Screen randomly going into standby w/ geforce 6600 gt

[wicksta]

Hi

I'm having trouble with my screen (15 inch Samsung Syncmaster tft) randomly going into what I assume is standby mode, with a little orange flashing light instead of solid green. This is happening sometimes during boot up, and if not within about 10 minutes or so of getting into windows. Rebooting generally, but not always, makes the screen reappear for a bit, and then it goes again.

I have updated my drivers, and Direct X. I have also tried running the system with my old graphics card and the same is happening, so I suspect it isnt actually the graphics system.

The card I am currently using is a gigabyte geforce 6600 gt 128 mb agp.
CPU 2.4ghz pentium 4.
512mb of ram DDR 400mhz DIMM
ABIT IC7-G mobo.
The old card I tried with is a PCI geforce FX5200 - and the same happened with it.

The card isnt new, I've had it since november with no problems, this suddenly started today. I installed two new 512mb DIMMS without incident, and was playing Oblivion, when about two hours later the screen went into standby, and started going into standby on or soon after bootup every time I rebooted. I have removed each of the three DIMMS in turn and tried with them, I get the same problem with each.

I've also checked fan voltages, and they seemed fine, i think about .2v below 3.3v, 5 and 12v respectively.

I'm now totally baffled - I suspect mobo but any suggestions gratefully received.

wicksta

ps It is now consistently going into standby during bootup - I don't even get as far as Windows it seems.

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot!

Have you tried the tft on another system?

Do you still have the original 512 stick?

Abit driver & bios the latest bios is 6.0
I assume you're running 533fsb?
I have that same board with 2.8 800fsb, 6800 gt viewsonic 20" Lcd digital.

Is This your Card?
If so it's strictly dvi out. could be a bad digital cable, Did this card come with a dvi to vga adapter?
Whats got me thinking is that you put a pci card in to test, was this vga cable?

 

[wicksta]

Thanks - I dont think it is the screen

Hi

Thanks for your post, i dont think it is the screen. I've plugged it into my mac powerbook (via dvi to vga) and it is working fine with that.

Yes I've got the original 512 stick - I've tried just with that, and just with each of the new sticks, all to no avail.

To be honest I dont know what my fsb is I had assumed it was 400mhz but I don't actually know!

I've updated the BIOS version, although I havent installed any new drivers for the mobo. My card is the 6600 GT, which is dual DVI and VGA, but I only the VGA out. Shame I dont have a DVI monitor to test it on (in fact shame I dont have DVI monitor full stop!) So it was the same cable etc that was used on both the cards.

I usually manage to work these problems out, but I am stumped on this one so I'm open to all ideas!

wicksta

 

[SOcRatEs]

Well from symptoms it's not a windows problem and is out of the loop, tft is out, rams out, video cards out, hmmmm?
I'm wondering if it may well be the PSU, a bad or going out psu could
cause this.

 

[wicksta]

Yes I was wondering that

Yes I was wondering that too, although its only nine months old. It certainly should have the watts - its a 380w one I think.

I probably should have mentioned that I managed to get the system started up in VGA mode and it was fine - it didnt go into standby for the 45 minutes I was using it in that mode, which is what makes me wonder if it is a motherboard problem, as as far as I can see its the only plausible explanation (although I'm no expert at all).

wicksta

 

[SOcRatEs]

It is possible that something is getting hot...
in the bios is "Hardware monitoring" what do you have for temps?
There's 3 good tools for windows to have:
Everest
pc wizad
cpuz
On this page, at the top, is a link to to "Downloads"
do a quick search, they're free....

 

[wicksta]

I just had a quick look in the bios and the temps all looked in the 25-30 degree range. I couldnt take any more detailed note because before I could write them down the screen went back into standby mode!

I've never seen anything like it. And now, when I do a cold reboot, the screen isnt even coming on at all.

wicksta