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General discussion

Can anyone help me figure out what is going on???

by Drix0304 Jul 29, 2007 8:53AM PDT

OK, I have a compaq desktop, AMD Athlon XP 2.1GHz, 1GB RAM, XP home and the computer was running fine until Friday evening. All of a sudden when I clicked on the start menu, in classic mode, it wold take awhile for it to "fade in", about 5sec. longer than usual. And right clicking would do the same. The monitor would also go black or get all scrambled up and then come back. All drivers are up to date and all scans, virus/spywareetc.., came back negative. In all my frustrations I ended up using the system restore and starting over after resetting back to prior configurations failed. When I did this I got an error message for my video card, ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB AGP, saying not working properly. When I install SP2 things improve with regards to error message and the start menu speed but the screen keeps going out for a second. When I install the updated driver back to square one. I have run directx utility, changed response time resolution etc... nothing works. Does any one have an idea??

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6 Posts
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From what you said and described ...
by Edward ODaniel Jul 29, 2007 9:43AM PDT

the next thing I personally would do is replace the video card. Even before you mentioned the error message about the Radeon 9200SE not working properly you had stated - The monitor would also go black or get all scrambled up and then come back. That is a classic symptom of a faulty video card.

You didn't mention whether or not these things happened ONLY when the system had been running for a while or immediately on a cold start. If it is ONLY after the system has been running for a while it might only be that the GPU is overheating and a good heatsink and fan might take care of it BUT normally replacement is best.

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Before replacing the board,
by El Alquimista Jul 29, 2007 2:00PM PDT

I would pull it and reseat it. I have seen this clear up problems many times. The contacts can, surprisingly, become slightly oxidized or corroded in place, and the wiping action of removal and reseating removes the deposit.

You should also, as Edward suggested, clean the fans and clean off the board with an air duster. While inside the case, do the same for all cards and the mobo.

This may save you the cost of a new card, or at least postpone the replacement for awhile. If it does not work, you can then replace the board and have lost nothing but a little time.

Hope this helps,

Frank

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Good suggestion ...
by Edward ODaniel Jul 30, 2007 2:08AM PDT

cleaning and re-seating before replacement is such a normal operation that it is second nature and often, as I did, not mentioned.

The contacts can be cleaned AWAY FROM THE CASE with a SOFT pencil eraser (never abrasive such as a typewriter eraser!).

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You might also ....
by Dango517 Jul 29, 2007 2:20PM PDT

check your graphics card settings a too high Gama setting might give you some trouble, your monitor Hz setting could as well. You can check your Graphics card temperature by downloading this software.....SpeedFan.com

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Almost there
by Drix0304 Jul 30, 2007 6:06AM PDT

Thank you all very for the suggestions. I tried cleaning and resetting the video card and while the screen going black and/or scrambled seems to have stopped, when I click on the start menu, right click the desktop, or anywhere a menu window needs to open the response is extremely slow. When scrolling an internet page, if it is all text it proceeds very fast as if nothing is wrong. When there are images it is very choppy. I am guessing the video card is the problem and is basically on its way out otherwise no other issues.

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Besides ensuring the video drivers are current. . .
by Cursorcowboy Jul 30, 2007 11:39PM PDT

1. ou may want to disable some of the new interface components in order to improve the computer's "performance" (click to see an example screenshot). Enabling or disabling these components can significantly hinder or enhance performance depending on the hardware specifications, [Q288186]. Portions of the New Interface are:

Animate Windows when minimizing and maximizing
Draw gradient in Windows captions
Enable per-folder type watermarks
"Fade" (click to see an example screenshot) in taskbar
Fade out menu items after invocation
Fade/ slide menu items into view, [Q819946]
Fade/ slide taskbar items into view
Hot-track menu items and other elements
Show alpha blended selection rectangle
Show shadows under menus
Show shadows under mouse pointer
Show window contents while dragging
Slide icons over background images in folders
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Smooth edges of screen fonts
Smooth-scroll list boxes
Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop
Use visual styles on windows and buttons. CAVEAT: "Unable to change Visual style of Windows and buttons (Q555512)."
Use Web view in folders

2. Although Microsoft strongly recommends using the default dynamically configured "video-based effects" (click to see an example screenshot) as follows, is because that is what most users will use. However, the visual effects settings can be changed quite easily.

Slide taskbar buttons
Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
Smooth edges of screen fonts
Fade or slide menus into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Show shadows under menus
Show translucent selection rectangle

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