Help a noob, LCD and power problems

**PCaponeRIT** · 10-12-2005, 01:43 PM

hey guys. I just bought a VIA EPIA something or other with some goodies and one of those cheap ebay 7" touchscreens (the ones that say "AVATAR" in the pic, but actually have a badge saying "SUPER" when you open the box). I broke that stupid clip connector first try, but that's a different story (maybe). I have an ITPC hooked up to the morex PSU that came with the case (I think it's a mini-cube or something).

Problems:
- my carputer only starts up once every three times or so. The times it doesn't, it makes a squeaking sound that is reeeeealy faint, but still scares me. Is this because I am running a wire from the power to my car's head unit to the ITPC? Do I need a heavier guage and seperate fuse?
- The bottom half of my touch screen is out of phase it seems. Imagine the 8 rows of pixels (I think it's 8), the second to bottom one flickers and the bottom one shows the start button in the middle of the screen and the clock and all that directly to the left of the start button. This problem exists most of the time, but sometimes when I fool with the DPI and screen size it will work for a little bit, and sometimes when I unplug and replug the screen it will fix itself too. I am powering the screen with the given car cigarette lighter adapter

Please guys, flex a carputer muscle and help a noob. I'm sure you understand how frustrating it is for a professional tech dork to spend a bunch of money on this stuff and have it not work.

BTW: does anyone know a trick to fix that stupid connector? who engineered that thing?!

-Thanks guys
Paul

**Bugbyte** · 10-13-2005, 12:46 AM

Don't power your Car PC from your head unit wire. It's probably not heavy enough gauge for it.

I believe you are referring to an ITPS rather than an ITPC. If so, these are extremely evil little devices that allow you to believe you have a power solution to your computer but will often introduce stability problems into your system. Search on terms "ITPS" or go to the FAQ Emporium (click on the link in my signature) and check out the thread on "Power supplies explained".

Before Thanatos shows up an defends the ITPS, I do have to allow that they CAN work and people do use them successfully. I am not one of those people and wasted a lot of time before getting a proper power supply and a stable system.

I will tell you that if you are testing the system, make sure the car is running. The ITPS drops the voltage quite a bit and can be a problem if power is only coming from the battery.

As for your screen, I can't help you there. It sounds like a sync issue all right. Perhaps check your display settings and try different frequencies. My screen didn't work properly until I selected 75hz.

Good luck!

**PCaponeRIT** · 10-16-2005, 04:25 PM

I'm not sure what I did to fix it, but the computer starts all the time now using that ITPS. I think it might have been the heat sync shorting on the top of my case (why the hell is that thing 12v hot?). And the LCD was a clock problem. I found the auto-clock feature and now my screen and comp are working.

Please feel free to visit the other forums where I'm sure more of my questions will pop up. One I see coming soon is how to get voice control, specificly in MS Streets and Trips.

Thanks guys