Long Post About An Old Problem

15 years ago

After all this time, I really don't believe that I'll ever find an answer to this problem but .. I still have hope 8-)

After having worked on my XP pro for six months, trying to get the messed up display colors corrected, (after a driver update) I gave up and took it to the Firedog Techs at Circuit City. (Oy vey)(No jokes please)

The techs put in a new video card, (GeForce 8500GT) upgraded the PSU, (Antec 500 watt) and then After "Three Months" of trying different ideas .. They gave up too.

This was about a year ago.

The display colors were washed out.

The reds and blues were basically gone with just washed out greens and yellows left.

I brought the pc home and stuck it in a corner.

Here's the kicker: After sitting in a corner for almost a year, I decided to take the new Antec 500 watt psu out of it and put it in my NEW PC that had only a basic 400 watt psu in it.

Took the 400 watter from the new pc and put it into the XP along with the XP'S old graphics card.

I removed the CMOS battery to reset the bios and then did a destructive restore on the thing.

The colors on the display, (after restoring the drivers) .. were perfect!?

Now here's my New Problem: For about three days the colors had been perfect.

Today the little lady turns it on and the colors had reverted back to the washed-out look.

Even the boot screen is washed out when this happens.

(Instead of white letters they appear as a washed out grey-green).

Funny thing though .. After my wife had been playing her solitaire games for about 10 or 15 minutes, the colors flashed back to life.

She's been on it for almost two hours now with no problems.

Sometimes the thing will boot up with perfect colors, sometimes it wont.

Sometimes the colors will stay perfect all day, sometimes they wont.

Sometimes the colors will wash out and then come back and sometimes not even re-booting will bring the colors back.

It's not a cable or connection and it isn't a monitor problem either.

I just can't figure out What is going on.

Any ideas

Thanks,

MC

BTW: The stats on the xp are immediately below and the link is to my New pc.

=======================

Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Gateway GM5045E

2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core

256 kilobyte primary memory cache

1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: C51MCP51

Bus Clock: 200 megahertz

300 watts

BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 11/23/2005

896 Megabytes Installed Memory

Here is a link that might be useful: NEW PC

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Comments (7)

mikie_gw
15 years ago
I'd guess something on the mainboard has a bad component or connection,, or lots of ants left some honeydew that needs to be cleaned off between the circuits as the humidiy & temps seem to effect that stuffs resistance values. Don't ask how I know that ;)
mrclose
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks mikie,

Someone suggested that an overheating capacitor on the MoBo could be the problem but I just don't see how?

The techs at Circuit City ran all kinds of test on the thing .. (Three months worth) and didn't find a hardware problem.

And today, I have had the thing on for 14 hours with no problems.

MC
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owbist
15 years ago
Be aware that if this turns out to be something on the motherboard and you elect to replace the motherboard it will also cost you an operating system because the current XP is tied to that specific motherboard.

As Someone suggested that an overheating capacitor on the MoBo could be the problem you might study the capacitors etc with a magnifying glass looking for discolouration or slight bulging, you never know.
zep516
15 years ago
Since everything else has been checked the cap problem makes sense,

The more sporadic and random that the symptoms occur is usually a good sign of bad caps. You can usually spot a bad cap they start to bulge and may leak a gooey residue.

bad caps.com
mrclose
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone.
I guess that I better get out the old magnifying glass.

zep516 .. I think that I may have run into you on another forum?

MC
mrclose
Original Author
15 years ago
zep516,

Help2Go!!

That's where I ran into you.
Your BIG TIME over there!! LOL
1000's of posts.

Thanks

MC
grandms
15 years ago
We think a lot of Zep here, too! He has been very helful to me with several problems.

Long Post About An Old Problem

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mikie_gw

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