Vertical Lines on Screen??

[spirit]

Hi all,
I am having problems with an old system I have got. Recently my graphics card has been producing vertical lines on my monitor meaning I can't really see anything. The graphics card was working absolutely fine before so I don't see what's wrong, but I did take it out when I was rebuilding the system but I did definitely ground myself in the correct way before touching it.

The graphics card is an old Sapphire Radeon X800 XT Platinum running on an AGP slot on a Gigabyte K8VT800(Pro) motherboard, as I say, it was working absolutely fine before I took the card out.

I have tried a few solutions, none of which fixed the problem
- Using a different monitor on the DVI port (I was using the VGA before)
- Reseating the graphics card
- Trying a slightly more powerful PSU to power the graphics card (when I rebuilt the system I replaced my 450W PSU with a 425W and I have since plugged it into the 450W again)
- I even reinstalled the OS thinking it could be software problems

I reinstalled Windows XP last night to see if would work again, but sadly it just won't. I have a few pictures to show what the problem is:

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww304/robtheplod/DSC05849.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww304/robtheplod/DSC05850.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww304/robtheplod/DSC05851.jpg

When I boot the computer up, the BIOS and POST screens are crystal clear, it's only when it begins to boot into the OS itself (Windows XP), does it start to produce lines on the screen. Once I had installed XP, I installed the graphics drivers but after doing that Windows XP is hanging on the boot screen and is not loading at all, the only way I can get into to the OS is via Safe Mode.

I think my graphics card may be dying, or could it be something to do with the AGP slot itself? Any help or advice would be much appreciated! I have to use a graphics card because there is no on-board video on this motherboard!

Thanks!

 

[johnb35]

Definately sounds like a bad video card. Can you find a different video card that would work on that old board?

 

[spirit]

Sadly not on me now no (got no AGP or PCI cards about) and I don't have any other computers old enough to run this old AGP one. Any other possible solutions?

 

[jamesd1981]

i would support the view it is a faulty graphics card, there are lots of cheap agp graphics cards on ebay and sometimes gumtree

 

[spirit]

OK I don't know much about old graphics card because AGP is before my day if you like but what sort of thing should I look for? What AGP card would run well on a 425W PSU?

Also guys, just to say when I rebuilt the PC, suddenly the bit of the graphics card that sits on the back of the case (the section of metal with the display ports, not sure what you call it??) has become magnetically attracted to the case? Could this have anything to do with the card suddenly becoming faulty?? It was never magnetically attracted before but I did use a magnetic screwdriver to get something that was buried right at the bottom of the case... was this a bad move by any chance? Motherboard still works fine, just the graphics card is being annoying now.

Also, do you reckon if I put this graphics card on eBay for a very low starting price (like £0.50 or something) do you reckon I might be able to sell it as 'spares or repairs' or is it beyond usable now with the number of lines it's producing?