Strange problem, possibly graphics or mobo?

[chriswood_7]

Hey guys,

Im wondering if you can help me with a problem my PC seems to have developed, its a little strange. Ive just returned from being away for 3 weeks and everything has gone pear-shaped. Basically I kept getting errors when I started my system, so I ended up getting annoyed and formatting my drive. As a last resort of course.

However, upon installing windows as I have done numerous times, and installing the nVidia drivers my display is now a blank screen with "Out of range" box bouncing around the screen. So the question is, is it my graphics thats gone or is it the mobo?

Any help is appreciated, cheers!

[Noni]

Spec of your system?

You tried resetting CMOS?

Thanks.

[Curly]

just something to check.....with the power being off for 3 weeks, maybes with a failing or low power battery the cmos has lost it settings..... has happend to me on my shuttle and a change of battery cured it. As for the out of range....seems like windows has a resolution set that your monitor dosen't like...... can you not boot in to windows safemode and set a resolution that you know should work with your monitor.

Curly

[chriswood_7]

Whoa, where is the "my system" tab?

Anyways, its an MSI 6800GT on an ASrock 939Dual Sata2 board. I can get into safe mode but I have an HD TV at home which is also plugged in, and it does exactly the same with that too. Plus the screen goes blank for 20-25 seconds then windows reboots, and it happens all over again?

Its got me completely beaten as to what it is, short of buying a new mobo and gfx card to see if its either/or...

Cheers

[Noni]

Best things to do-

Reset CMOS

Check all connections

Replace MBoard battery

Check all connections on the back.

[chriswood_7]

Yeah I think ill give that a try, I somehow think though that its a deeper problem than this. Hopefully getting my hands on my gfs machine tonight to do some swappy and see what does/doesnt work.

Pain in the bum though... No idea of the issue at all..

[grizac]

The more experienced can correct me, but doesn't "out of range" refer to the refresh rate? HAve you tried using older drivers perhaps?

[chriswood_7]

Ive tried drivers from both June 2006 right back to August 2005 (all the ones I had on my hard drive) and each time I had to go back into safe mode and use DC3 to allow me to get back into windows and install the drivers again. My HDTV has a much broader region of refresh rates than my monitor, but neither worked. Unless its the module which controls the refresh rates on the card itself which is broken?

[Clunk]

try booting up in safe mode and going into device manager and deleting the monitor, reboot and windows should detect the correct settings. worked for me a while ago when i changed from crt to tft and i got the same error.

edit: also try booting in safe mode and just changing the resolution to 800x600 (or something low that your monitor supports) and a 60hz refresh rate.

[chriswood_7]

Tried everything guys, and now I get a series of 6 post beeps and a nice blank screen!

Managed to borrow a 5200FX, which now allows me to boot up straight away and works perfectly. I think my gfx card has gone to the big gfx card place in the sky. Unfortunately for me at the wrong time!

Cheers for the advice guys