SNAFU

auricle · Post by **auricle** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:10 pm

Hi all,

Bit of a problem occurred this morning. My NVidia 5700LE AGP graphics card fitted with a Zalman ZM80D-HP and OP1 decided to give up the ghost.

I think it is the graphics card, it could well be the AGP bus of the motherboard although the onboard video is working fine.

I noticed that when I turned on the computer this morning, the bios diagnostic screen was flickering (almost like there was interference) and when Linux started to load, I could see only a screen full of random characters (a bit like the Matrix!), when it booted into the GUI, it looked very strange - it looked like there was a very strong ghosting effect and was totally unusable. When I rebooted again there was nothing but a black screen, however when I moved the monitor cable from the NVidia to the onboard VGA port - it worked as normal.

Has anyone had this type of experience? Do you think it is more likely to be the graphics card or motherboard? I want to be sure before I buy another graphics card. I am wondering if the VGA card overheated or something touched something else and shorted a circuit board.

miTchy · Post by **miTchy** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:27 pm

snafu

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:51 pm

What the hell? What does snafu mean?

auricle · Post by **auricle** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:08 pm

Situation Normal All F**ked Up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snafu

wundi · Post by **wundi** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:30 am

SUSFU?

Either your 5700 is FUMTU, or then TARFU.

The only way to really be sure is to try another gfx card in the system, or vice versa. But I'd bet on the geforce.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:02 pm

it could also be FUBARed

Lifecycle · Post by **Lifecycle** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:20 am

It's the graphics card gone - had the same thing happen to a Ti4600 some time back. I suspected then it was a cracked trace although mine was intermittant - same problem though.

auricle · Post by **auricle** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:09 am

Mmn, that makes sense. I probably cracked or broken a track fitting the Zalman heatsink and then fitting it back into the case. Definitely a lesson to be learned here.

Thanks for your responses.

Now I need to find a replacement.