Sudden GeForce 3 failure with a catch

[Mr_Flibbles]

Hello everyone. My system with a GeForce3 (64MB version) recently failed. It started gradually: at first, while playing games my monitor would go into standby mode. Then, it started going out when I was just in Windows (XP), and now I can't even get my system to POST. I don't get any beeps, so I'm unsure how to diagnose the problem.

At first I thought it was the GeForce3 overheating (my CPU and system temperatures are reasonable), and when I temporarily replaced my GeForce3 with a friend's (similar model, different manufacturer) and it worked (ie I was able to boot Windows normally again) I thought my heat suspicions were confirmed.

However, when I got hold of a TNT2 to tide me over until my recently ordered Radeon 9600 Pro comes in the mail and plugged it in (it's AGP as well) the computer once again didn't start. So is it not a problem with the video card as I suspected?

I should note that this computer has always given me grief, and that I've replaced practically every component in it (including the motherboard twice!). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:

Gigabyte Ga-7vaxp mobo
1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird (266mhz fsb)
512MB PC2100 RAM (2x256MB)
GeForce3 64MB (temporarily replaced by TNT2 AGP)
CDRW
CD-R

Thanks all!

 

[Woodman]

What about the PSU?

Hardcore movie, not for kids:
<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/featurette/" target="_new">movie</A>

 

[Mr_Flibbles]

Sorry! The power supply is also new, replacing an older generic PSU I got with the case. The new PSU is a Turbo-Cool 300 Watt from PC Power and Cooling. It's the same supply I have in another computer with sufficiently higher power needs (3 HDDs, AthlonXP 2000, DVD, GeForce4), and it's never had a problem.

I recently tried testing all three cards again, and things changed slightly: With the TNT2, the system doesn't even post. With my GeForce3, it gets into WinXP and almost immeidately goes into standby. With my friend's GeForce3, it boots up and seems to run fine (though I haven't been able to test it for more than a few minutes).

 

[Vapor]

What about your GeForce 4?? If that doesn't work, it's probably a mobo/CPU/RAM problem. I'd put my money on mobo, however (since it does start up occasionally, it can't really be a CPU problem and chances are one of the first things you replaced was RAM; you might want to run memtest86 <A HREF="http://www.memtest86.com" target="_new">http://www.memtest86.com</A>), I may be wrong.

Damn Rambus.