Thread: Computer fails to POST after video upgrade

So, long story short, my 9600XT's fan decided to quit working, so I picked up a new X1550 from Newegg for about $50, along with a male-male DVI-D cable and 120mm Thermaltake case fan for intake.

I uninstall my 9600XT's drivers and delete it from System entirely, then shut down. I take my computer and place it on the kitchen counter (not stupid enough to do computer surgery on my living room's carpeted floors) and open it up. I pull out the internal drive bays (gotta love Antec cases), place the 120mm fan into the little plastic bracket thingie (again, gotta love Antec), and attach it to a standard 4-pin power lead from my PSU. This done, I put the internal drive bay bracket thing back in place. I then remove my 9600XT from the AGP slot. I take the X1550 out of the anti-static bag, seat it in the AGP slot, and connect it to a 4-pin connector from my PSU. As I go to replace the screw that keeps it connected securely to the case, I notice that it doesn't quite line up as well as the 9600XT did. I was able to screw it in properly regardless, but it's possible this put some pressure on the AGP slot - I'm not really sure. I certainly didn't hear any noises that would signify structural damage.

At any rate, I then take the VGA cables off of my monitor, and attach the DVI-D cable. Move the computer back into the living room, on top of an end table with the case open (to make sure everything is functioning properly after I turn on the power.) Hook everything up again, as per usual (power last, with power from the powerstrip being off, of course.) Turn on power, and the system boots up normally.

Get to Windows desktop (running Windows XP Professional), and unsurprisingly, it's probably at 640x480. Windows promptly informs me that I'm running at terribly low resolutions because there are no video drivers installed (duh?); it's doing its normal new-hardware-detected thingie during this process. I notice that I stupidly left ATiTool installed and running, so I go to close it. It bitches about there being no ATi drivers installed as it's closing (duh?) About five or six seconds later, my monitor loses the signal from the video card, and displays a red box stating "Out of range." For reference, this is what happened last time my computer started to be a piece of shit, about 1.5 months back.

I give it a good 20 minutes to try and fix itself, then use the power button to shut down. Apparently the system was not locked up, because Windows shut down normally, albeit without any kind of visual signal - I didn't have to hold the button down to kill the power. I give it a few minutes to cool off (if heat was the problem), and then try it again. No dice - it won't even POST.

Thinking it might be the X1550 (for reference, both case fan and VPU fans were twirling normally, even when it wasn't POSTing - it's very hard to miss the X1550's fan because it sounds like a leafblower with the case open), I disconnect everything, bring the case back to the kitchen counter and replace the X1550 with the old 9600XT. I'm still using DVI cables at this point. Reconnect everything, flick on the power, and it's still not POSTing.

Thinking it could be the DVI cables (doubtfully, but I wanted all bases covered), I switch back to the VGA cables on the 9600XT, with no results. I put the X1550 back in. As I'm doing this, I notice there's a little foam pad on the back of one of the chips that looks all the world like a band-aid. I noticed this beforehand and left it on, thinking it's supposed to be there, but this time I fiddled with it a little and discovered it's pretty loosely attached - probably because it's not meant to be left on. Of course, the user installation guide (which amounts to: "Put in card, turn on computer, install drivers.") doesn't have any mention of this in the 25 or so languages it's written in.

At any rate, I try the VGA cables on the X1550 with no results. By this point I'm fairly frustrated, so I replace the DVI cables and leave everything as it was when it last worked. I go off and do some errands and stuff for about an hour, come back, and try again. This time the damn thing boots up normally. After it reaches Windows, I start installing the very likely outdated Catalyst drivers from the CD that came with the X1550 (the installation program for Catalyst and CCC 8.6 is sitting on my desktop.) About the same time it starts installing, the screen goes blank for about a second and then proceeds normally. By time it's almost done installing, it goes blank again, and this time comes back with the dreaded "Out of range" box. I give it about 20 minutes, and during this time the screen flickers once or twice and seems to be trying to recover, but always ends up going back to the "Out of range" thing. I try the capslock key (I remember reading a long time ago that if capslock isn't functioning, it's like the computer's DOA and needs to be rebooted), and get nothing.

At any rate, I've tried it again and again every five or six hours, and it's not magically fixing itself this time. I've got 30 days to return the X1550 to Newegg for a refund (I'll be keeping the DVI-D cables and case fan, since they're working perfectly as far as I can tell), so I'm gonna give the computer another six days to fix itself like it did last time, but I think that it's really given up the ghost this time.

For reference, the motherboard used in this computer is a DFI Infinity NFII, and it was probably a bad buy from the start, since there have been virtually no BIOS updates, or sound driver updates for the on-board sound chipset. I think I'll stick with ASUS or maybe Gigabyte when I start building my new system.

Additionally, I'm running a 350W PSU, and because I have two optical drives and two hard drives, I thought that power consumption could be an issue. To this effect, I disconnected both the slave optical drive and slave hard drive, but the damn thing still wouldn't POST. Makes me think that the mobo's just fucked.

Any ideas? Currently, I'm thinking my best bet will be to get a Wii and GameFly subscription until I can save up enough cash to get a BigDog Box :P

Originally Posted by Glock

So, long story short,

liar

sorry, I couldnt resist.

Not posting is strange, sounds like a motherboard issue. Did you try it with half your RAM uninstalled?

For it to be booting normally and then crap out makes me think its a flaky motherboard.

No fun.

Good luck to ya.

I did not read all the things you tried as I am in a hurry!

But your symptoms indicate to me that a component is not plugged in all the way, or a power supply issue.

I would start by reseating the new GPU.
Next re-seat the RAM and miscellaneous cables (they might have gotten bumped out of whack while installing the GPU.

If reseating everything and tightening all the cables does not work, try putting in 1 DIMM, your OS drive and a KNOWN to be working GPU and see if it starts up. And the procedure now is keep swapping parts to find the broken part.

I bet something just got knocked loose though...

Rather than repeat what soy said I will just agree with him and add that video cards can, and do pop out now and then. Make sure it's seated correctly.

I also didn't read it all the way through but skimmed it... Does the system BEEP when it's trying to boot? That isn't just a "hey, Bad Stuff(tm)" sign. There's different types of beeps to tell you what's wrong. The following site might help diagnose the problem if you know what bios you are running and if it's beeping of course.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

If it's not beeping at all... get yourself another power supply and see if it helps. Most modern video cards want more than 350W from their power supply.

Originally Posted by Cecil900

What i dont understand is why you would buy a X1550 right now.....

Because the 9600XT's fan is no longer working, which makes it difficult to use for any games. And because the X1550 was $35 after a mail-in rebate.

It's currently functioning normally with my 9600XT back in. I don't know why it failed to POST last time I tried. It's probably a flaky motherboard.

I can't get the X1550 to work, regardless of what I try. I can't try removing half of my RAM because I only have the one 512MB DIMM.

It could be a power issue, or it could be that the X1550 is a lemon. Either way, I'm just going to return it to Newegg for a refund and just make do with my beat up 9600XT until I can save up for a BigDog Box.