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Friday, July 22, 2016

Trials and Tribulations

I have a GIGABYTE motherboard that is giving me problems. After using it for several months with one screen, I finally added a second display. It was great, for a bit. And then a couple of months ago the video output died.
I sent the board back to GIGABYTE and they replaced a cap. Got the board back, reinstalled it and it worked fine a couple of weeks. Then the video died, again.
    Put in a request for another RMA. When I get the RMA I think I should probably make sure the board is still dead, so I turn it on, and boom! Everything is working just fine. Great, forget about getting it repaired.
    This morning it flaked out again. It start with numerous bars of static distributed semi-regularly over the screen. Cycle the power and now we have no video at all. Let it sit for a few minutes and try again and still no video.
    I'm thinking it's a heat problem. If I let it sit long enough, it cools down and starts working normally. Sometimes. But how long does it have to sit? And if heat is the problem, why does it take so long fail?
    If heat is the problem, then one more fan blowing on the video processor should fix it. Meanwhile I'm wondering if the power supply fan and the CPU fan are working together or in opposition. They are within an inch or so of each other. Maybe I just need some duct work.
    Anybody have a temperature probe that can reach in small places?

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