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Computer is borked. Might be GPU, might be more?
Khavall
British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
So here's the situation.
My computer is old as balls now, it's got a Q6600 CPU, an NVidia 8800GT 512mb GPU which has always run a little hot, an old case with the side intake fan not working so well.
Last night I was playing some LoL, and the screen got some green squiggles on it and then froze.
I turned it off, thought it was a normal crash, and went to sleep, as it was late. This morning I turned it on, and during the mobo splash it was a grainy image with some white dots and shit all over it. Also, when it went to the "Which OS do you want to use?" screen it had big green vertical lines under everything. When it went to the "Windows safe mode or normal" screen, same thing. I tried system recovery, which had some green squiggles going through the screen the whole time, claimed to work, and then went back to the same as everything else, I tried booting into Ubuntu and Windows. Ubuntu did a disc check and it seemed like things were fine.
However, it won't go to the OS at all. Once it goes through the choices of which OS, windows does its little blue line across the top "Loading" thing and then doesn't get to the password screen, it's just a black screen. Ubuntu does it's start up and then black screen.
Obviously the solution is to take the GPU out and try booting it and see if it works. The only problem with that is that is that the motherboard only has a VGA output, and when I recently moved, I didn't take the VGA/DVI adapter with me, and I don't have a VGA cable lying around.
So I have a couple questions:
1: Is this obviously one thing or the other? Like is this a classic GPU massive failure but the rest of the computer will survive for a little longer? Or is the whole thing broken and I need to get a new Mobo/GPU/CPU/RAM combo?
or
2: Is this something that may or may not be the whole computer, and it's best to find somewhere or order a DVI/VGA adapter, or a VGA cable and check the computer without the GPU to make sure before doing anything,
or
3: Regardless of the rest of the computer it does need a new GPU and I should just get that and see if the rest of the computer works just by putting the new one in and testing it?
Thanks
My computer is old as balls now, it's got a Q6600 CPU, an NVidia 8800GT 512mb GPU which has always run a little hot, an old case with the side intake fan not working so well.
Last night I was playing some LoL, and the screen got some green squiggles on it and then froze.
I turned it off, thought it was a normal crash, and went to sleep, as it was late. This morning I turned it on, and during the mobo splash it was a grainy image with some white dots and shit all over it. Also, when it went to the "Which OS do you want to use?" screen it had big green vertical lines under everything. When it went to the "Windows safe mode or normal" screen, same thing. I tried system recovery, which had some green squiggles going through the screen the whole time, claimed to work, and then went back to the same as everything else, I tried booting into Ubuntu and Windows. Ubuntu did a disc check and it seemed like things were fine.
However, it won't go to the OS at all. Once it goes through the choices of which OS, windows does its little blue line across the top "Loading" thing and then doesn't get to the password screen, it's just a black screen. Ubuntu does it's start up and then black screen.
Obviously the solution is to take the GPU out and try booting it and see if it works. The only problem with that is that is that the motherboard only has a VGA output, and when I recently moved, I didn't take the VGA/DVI adapter with me, and I don't have a VGA cable lying around.
So I have a couple questions:
1: Is this obviously one thing or the other? Like is this a classic GPU massive failure but the rest of the computer will survive for a little longer? Or is the whole thing broken and I need to get a new Mobo/GPU/CPU/RAM combo?
or
2: Is this something that may or may not be the whole computer, and it's best to find somewhere or order a DVI/VGA adapter, or a VGA cable and check the computer without the GPU to make sure before doing anything,
or
3: Regardless of the rest of the computer it does need a new GPU and I should just get that and see if the rest of the computer works just by putting the new one in and testing it?
Thanks
Khavall on
0
Posts
If you have time you can always get adapters and cables dirt cheap at monoprice.com.
As for point 3, if you're going to get a new GPU anyway and can live without long enough for it to arrive, just get the best one that fits in your budget and is compatible with your current set up and see if it works. If not, upgrade the rest.
Also may try burning an Ultimate Boot CD and running some of the RAM/CPU tests there.
Also, I ran out and bought a VGA cable because I couldn't find an adapter locally and wanted to know sooner rather than later, and it turns out the motheroards slot is male and not female like I thought and like every other video out I've seen is. So I'll probably just order the GPU and worst case scenario if it's all the other stuff going as well, then the GPU will just be here earlier.
I could get the adapter from monoprice too, but we're shipping to Canada and if I'm spending $5 more on an adapter only to still get the GPU regardless of what else happens then I'll feel a little stupid.
Thanks guys.
EDIT: Ok, I ordered a GTX 560 1GB that I can pick up tomorrow, which will give me an answer pretty soon.
EDIT2: Yup, new GPU works just fine.