Hi all, anyone know about graphics cards in computers, my desktop pc has just crashed and I'm 99% sure it's the graphics card that has been fried (again ).Been runnig HD video off one of those little keychain cameras from e-bay really good quality just velcro it to my helmet and brilliant video for the money. The last time it happenend I took it to a computer "specialist " shop and they put a new cheapo graphics card in and charged me £90. Are graphics cards just plug and play as I am sure I can do it myself just need a bit of advice. Thanks Nick
All you need to know is the slot type in your PC they are plug and play to a degree but you may need to load software/drivers.. Tbh 90.00 is not a cheep card by today's standards, check eBay or Novatech.co.uk or even the dreaded PC World. Word of warning sometimes windows can throw a flip if conflicting drivers are loaded, 90% of cards are directly supported but near all require specific drivers to maximise performance so check they support your OS if you want to run free flowing video etc...
Thanks for the advice Arthur the card the shop put in cost only about £30 as I checked and £60 for labour. Are the drivers supplied with the graphics card or does the pc automatically download them ? as my pc will only boot up so far with nothing appearing on the screen at all just stays in standby. I am running windows vista and the last two graphics cards have been Nvidea. cheers Nick
That sound ok then mate, good cards like nVidea come with drivers but you can download them anyway, most cards will have some support in low res at worst when plugged in for the first time, you then can load any software etc once up and running. Fingers crossed if you have any corrupt drivers they will be replaced or no longer used with the new card if your unlucky and system files are corrupt that drive the GUI (graphics user interface) that do not get replaced there is a chance the system will not boot even with a new card, I think if it were me I would source a better card and gamble swapping it out for the old one, others may have a better plan? I take it you can see BIOS info etc when you switch the PC on, then starts to boot and freezes later on.?
Thanks again Arthur, I used to be able to see the bios etc loading up prior to the graphics cards being swopped after that it just hums and whirrs away and then the windows logo appears and goes to the desktop page so I know never see any of the " startup process ". I think the computer shop set it this way so you personally cannot access the bios etc. and have to take it to them. Now all I get when I switch on is the hard drive etc humming and whirring for a few minutes and then just freezing/crashing but as the screen remains blank and on standby I do not really know what is going on. I have tried pressing some of the "F" keys on startup to see if I can access the bios but am not sure which it is as it used to say on the screen which key to press but now all is blank. cheers Nick
It does not sound like your graphics more like a hard drive, see if the computer will go into safe mode F8 when computer starts up... if you think its the graphics pull it out and then put it back in again and see if its register the card and your computer starts looking for it again ... make sure your computer is completely switch off when you do this Forgot to mention sometimes those little cameras carry a virus in them .....so you need to check this before you start playing things on your computer
The BIOS info you used to see when you booted your PC can be disabled / enabled quite easily via the 'control panel' menus in Windows OS. You definitely don't need to 'take it to them' to sort this. As djfleming22 has suggested, I too suspect your HDD may be goosed. I hope you have backups of any important files? Having said all this there are so many possibilities, but try working your way through this - *** General Troubleshooting *** - Overclockers UK Forums The advice is sound and if you are reasonably savvy you should be able to work out what the problem is. If not, PM me with any questions and I'll try and help out mate.
Thanks again for the advice guys, When I boot the pc after about 2 minutes the keyboard lights come on if I then press F8 as suggested then the screen comes on with the mouse cursor on it but the rest is blank. I can control the mouse cursor for about 2mins then it freezes. I will try taking the graphics card out tomorrow, would you suggest trying to start the pc without it or just taking it out and then putting it back in then trying to start it up. Cheers Nick
try starting it without it first and see if the motherboard is fitted with an on board graphics card then that will show if your card is at fault right away if not put it back in again after start it up and see if comes back to life .... i don't think there is a problem with bios nothing really changes in this unless you change it yourself or ask a programme to change it To get F8 to work just switch on the machine keep pressing F8 till safe mode comes up ....sounds as if your letting the machine start up to much before pressing F8
I have removed the graphics card but can't see another connection/port on the back of the tower to plug the two monitor leads in to test the pc without the graphics card connected as suggested, there is somthing with "dual video card " and "single video card "on the mother board but nothing to plug into that has the same connection for the monitor as the graphics card. I have tried pressing F8 on startup but absolutely nothing happens, I only get a response when I have left the pc booting up for a couple of minutes the keyboard lights up I repeatedly press F8 and then the mouse cursor appears on a black screen but that's it. Thanks for all your help fellas I will understand if you are getting board of this now as it seems to be going nowhere. all the best Nick
Well if you can see a cursor I'd say the OS (windows) has gone down, could be one hundred zillion things that causes an OS to crash.. Have you a windows CD to run up and follow the screen prompts if it boots from the CD the problem you may have is if the BIOS is set only to boot from the HDD you will need to find a way into the BIOS to change the boot sequence.... All this is said with a slight punch of salt as all mother boards options are very different from one manufacture to another and that makes life hard to guide someone from where I am sat...
Course you do know I'm no expert mate I get all my info from the someblokeonaforumencyclopidia.... lol
lol what you can't see is I'm asking the questions to get the answers on another forum on another screen... double bubble....lol PC's hey who'd ave emm! :S
Haha, I know a little about them I guess.... I used to build non-linear video editing systems for Sky (some of the first real time blue screen virtual set edit suits) and many other companies using Matrox and Perception video cards, also die-sublimation printing solutions for Zenographics and Mitsubishi some time back all big money systems as well as manage networks running Novel Netware and early versions of Windows NT and much more my time with PC's was hardcore from the 8088 - P-Pro's and just after up to around the Core tech CPU's I still do a little with the darn things but only skim the surface now as we all need them to function in a modern word and more and more they go hand in hand with the bikes I know my BITs from my BYTES....lol
