just need to figure out how to get Newegg to delete my parents' address from their file!

    I installed the new video card last night, and it runs just as well as the first one... but this one seems to run about 10C cooler. That's a good sign, I think.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Just update your account.. it is pretty easy or add a new address and make the new one the default.. when you check out it gives you those options also.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    Just update your account.. it is pretty easy or add a new address and make the new one the default.. when you check out it gives you those options also.

    That is how I have my account set up. I updated it when I moved into my house. All of my new orders come to my home address - it was just the RMA return shipment that wound up at the old address for some unknown reason. In fact, I placed an order on Saturday that arrived at my house yesterday with no problems.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    So... yesterday afternoon I was in the living room, and I heard my wife shout to me. I checked with her to see what was going on, only to find that the new card was artifacting heavily in Oblivion. Upon exiting to the desktop, it's even artifacting there, leaving a pattern of green dots all over the screen. All of this is happening at stock speeds.

    Luckily, Newegg's customer service was there for me. They allowed a refund RMA, so I can choose a different card (this particular card is 0 for 2 in my book). I've got my eye on this 7600GT. My only concern now is the extra noise that the fan will produce, and I can't find an aftermarket VGA cooler that claims compatibility with the 7600 series. Any suggestions for me?
  • PirateNinjaPirateNinja Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    GHoosdum wrote:
    So... yesterday afternoon I was in the living room, and I heard my wife shout to me. I checked with her to see what was going on, only to find that the new card was artifacting heavily in Oblivion. Upon exiting to the desktop, it's even artifacting there, leaving a pattern of green dots all over the screen. All of this is happening at stock speeds.

    Luckily, Newegg's customer service was there for me. They allowed a refund RMA, so I can choose a different card (this particular card is 0 for 2 in my book). I've got my eye on this 7600GT. My only concern now is the extra noise that the fan will produce, and I can't find an aftermarket VGA cooler that claims compatibility with the 7600 series. Any suggestions for me?

    zalman vf900cu if you got 40$ laying around
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I'll take a look at that Zalman. Thanks for the recommendation!
  • ShalimarShalimar Touching the Stars
    edited September 2006
    Out of curiosity, what brand was the original 7600GS ?
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    It was a Gigabyte passively cooled card that I had read several great reviews for. And it was a great card, until it failed each time.
  • ShalimarShalimar Touching the Stars
    edited September 2006
    GHoosdum wrote:
    It was a Gigabyte passively cooled card that I had read several great reviews for. And it was a great card, until it failed each time.

    Well that is a little relief.

    My brother got me an Inno3d 7800GS and he has yet to install it.

    We have always had our fair share of problems with gigabyte branded product, especially motherboards.

    Thank you. :)
  • VoxLuminaVoxLumina
    edited September 2006
    My ASUS 7600GS is running well. I have it slightly overclocked, and my only issue with it is that it can't max out Oblivion. But what can that is under $300?
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    There's not much even over $300 that can actually max out on Oblivion.
  • VoxLuminaVoxLumina
    edited September 2006
    The 7900's do a good job with high frame rates, even in demanding areas with settings at high. I doubt one can max it out, but a pair of 7900 SLI's definitely can. That's over $500 though.
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