Next time you order a pizza, take the little (doll house table I call it)
and trim it and slide it under the motherboard for support. Never thought of
chopsticks. Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: James E. Griffin <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 1999 7:34 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] My Tale of Woe - Gateway Video (Motherboard?)
Problems


> "Villano, Paul" wrote:
>
> Paul, what you describe is a classic problem when video signals don't
> get to the monitor for some reason. Could be a bad card, mother board
>or
> a bad connection.
>
> > I called Tech Support at Gateway.  They said the video card must be
> > loose and that I should try reseating it.<snip> got the gray
> > screen again except it momentarily switched to light blue as if
>trying
> > to show the Windows screen.  <snip> back to gray and white
> > stripes.  You could see the hard drive chunking away, and it tries to
> > boot, but you can't see anything.
>>
> I'll snip the rest of the message to preserve bandwith. One problem to
> watch out for is putting too much torque on a mother board when you're
> plugging stuff into slots. You can EASILY break a connection or the
> board itself with too much force. You may well have had a bad video
> board, which is why gateway had you try another slot.
>
> At this time, you may have both a broken board AND a bum video card;
> don't be too hard on gateway OR yourself. As price pressures on
> manufacturers has increased, motherboards have physically gotten
>thinner
> and thinner -- costs less to manufacture. You've really got to watch
>the
> motherboard as you're plugging boards into slots -- I've been known to
> use wood (disposable chopsticks no less) or plastic shims to keep from
> flexing a mother board too much.
>
> You can use off the shelf parts but why pay for something you don't
>have
> to?
>
> Best regards,
> Jim Griffin
>
> --
> Prometheus was the first Beta Tester.
> Sisyphus was the Corinthian Systems Administrator.
>
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>

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