I seemingly damaged my dell dimension 8200 during a recent shipping. The
graphics card NV11 and sound card detached from the motherboard during
shipping and bounced around in the tower. When I plug in the computer, I
don't see any display on the monitor and the hard drive light in the
front of the tower don't light up. The hard drive is working fine (I
took it out and tested it as an external drive).
Problem: I don't have another computer so that I can swap components to
troubleshoot effectively.
Possible solution: is there a cheap graphics card that someone can
recommend that I can buy and test? Is there any way to troubleshoot my
machine?
On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:52:03 -0700, john doe
<abhush.yg@mailnull.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I seemingly damaged my dell dimension 8200 during a recent shipping. The
>graphics card NV11 and sound card detached from the motherboard during
>shipping and bounced around in the tower. When I plug in the computer, I
>don't see any display on the monitor and the hard drive light in the
>front of the tower don't light up. The hard drive is working fine (I
>took it out and tested it as an external drive).
>
>Problem: I don't have another computer so that I can swap components to
>troubleshoot effectively.
>
>Possible solution: is there a cheap graphics card that someone can
>recommend that I can buy and test? Is there any way to troubleshoot my
>machine?
>
>I will really appreciate any help.
>
>Thanks.
Do you want to do any gaming? I ask because it could be
time to upgrade the video anyway if this is the case, and
you might consider just buying the replacement card you want
if the present one is dead, returning the card and accepting
the restocking fee for doing that if the system is still
inoperable. Just buy from someplace with a good return
policy like http://www.newegg.com
Otherwise, without another computer you might find it most
time effective to see if a local shop will do some parts
swapping for a nominal bench fee... which could depend on
the going rates in your area but might be as low as $50.
This is if you have no friends with a spare system they're
willing to put to the task.
If the video card is dead it will prevent the system from
POSTing, so it would not necessarily be out of the ordinary
for the HDD to not be accessed, but with parts bouncing
around inside during transit it is also conceivable that
more damage was done, particularly to the motherboard. If
you haven't yet, you might take a strong light and inspect
the board, and if a different video card doesn't resolve the
problem then take the board out of the case for a better 2nd
inspection.
As per your request about a cheap graphics card, where do
you prefer to buy it? There are too many options to think
about on ebay, you could just go to the respective category
and sit it out until you see a deal on something. As for
new hardware, there are the mainstream hardware websites
offering low end AGP 4X-8X cards like this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814153029
or surplus computer parts sites offering other alternatives
like (well actually there are far too many sites offering
old stock of AGP cards but a few examples are):
This is not so different from your NV11 (Geforce2 MX): http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...0-32MB&cat=VCD
(or see any of their other cards under the "AGP 64MB Video
Cards" heading (or the corresponding AGP 128MB heading).
As for PCI cards, just to see if the system will POST and
run (ignoring regular use at high resolution and bit depth)
you could even see if a local mom & pop computer shop has
some ancient PCI video card for somewhere betweeen $0 and
$5, because they end up throwing them away when old systems
get dumped there. If you use a PCI card, just make sure you
have removed your questionable AGP card.
You might also try clearing CMOS before plugging the AC
power in, or if there is no clear CMOS jumper, pull the
battery out for 10 minutes.
> Hi,
>
> I seemingly damaged my dell dimension 8200 during a recent shipping. The
> graphics card NV11 and sound card detached from the motherboard during
> shipping and bounced around in the tower. When I plug in the computer, I
> don't see any display on the monitor and the hard drive light in the
> front of the tower don't light up. The hard drive is working fine (I
> took it out and tested it as an external drive).
>
> Problem: I don't have another computer so that I can swap components to
> troubleshoot effectively.
>
> Possible solution: is there a cheap graphics card that someone can
> recommend that I can buy and test? Is there any way to troubleshoot my
> machine?
>
> I will really appreciate any help.
>
> Thanks.
do you get any beep errors if not i would put my money on the cpu
with a faulty graphics card you would get beep errors
kony wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:33:17 +0100, darklight
> <nglennglen@netscape.net> wrote:
>
>> john doe wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I seemingly damaged my dell dimension 8200 during a recent shipping. The
>>> graphics card NV11 and sound card detached from the motherboard during
>>> shipping and bounced around in the tower. When I plug in the computer, I
>>> don't see any display on the monitor and the hard drive light in the
>>> front of the tower don't light up. The hard drive is working fine (I
>>> took it out and tested it as an external drive).
>>>
>>> Problem: I don't have another computer so that I can swap components to
>>> troubleshoot effectively.
>>>
>>> Possible solution: is there a cheap graphics card that someone can
>>> recommend that I can buy and test? Is there any way to troubleshoot my
>>> machine?
>>>
>>> I will really appreciate any help.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>> do you get any beep errors if not i would put my money on the cpu
>> with a faulty graphics card you would get beep errors
>
>
> 1) There are several faults that don't produce beep errors,
> besides the CPU. The CPU is not at all likely to be damaged
> during shipping, _unless_ the heatsink wobbled around on it
> cracking the core, and/or the heatsink fell off and the
> system was ran without the heatsink installed.
>
> 2) Without any graphics card installed you may have beep
> errors, but you will not necessarily have beep errors with a
> faulty graphics card.
With the graphics card both, plugged in and removed, on turning on the
power, a little green light on the motherboard lights up but none of the
lights at the back of the tower come on (A B C D - dell dimension 8200).
And there are no beeps! The heatsink is secure, did not move around
during shipping. Is the system toast?
john doe wrote:
> kony wrote:
>> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:33:17 +0100, darklight
>> <nglennglen@netscape.net> wrote:
>>
>>> john doe wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I seemingly damaged my dell dimension 8200 during a recent shipping.
>>>> The
>>>> graphics card NV11 and sound card detached from the motherboard during
>>>> shipping and bounced around in the tower. When I plug in the
>>>> computer, I
>>>> don't see any display on the monitor and the hard drive light in the
>>>> front of the tower don't light up. The hard drive is working fine (I
>>>> took it out and tested it as an external drive).
>>>>
>>>> Problem: I don't have another computer so that I can swap components to
>>>> troubleshoot effectively.
>>>>
>>>> Possible solution: is there a cheap graphics card that someone can
>>>> recommend that I can buy and test? Is there any way to troubleshoot my
>>>> machine?
>>>>
>>>> I will really appreciate any help.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>> do you get any beep errors if not i would put my money on the cpu
>>> with a faulty graphics card you would get beep errors
>>
>>
>> 1) There are several faults that don't produce beep errors,
>> besides the CPU. The CPU is not at all likely to be damaged
>> during shipping, _unless_ the heatsink wobbled around on it
>> cracking the core, and/or the heatsink fell off and the
>> system was ran without the heatsink installed.
>>
>> 2) Without any graphics card installed you may have beep
>> errors, but you will not necessarily have beep errors with a
>> faulty graphics card.
>
>
> With the graphics card both, plugged in and removed, on turning on the
> power, a little green light on the motherboard lights up but none of the
> lights at the back of the tower come on (A B C D - dell dimension 8200).
> And there are no beeps! The heatsink is secure, did not move around
> during shipping. Is the system toast?
>
Also, even after pulling the ram out, the diagnostic lights did not come
on. The fan is working, heat sink warm to touch, the small green light
on the motherboard lights up, but no diagnostic lights and no beeps.
Hard drive (if connected) works, so power supply seems okay.
bad graphics card? 
Linear Mode
