:( Back again...
Well I got my shiny new graphics card (and a spare)... Don't know whether it was purchased direct from HES or through a distributor (the wonders of having a Technical Purchasing Officer)...
Anyway... Opened it up, installed it, rebooted, et voila! AXON!!!!! Crisp image, no artifacts, just Axon! I thought my trials and tribulations were at an end... But it was not to be.
I ran each of our shows without issue in a dry tech, wash, rinsed, repeated three times, went to bed, had a couple of hours sleep, came back and ran them twice more... No issues!
Then did a full tech rehearsal for the nights show, Hitchless...
Then I left to do some other maintenance, have dinner, all that sort of stuff... Came back at 15 minutes to show, did not look at the Axon, just assuming that since I had done a pretty damn good load test all day it would be fine... Get to the first real use of the Axon... Nudda... Zip... Zilch. Looked at Axon - The Axon looked back, no lights, nothing... So I shrugged... Power outages are not uncommon on ships, maybe it just lost power and did not switch back on... Unusual, but not impossible. Hit the switch... Nudda. Zilch. :-/
So out with the screwdriver... Pulled it out of the rack and onto the bench - tried it there... Nothing... Cracked the case, checked all the connections were secure - Apart from a poor choice of HDD positions which was causing stress on the SATA cable, everything was fine... Unplugged all the power cables and jumped pin 3+4 on the MOBO connector and metered the PSU... All good there, the voltages all matched... Plugged everything back in. Accidently brushed my hand over the DMX card and my hand promptly burst into flames... Well, maybe not... But it was very hot...
SOoooo without being sure if this is the issue (Fried DMX card, and the DMX card having the power switch wired through it which means nothing will start up, because the card says not), and reaching about the end of my limited Axon knowledge I would like to ask for advice from the experts...
Now, if it is the DMX card, is there likely to be an issue somewhere above it as well (PSU, wiring loom, motherboard, bad power etc)...
Whilst I was fine with the purchase of a video card, if I need to purchase a DMX card and then the silent killer strikes again, I can quickly see my budget and my job disappearing
Thanks for all the help... I really do appreciate it, because otherwise, I am sure I would have practiced my diving from the top of the ship by now.
Rgds
Mac
ps... Sorry for the whole "stream of conciousness" thing... long hours, no rest... three different bosses on my back and high environmental stress... you get the picture
