Re: Video problem - should I worry?

Lee MacMillan wrote:
Turned on my basement computer today (only use it about 3 times/week), the
screen said "no video signal" or something like that and I heard alternate
high/low sounds from the computer (almost like the sirens on foreign police
cars.) Disconnected and reconnect both ends of the video cable and then it
booted fine. Video card is a 2 yr old Radeon 9250, never had a problem
before.

A fluke or an omen of things to come? Or too early to tell?

Thanks.



Enter the BIOS and go to the hardware monitor page.

Check measured voltage levels. The voltages that come from the supply,
should be +/-5% to be within tolerance. If something reads out of
whack, you'll need to verify with a multimeter. Some rails (like the
+12V on the machine I'm typing this on) don't read properly, and only
a multimeter will tell you the truth.

The "donkey siren" could mean the BIOS has noticed something is not
within spec - such as the Vcore regulator for the processor is too
low for the expected value.

I'm not even sure the "donkey siren" is documented in any manual.
Beep codes listed are for POST events, as the computer is coming
up, but I believe the "donkey siren" can happen while the machine
is running.

http://support.asus.com.tw/faq/faq_right_second_detail.aspx?kb_guid=1556F78E-1E9F-86A1-F98F-05582E64010C&SLanguage=en-us

Also, you might carefully eyeball the fit of the video card into
its slot. The video card mechanical details involve all three
dimensions. Sometimes the video card rests too high, and the
contacts are not mating properly. That could happen if you used
the wrong standoffs underneath the motherboard. The only standoffs
you can trust, are the ones that come with the computer case, as
cases can use different height standoffs. That is a "Z axis"
error. In the X-Y plane, you can put strain on the video card, if
the motherboard is not properly aligned with the slot covers. It
may take a couple tries, so that PCI slot 5 and the AGP slot,
both work smoothly. Adjust the motherboard X-Y position, until that
is true. If the slot connector on the card still doesn't look like
it is mating properly, try a brand new computer case.

Paul
.

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