Hi,

I'm having a very interesting problem at the moment, and I have spent hours looking through forums and websites for answers.

I'm having a couple of issues which may or may not be related.

It all started a few weeks ago. My computer started running very slowly and games would take ages to load. I assumed it was a virus or something, so i did all the scans, but no luck. Anyway, it wasn't a huge deal, so I just tried to ignore it. Then, around the same time, the signal to my monitor just cut out - "no signal" appeared on the monitor. I instinctively restarted the PC and everything worked fine for a week or so.

I then moved my PC over to Uni, set it up, and everything was working as it was before - kinda slow but still working. After a couple of hours of surfing the web, I decided to start my work. All of a sudden, the signal to my monitor cut out again. My biggest concern at the time was losing all of my work, since I was using several different programs. (I used alt-tab and ctl-s, hoping that it would save). I then restarted the PC, and still no signal. I started to get a little worried, and i assumed i must have done something to the PC when moving it. So i opened it up, took the gfx card, ram out and put them back in. I checked all the wires, inside the PC and out. I turned the PC back on and i got a signal - relief. I got my work up again, and after 10 minutes, the same thing happened. So, i opened it up again and played around, and after 10 minutes of turning the PC on and off, I finally got a signal again. Then it went out before I got to the login screen. After that, no matter what I did, the screen wouldnt come on, I couldn't see the bios or anything, just "no signal".

So I took the PC back home the next week and tested it out. It turns out that something was wrong with the monitor. I plugged in an old monitor and it worked fine. With the PC still turned on, i attached the cable to the 'broken' monitor... I got a signal and it seemed to work. I restarted the PC and I got "no signal" again. It seems that the 'broken' monitor only worked if the PC was booted up whilst connected to another monitor. The cable could then be attached to the broken 'monitor' and it would work.

Faulty monitor right? So i bought a new one, along with a new case and CPU cooler. So when i rebuilt the PC, i made sure all the connections were tight. Turned the PC on, and everything was as it was. The screen worked, but the Hard drive was still slow. My main focus was now on the HDD. It turns out that the HDD was reading at ony 4MB/s. However, if I left the PC off for a while and turned it back on, the speed would go up to 75MB/s for about 20 minutes. (I tried to defrag it but with 3MB/s read/write speeds, I didn't get very far). My plan was to reinstall windows and if that failed, get a new HDD.

Anyway, it worked fine for 2 days. Then i took the PC back to uni. It worked fine for a couple of hours, like last time... then the monitor went out.

And so here I am, sitting on my laptop, wondering what's going on with my PC.

Is there any chance that a faulty power supply could be causing my problems?

Specs : Evga nforce 680i
Nvidia 8800GTX
2GB corsair dominator RAM
320 GB hitachi HDD
2.4Ghz intel 6600 C2D
Corsair 620 W Power supply

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Best Regards,

Dave

First off when a monitor gives you "NO SIGNAL INPUT" the monitor is indicating it is working fine.

That is what it should do when it receives no signal. A bad monitor would never power on and tell you anything.

So it questions perhaps the cable; perhaps the graphics card; perhaps the CPU; perhaps the PSU.

The PSU is easily tested with a device such as this:

PSU Tester

........................................

FrozenCPU ATX 2.0 Ultimate LCD Power Supply Tester (20/24 pin ATX, SATA, P4, Xeon, PCI-E, Floppy, 4 pin) - FrozenCPU.com


Do you have dual 6 pin power going to that 8800GTX?

Is your PSU equipt with dual 6 pin or are you using molex adapters?


Also how are you reading the HDD rate? Have you monitored your CPU usage?

Thanks for your reply.

I know that the monitor SHOULD be fine since it is powering on. However, i plugged it into my old PC and it still showed no signal. Also, an old monitor worked fine on my new PC when my 'broken' monitor wouldn't. My brand spanking new monitor also worked fine for a couple of days. This all suggests that there MUST be something wrong with the monitor.

But since I'm getting the problem again, it means that there must be another problem causing the monitor to malfunction.

I'll try to test the PSU as soon as possible.

Yeah I have 2 PCIe power cables going into the 8800gtx (i assume they are 6pins). I'm not using any adapters.

I'm used a couple of programs. I can't remember the names. One monitored the transfer speed of the hard drive, and the other was a general PC tool - SANDRA i think? They both told me that my HDD was running very slowly.

My CPU seemed to be OK, usage seemed to be pretty normal, idle usage in the high 90s with virus scanners and other programs contributing by a few %.

Thanks again for response

My question about the 6 pin power is important too.

If that 8800GTX is not powered by dual designated 6 pin lines direct from the PSU it is very problematic.

Molex adapters and or any type of splitter cannot push those cards.

Another easy test is to test your RAM:

MemTest
--------------------------------------------------
Try running MemTest.


Also the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test:

Support - Downloads and Utilities

The GFX card is using the correct connectors and it has been working perfectly for 2 years. There are no adapters, it is a direct connection between the PSU and card.

As for the second post, it is hard to do tests when you can't see anything. I did the HDD test before i left for uni. It was only the quick test, but it said everything was working normally. That's why i was going to reinstall windows.

Do you have the latest BIOS on that board? Currently P33.

Bios Version : P33
BIOS Date : 09/15/2008

http://www.evga.com/support/drivers/...t.asp?switch=2

I have the same board in my gaming computer with two 8800GTX.

Does the POST LED go to FF?

Also do you have the latest nVIDIA drivers?

Version: 181.22
Release Date: January 22, 2009

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

I almost certainly don't have the latest drivers/ BIOS, but I can't see a thing so I doubt I'll be able to update them.

The POST LED does go to FF

I am going to suggest again that the monitor/monitors are not the problem.

The fact that you can swap monitors (as you did at home) and they work makes me even more certain beyond the "NO SIGNAL" output which is normal for a functioning monitor that loses its signal.

The issue is the signal. The line of suspects: cable; graphics card; motherboard; RAM; CPU; PSU.

This motherboard does have issues and I have dealt with many for two years.

Hope you don't mind all the questions but that is the only way I know of to try and help.

Here are a few more:

First off we are talking about flat screen monitors: yes?

Next have you tried using a VGA adapter on the monitor side of the cable?

Have you tried both ports on the 8800 side?

Have you tried clearing the CMOS jumper?


...

I had the same problem twice before-both with HP computers, both times turned out to be the motherboard. First one had leaking capacitors, second time the capacitors showed no outward signs of damage, but I had to conclude motherboard cuz all the other parts worked in other systems. My guess is its the capacitors on the motherboard, just my guess. both were intel chipsets, the first one I had issues with was a socket 478 with a 1.8 ghz intel celeron and the second was socket 370 with a 1.2 ghz intel celeron.