Failed monitor or failed card?

[Don Phillipson]

On Compaq Presario 7000CA (WinXP) the
old CRT monitor Philips 201B10?7414 (2001)
failed recently, going black after an hour
or two in use. After switching off and on again, a
distinct double click was heard, screen remained dark.
Next day it performed OK.

So I swapped it for an old Dell MM781S CRT monitor
(2000) believed good because when powered up (with
no PC) it shows "No signal, connect computer.")
When connected you get (1) tiny green spot in mid-screen
for 2 seconds, then black, (2) on/off lamp next to on/off
button blinks steadily (green.)

Does this indicate a dud or dead video adapter?
It is believed to be NVidia GeForce2 type. Should I
test something else? Is this (antique) video card
easily replaceable?

 

[Jan Alter]

On Compaq Presario 7000CA (WinXP) the
old CRT monitor Philips 201B10?7414 (2001)
failed recently, going black after an hour
or two in use. After switching off and on again, a
distinct double click was heard, screen remained dark.
Next day it performed OK.

So I swapped it for an old Dell MM781S CRT monitor
(2000) believed good because when powered up (with
no PC) it shows "No signal, connect computer.")
When connected you get (1) tiny green spot in mid-screen
for 2 seconds, then black, (2) on/off lamp next to on/off
button blinks steadily (green.)

Does this indicate a dud or dead video adapter?
It is believed to be NVidia GeForce2 type. Should I
test something else? Is this (antique) video card
easily replaceable?

From your description it sounds as if the card rather than the monitor has
gone. Just to double check I would take the Dell monitor to another computer
and hook it up to verify that the card has actually died.
As far as replacement of the card, that should not be difficult. Most
likely you have an AGP video card installed rather than a slower PCI video
card, from me looking at your model and checking that it had an AGP slot. Do
check first, by opening the case and verifying that the vga card is AGP
rather than in a PCI slot. Changing cards is relatively easy. To find an AGP
replacement check out an online store, ie, newegg.com or wherever you
purchase your hardware.

Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Don Phillipson]

From your description it sounds as if the card rather than the monitor has
gone. Just to double check I would take the Dell monitor to another computer
and hook it up to verify that the card has actually died.
As far as replacement of the card, that should not be difficult. Most
likely you have an AGP video card installed rather than a slower PCI video
card, from me looking at your model and checking that it had an AGP slot. Do
check first, by opening the case and verifying that the vga card is AGP
rather than in a PCI slot. Changing cards is relatively easy. To find an AGP
replacement check out an online store, ie, newegg.com or wherever you
purchase your hardware.

Yes, AGP card (2 notches) so I might as well take it with
me when shopping. After reseating the card and flushing
BIOS I got one OK boot into Safe Mode, reinstalled nVidia
card, which requires reboot to implement -- and this time
hung at driver\mup.sys see
http://www.aitechsolutions.net/mupdotsysXPhang.html
suggesting hardware (video card or PSU.) There is a
hint here that AGP cards draw more power than others.

Another clue is that the floppy drive also recently failed
-- perhaps also pointing to the PSU. While the case
was open I added an old spare floppy (not marked good
or bad) -- and then found its data pins were not
pin-compatible with the Compaq data cable (and my
spare data cable did not fit the Compaq MB.) Was
this a brand peculiarity of Compaqs a decade ago?

 

[Jan Alter]

--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)

Yes, AGP card (2 notches) so I might as well take it with
me when shopping. After reseating the card and flushing
BIOS I got one OK boot into Safe Mode, reinstalled nVidia
card, which requires reboot to implement -- and this time
hung at driver\mup.sys see
http://www.aitechsolutions.net/mupdotsysXPhang.html
suggesting hardware (video card or PSU.) There is a
hint here that AGP cards draw more power than others.

Another clue is that the floppy drive also recently failed
-- perhaps also pointing to the PSU. While the case
was open I added an old spare floppy (not marked good
or bad) -- and then found its data pins were not
pin-compatible with the Compaq data cable (and my
spare data cable did not fit the Compaq MB.) Was
this a brand peculiarity of Compaqs a decade ago?

A PS is a frequent problem component of any computer system, and can be the
cause of a plethora of problems. I would be as suspicious as yourself and
would be thoughtful to replace it on simple insurance at this point with two
peripherals failing, Check out that your machine is using a standard ATX
power supply and not something Compaq prioritzed. No doubt your mb will have
a 20 in power connector. And if it is using a standard PS make sure that any
replacement will have a 20+4 pin mb power cable and just not a 24 pin one.
As for a priority floppy drive, that's a new one on me. But from my
experience with Compaq's I'm used to them using priority screws to fasten
their CD-ROM drives to the chasis. They used to be a royal PITA.


Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Don Phillipson]

As for a priority floppy drive, that's a new one on me. But from my
experience with Compaq's I'm used to them using priority screws to fasten
their CD-ROM drives to the chasis. They used to be a royal PITA.

Perhaps not since year 2000. This Presario fastens all
floppy and CD drives with rails that snap directly into the
screw holes in the cases, yet hold securely. The two
HDDs are mounted (vertically) with one or two screws
each, inside a 2-drive cage that fits tight and solid.
Eccentricity was reserved for the bulbous snap-on
case front (with trim ring in a variety of colours . . . )