Dell Studio 540 Display going blank

Daaaveee · 8 Jun 2010 at 20:52

Evening all,

A friend of mine has a Dell Studio 540 which is about 18 months or so old. Recently after 30mins or so of gaming the screen would go blank for a minute or so, then come back for a couple of mins, then go off again, etc etc. Apparently its now doing this after even shorter time.

It came with a 9800GT graphics card, and my first thought is that this was overheating, however checking with GPU-Z it didn't go over 75 degrees after an hour of gaming, and also checking the CPU with RealTemp that didn't go over 65 degrees.

I am still convinced its a graphics card problem though. The next step it seems like would be to get a new card. Then there is the next problem of finding a card which will work ok with the current PSU, which is believe is 350w, with one 6pin power for the GFX card. Its enough to run a 9800GT as standard so what would be the best card to get to suit these power requirements? I was hoping for 5770 but that may be a bit too much?

Any help is much appreciated!

Daaaveee · 9 Jun 2010 at 10:39

Any ideas guys? Don't want to blow £100 on a new graphics card and for it to make no difference!

cmndr_andi · 9 Jun 2010 at 10:43

Have you tried hooking the monitor up to another source (other PC, laptop, games console, DVD/blu ray player) and see if it exhibits the same problem?

Alternatively, do you have a known working monitor that you can hook up to your Dell. If that works fine - its a monitor issue, if it shows the same problems then it is most likely the 9800GT.

Also, do you have a PCI graphics card you can borrow for a short time to check if the 9800GT is at fault?

Edit: sorry, meant PCIe above, but if you have any PCI cards kicking about - they should work fine for diagnostic purposes.

Daaaveee · 9 Jun 2010 at 11:17

Yep its been tried on another monitor and a TV too, same problem.

Good idea, I have an old 7800GT SLi rig which my parents have inherited, I'm sure they won't miss one of them!

thingemajib · 9 Jun 2010 at 14:58

have you tried both of the video outputs on the 9800gt? if its just one of the outputs gone dodgy, then just use the other one - saves monies

Daaaveee · 9 Jun 2010 at 14:59

thingemajib said:
have you tried both of the video outputs on the 9800gt? if its just one of the outputs gone dodgy, then just use the other one - saves monies

Thanks will check this before anything else