'Ello. Last night my graphics card blew another capacitor. VERY LOUD! Through the past few months it's blown a few, and I never thought it was the graphics card, I always thought it was something snapping inside my two 25 kg CRT monitors or however heavy they are... But tonight I saw the busted capacitors and realized the real truth. Here's where it gets peculiar. Last night when the capacitor blew, nothing happened to the computer, it seemed to run fine.

 

 

 

Today I unplugged everything from my tower and left for a few hours, because I intended to swap out a hard drive when I returned. When I got back I took the unplugged tower onto the table and swapped out the HD. (By the way, I put my computer in hibernate before I'd unplugged it, NOT shut down)

 

 

 

When I booted the PC back up, weird stuff started happening. The screen was discolored, had redrawing problems, it would freeze every now and then, which Ctrl+Alt+Delete SOMETIMES fixed temporarily. I uninstalled and reinstalled two different driver versions for my graphics card drivers, to no avail. (this was before I realized the capacitors were blown). I believe 4 out of 6 were dead. I took the graphics card out some time afterward and noticed. Strangely the card worked fine in safe mode (where it was using the default drivers I assume, not the ones that on the CD that came with the card, or the updates ones from nVidia's website. It's a GeForce 6200, by the way).

 

 

 

I guess capacitors blowing make the card malfunction quite badly, but not die entirely? I'm from software land, not hardware world. =/ It went in the trash, and I'm now typing this message with a screen resolution of 1024x768 with 8 bit color. Onboard video is great.

 

 

 

So, a few questions:

 

 

 

1) It's VERY coincidental the card seemed to "break" only after I swapped one of the hard drives. Maybe I'm just too paranoid. Neither drive's data seems corrupted, and my computer is working "fine" with onboard video. Any explanation?

 

 

 

2) Did putting my computer into hibernate as opposed to shutting it down before the HD swap or graphics card failure have any hand in all this? Doing memory dumps and then changing hardware around don't exactly sound good, but again the data on all 3 drives seems fine to me. Plus, whether I had drive A + B, A, or C in there, the computer still malfunctioned so the graphics card is the obvious culprit. Well... except C since FreeDOS is on it. ;)

 

 

 

3) I heard running a card with blown capacitors can burn out your PCI slot. I think it's fine but should I be worried? I've heard pops for at least a couple months now (always thought it was the monitors, not the GPU capacitors), but it worked fine until today so the slot is probably OK?

 

 

 

Clearly, I need to buy a new card. What would you recommend I get? (PS - just nVidia, no Radeon) Apparently 'too good' of a card can damage components if your PSU isn't good enough? Again, I come from software land. :P I want the best card I can get that will work with my computer and not blow up things. Don't worry about the price for now, just give me a few suggestions on what are the best that'd work with what I have.

 

 

 

My computer is a modified Dell Optiplex GX270:

 

Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz processor

 

2.5 GB ram

 

170 250 Watt power supply unit

 

2 Dell M993s monitors, if that matters - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/m ... ifications

 

 

 

More info on this topic when I posted earlier about buying a new graphics card: http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=787618&p=6532609

 

 

 

Thank you.

Clearly, I need to buy a new card. What would you recommend I get? (PS - just nVidia, no Radeon) Apparently 'too good' of a card can damage components if your PSU isn't good enough? Again, I come from software land. :P I want the best card I can get that will work with my computer and not blow up things. Don't worry about the price for now, just give me a few suggestions on what are the best that'd work with what I have.

 

 

 

My computer is a modified Dell Optiplex GX270:

 

Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz processor

 

2.5 GB ram

 

170 Watt power supply according to the label

 

2 Dell M993s monitors, if that matters - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/m ... ifications

 

 

 

More info on this topic when I posted earlier about buying a new graphics card: http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=787618&p=6532609

 

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

These are some cards you could look at (I'm posting Microdirect links so you can see the specs and get an idea of the price. They are all Nvidia cards).

 

 

 

512MB 8600GT: Click Here

 

512MB 9400GT: Click Here This link is showing both 9400GTs.

 

8400GS: Click Here This link goes to a page showing two 8400GS', where you will see that they are pretty cheap.

 

 

 

There are probably better and cheaper cards, but these are just to give you an idea.

Thanks for the links. I'm going to check prices at the local electronics giant tomorrow. Also what would happen if I used a card with a PSU requirement greater than my PSU actually has?

Thanks for the links. I'm going to check prices at the local electronics giant tomorrow. Also what would happen if I used a card with a PSU requirement greater than my PSU actually has?

 

 

 

I'm not sure, but I doubt that it would affect your machine that greatly, I suppose it'd run on less power (the graphics card), but someone who knows about that should confirm/correct my thoughts.

Ok, hopefully someone will respond with that information by morning. I've just taken my computer over to the table and popped it open - as I suspected, the power supply is actually 250W according to the label and a large "250W" written in marker on the side by I-think-I-know-who... not 170. That did seem a bit low and I was almost certain the manual for my variant of the GX270 stated it came with a 250W PSU, so I suppose I was right.

 

 

 

I also got a chance to tighten the previously loose screws when I put it back in. :P A bit annoying having it slide back whenever I plugged in the power cable. Hmm. About time I get some sleep now.

 

 

 

*goes to have nightmares about an 8-bit color universe*

You don't need to worry about your PSU until you go for a card like 4670 or 9600gs (depending on how good your psu is built and how many amps you can get out of the 12v rail/s).

 

A card like 9400gt or 4350 doesn't draw more than maybe 20w in load.

 

I run a 8600gt (43w) on my moms crappy packard bell machine.

 

It also depends on how many amps you can get out of the 12v rails, manufacturers usually play a trick with consumers saying "400w!" and then you look at the specs and see that you could perhaps get 340w out of the 12v rails, as they usually tend to add 3.3v and 5v rails to the total wattage, which you basically never use anyway.

 

Anyways, 9400gt or 4350 will be no problem for your psu. I'm assuming you got pci-e?

 

 

 

That card is old, sometimes they just give up.

 

If you get a card that draws more power than your psu can provide; a: It won't boot up, b: if it does boot, you are overloading it and the psu could overheat (possibly even catching fire), the most likely thing is the psu will go "good bye" and just giving up - resulting in you having to (in some cases) replace all your components, and the fuse may go aswell.

Hmm. I was told that an 8400 (requires 300W) would be a very bad idea with a 250W PSU, and that I should have at least a 500W. So it looks like I'll have to spend around $150 for both a new card and a PSU... everyone seems to have conflicting statements, it is confusing.

Ffs, i hate the fools (both in electronic stores and forums) who claim you need a 500w psu for a card like low-mid card.

 

Every card without a pic-e connector draw 75w or less, as that's the maximum you can get from the pci-e slot.

 

I run my 8600gt in my moms packard bell with a 250w psu (which gives effectively about 160w), this card draws 43w.

 

You don't need a 300w psu for a 8400gs. I know people who run an 8800gt on a (quality) 300w psu.

 

No need for a new psu for the cards you are considering.

Due to the lack of a PCI express slot, I just ordered another nVidia 6200 AGP card. Oh well, it'll work.