Graphic card dead?(i hope that's it :) )

[snarfll]

Hi Guys,
Putting a funky ol' machine together from parts i had lying around for Grandkids to plunk on. Here's what i'm using:
New Deer mini-mid tower w/250Watt PS
Used Gateway 2000 Vivitron 15" monitor(circa 1996, made by Sony w/Trinitron tube)
Mobo: FIC PA 2013 AGP2x, 1 AGP slot,4 PCI slots,2 ISA slots. Battery is new.BIOS Award,upgraded in late 1999.
Video card: STB Systems,2Meg,PCI,circa 1995
Sound card: ESS audio #1869(ISA)circa 1995
Modem: Zoltrix 56K V.90 PCI
Memory new)Kingston value RAM 128Meg PC133 non buffered
Quantum HDD(used)20 Gig Fireball LM
Floppy:standard Mitsumi(used)
CD-ROM: Aopen 12x DVD drive(new)
OS: Win98FE

Fired this dude up with no problems and installed Win98. Let Windoze find, and install most of it's own drivers for hardware except modem which i had drivers on disc for that. GUI looked good, monitor had nice, bright picture and adjusted ok.
Noticed tho', that after it got all warmed-up there was a slightly warped look to the screen, especially when looking at print on a web page. Then, when i did a re-boot, the black POST screen had a blue tinge to it.
I shut it down for the night and when i cold booted the next morn' the "power on" light on the monitor came on for a few seconds then went to "power saving" mode. I tried several times with same result. All fans spun-up and HDD was ok, but nothing on monitor and it kept going to "power saving" mode. I took the monitor to my Daughter's and tried it on her machine and it fired right up. Tried re-seating the vid card a' couple of times but no joy.

Sorry to be so long with this, but would like you guy's opinion before i invest in a new vid card and wanted to give you as much info as possible. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

------------------
Get off my Interface!!

[Train]

I believe your diagnoses is correct or the cable is haywire.
a 16MB PCI card about $50. will take a lot off the cpu for you.

------------------
SMILE
and post back
[ Book mark this post to find it again]

[This message has been edited by Train (edited 07-10-2001).]

[bistro]

The warped look and blue tinge could just be a matter of adjusting the monitor's manual settings. Ditto to Train's post--a 2mb card just won't hack it with today's games/apps. Would switch out that cable just out of curiousity. As soon as you are able, get into the BIOS and make sure the vid is set for PCI or AGP; whichever is applicable.

[snarfll]

Train, Thanks for comin' back at me. Think you confirmed what i thought. The card has a' lot of history behind it and was probly on it's last legs.
Have already checked it out and can get an ATI Xpert 128 16Meg AGP 2x at Allstarshop for $44.53 including S&H. Think i'll go for it.

bistro, Yep, had already played with the monitor adjustments when i first got Win98 installed. They looked really good for awhile. Left it on for several hours, then went online. That's when i noticed the warped look. Did the maintenance clean-up stuff and when i re-booted is when i noticed the blue tinge thing. And, it was mostly on the left side of the screen, not evenly distributed.
Paid particular attention to setting the BIOS to PCI 'cause i usually use AGP cards and wanted to be sure it was correct.
Tried wiggling the cable around to no avail and as i said, the monitor worked just fine on my Daughters 'puter. And yes, your right, it "is" a pretty weak card for most anything nowadays, especially gaming.
When she gets home, gonna' try Daughters monitor on it to be sure. "That" should tell me fer shure..
Thanks for the response guys!

------------------
Get off my Interface!!

[snarfll]

:Post script:
Just to let ya'll know, tried my Daughters monitor and it also would go to power saver after a few seconds. So,,into the dumpster with the ol' STB.

Take care...

------------------
Get off my Interface!!