Dead-ish box

[Sprogget]

I've been having troubles with my xp box, I've mentioned it a couple of times. What it comes down to is the machine hangs consistently & the bsod/error report tells me the graphics card driver is failing.

Inspite of trying various different drivers, the problem persists. Today I changed the card all together & the trouble continued. Since I find it unlikely that two cards would have a problem & the drivers arein any case different, I'm beginning to think it's something else. The machine is essentially unusable with the graphics card, but fine without,

Could I be looking at a failing motherboard? It's a five year old Foxconn 6497mb & I would be quite comfortable swapping it out or doing anyhting else for that matter.

Memtest shows no problems & the box is well maintained & protected. Any ideas?

Should mention that i rebuilt it today to ne sure the o/s was not at fault - no change.

[Saab Dastard]

Before doing anything else, have you reset the BIOS to factory defaults, just in case there's anything in the settings that you have changed that's causing the problem. Don't forget to save or note the settings before you do so.

What other cards are installed in the PC? Have you tried running without all other cards apart from VGA, then adding them back in one-at-a-time until the problem occurs? This is more likely to be a problem where the video card is PCI rather than AGP or PCI-E or PCI-X.

Agreed that a faulty VGA slot is a likely culprit, given that changing cards and re-installing clean OS doesn't clear the problem.

SD

[Sprogget]

I have reset the bios but not disbaled the other cards which are a network card, a cheap soundcard & nothing else.

It's my main office machine so it looks like Bank holiday monday is a day in the office rebuilding it one way or the other. The graphics card is agp (old box).

[Saab Dastard]

Bank holiday monday is a day in the office rebuilding it one way or the other.

Get hold of a canned air duster, strip the PC down to bare bones, remove PSU and mobo, clean everything, and re-assemble, testing as you go.

Alternatively, buy a new PC! Depends how much you value your time. :)

SD

[phineas]

You can pick up a decent second hand Compaq/HP Evo on E Bay for GBP 70-120
These machines were designed for the pro market so are built properly. I have 2 never had any problems. You may have OS problems, the machines off E Bay may not have a Windows license so you'll have to find one.

Just my 2 cents worth,

[Sprogget]

I'm ok for xp licences. What I may have trouble finding is a replacement mobo as its quite a vintage now. A direct replacement would be nice as I know I can drop everything back on the board.

Just noticed I can't type disabled.

[Sprogget]

Thought that I would resurrect this thread to say that I opted to install a new motherboard & lo & behold, the problem is repaired. Since I've swapped an old foxconn for a new Asus p5kpl-am & added more ram, I've now got a new speedy box into the bargain.

The only downside is £20 quid on a new graphics card when that seemed to be the trouble. Still, all's well that ends well.