Hey guys, I need your help!
I remembered a tech forum being around here somewhere, but I couldn't find it so I'm posting here instead. I apologize if it's the wrong forum.

Around a year and 2 months ago, I bought a new computer. These are the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 (3700+) San Diego - [939 Pin]- RETAIL
ASUS A8N-E - 939 (nForce4 Ultra) - ATX
2x 1GB KINGSTON DDR PC3200/400 - KINGSTON Original
Gigabyte Radeon X1800XT 512MB - VIVO / DVI - PCX - RETAIL
Thermaltake Eureka silver AL case
Thermaltake TR2 500W - PFC - ATX 2.01
WD 200GB-8MB JS - 7200RPM S-ATA II
NEC DVD-RW NEC ND 4551A x16 Labelflash DUAL LAYER

To this I added my old TV card, a Hauppauge card (can't remember the exact model) which I used to watch TV on my comp using WinTV2000.

Until a couple of weeks ago, the computer worked like a dream, everything was running prefectly.
Around 2 weeks ago, however, my computer started to randomly lock up when running WinTV2000. It seemed to happen when my computer was on for more than a couple of hours.
When this happened I had to hold the power button to switch off the comp, and then switch it on again. Then the computer would start up but I'd get no signal on the monitor, and the computer made 4 beeps (one long one and 3 short ones).
I'd then restart again and it would be fine.

A couple of days ago, I was fiddling with the WinTV settings trying to figure out what the problem is, and the computer locked up again. Since then, I haven't been able to switch it on!
Everytime I turn it on, I get the 4 beeps, and it sounds like the computer is starting up but there's no monitor signal.
I assume it's something to do with the video card, but I can see the fan working when I switch on the comp.
I haven't even been playing any games for the last few months, so I don't understand how the video card could just die for no reason. Especially a video card that is considered so good, and is only one year old.
I've also been cleaning out dust regularly from my comp, so it can't be that.

My motherboard doesn't support AGP, so I couldn't test any of my old video cards either.

Any ideas?

Thanks alot!
Snootle

There should be a section in your motherboard's manual telling you what the beeps mean.

And if you can't find that, there's always Google.

I couldn't find anything about the beeps in my motherboard's manual...

And I did plenty of Google searches but couldn't really find anything about my problem, except for a few website that stated those 4 beeps indicate some sort of video card failure.

The question is, what could have caused this failure, and is there anything I can do to try and fix it (without having to completely replace the video card)?

Hey, it's Snootle!

Take out all unneeded components, including hard drives, and try booting up. Try each stick of RAM individually, as well as any other sticks you may have.

What you want to do is go one by one, ruling out each component as best you can. Beep codes are often ambiguous, so you want to make sure you've located the correct component.

Also, touch the back of the videocard after the system has been on for a few minutes. If it's cold to the touch, the card is probably dead.

Sometimes cards just fail. There's no rhyme or reason, it just happens.

It sucks. :/

Hope yours is still alive!

Yeah your video card probably died. Possibly from overheating.

Thanks for the replies guys.
Turns out it is the video card.. which really sucks, it was by far the most expensive component in this computer. Bah.

Oh well, until I get a new one, I'm stuck with an old computer.. so I might as well (attempt to) make a JK level for the singleplayer contest!
Here's hoping I don't lose interest in 3 hours