[branlr]

So... I'm sitting there, enjoying my htpc... and the video just goes black, and my TV is saying "Searching for signal"...

I open it up, the fan on the GTX260 isn't moving... it's dead... dead as a doornail

Suggestions for a relatively cheap (not too cheap, necessarily) PCI-e video card, (NVidia or ATI, don't really care--voice your opinions) for light gaming on an i7-920 machine that mainly runs windows.

To be honest, that card was wayyyy too big for what I use it for... but still, what I need needs to be able to play any reasonable game without issues.

I think the only game that ever gets played on the damn thing are emulators and star wars battlefront (not very resource intensive at all), but I don't want to go to play some game and my video card handles it terribly....

Just want your suggestions on good upper-mid videocards.

[eskro]

your on windows? i say HD6450

[numb7rs]

The fan stopping is not necessarily a fault with the card. In my experience, the fan on a dead piece of kit would actually run at full pelt (and sound like a bloody jet engine) as the automatic control has been lost.

It could be the fan itself (which would eventually kill the card through heat death) or (god forbid) the motherboard. I would investigate further before shelling out for a new one.

If you have access to a known working system, I would try the card in there first, and/or a known working card in the suspect motherboard.

[branlr]

Thank you guys for the suggestions..

@numb7rs: Its strange really--I don't know why it would die even if the fan did go out, because I have the whole damn card about 1/2 an inch away from a giant heat sink and another fan, pointing directly at the fan on the card...

Unfortunately, my NAS is using AGP/PCi combo, no pci-e, and the only other box I have is atom/ion box that is smaller than the whole damn card

Thing is though, I was using the computer, and suddenly the video just went dead... I vnc-ed into the computer and it is running, so I assume it must be the card. Your thoughts? Power supply issue? Issue with the slot?

[numb7rs]

If you can see that the computer is still running, then it probably is the card after all. I'm not familiar with VNC, but if you can log in, and then take a look at the hardware manager, see what shows up?

[branlr]

Alright numb7rs...

2 Things:

1. I have vnc's on all of my machines, and I realized I was looking at the wrong one when I tried to vnc into it earlier---no VNC accessible from the HTPC, and I *believe* I installed it as a service, so it should be accessible after startup.

2. Got a video card to replace the other one as I have no other way of testing things because I have no extra hardware, and guess what--

Same thing, no video.

God help me, it might be the mobo... Just out of curiosity... the power supply sounds weird... like it is clicking or something. The machine powers on and everything, but could there be an issue with the power supply you think?

[numb7rs]

Damn

I'm afraid there's no real way to be sure without swapping out bits of the system. I suggest you take the PSU out of your NAS and try it with the suspect system.

If that doesn't get you anywhere, get hold of a volt meter and check the voltages on the suspect PSU. Unplug EVERYTHING and short pin 16 to ground to get the PSU running.

If all the voltages appear fine, you can try to run the suspect PSU in your NAS.

The reason I suggest voltage checking is that sometimes when a PSU dies, it can severely overvolt some of the lines, which can kill other hardware. Though this is usually accompanied by a loud pop or bang, which you haven't mentioned.

If the PSU is fine, and using the PSU from the NAS didn't fix anything, then I'm afraid it is either the motherboard or the CPU. (If it was RAM, the system speaker would be screaming at you.) Unfortunately the only way to test either is with a replacement CPU, which aren't cheap. If you're still stumped at this stage, I suggest you take it to a shop; it'll be cheaper for them to test things out than buying a new CPU.

Good luck.

EDIT: If you do end up taking it to a shop, make sure you tell them as much as you can. I once took one in and asked them to troubleshoot it. Came to pick it up expecting an answer, they said "It's either the motherboard or the CPU. That'll be £20." I already knew that! :mad:

[branlr]

Thanks for the help numb7rs...

Just for the sake of conclusion, it was totally the PSU.

Come to find out the PSU has been going bad for some time. I use a Presonus Firepod audio recording interface with this computer, and had been experiencing high latency and popping on playback through this device, which plugs into my motherboard's firewire.

New PSU fixed this problem which had been plaguing me for about a month.

Hope this helps someone in the the future!

[eskro]

nice to see u finally have it sorted out!