Graphics Card Problems

[predatorMC]

Hi,

My brother has had some problems with an XFX Geforce 6600GT 128mb. The symptoms were weird display error messages, garbled text, random colours and lines and eventually not even booting to windows. After determining the problem was most probably with the graphics card, a new one was ordered (as it was bought 2+ years ago, no warranty), a Sapphire ATI Radeon XT1950 GT 256mb. After installing this, the computer does not boot, no post, no bios, no beeps. The power cable to the card is connected.

Edit: no boot, however fans are running, including one on graphics card.

You'll have to excuse the fact that i'm not actually at the computer, but i'm in contact with the person who is.

Current Specs:
Asus A8N-SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939)
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice
1GB DDR PC3200 RAM
Sapphire ATI Radeon XT1950 GT 256mb
WD 120GB SATA
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC PSU

PSU specification:
Line: +12V1 Regulation ±5% Min load 1.0A Max load 14.0A Peak load 16.0A
Line: +12V2 Regulation ±5% Min load 1.0A Max load 15.0A -

It sounds like a power supply issue, either not powerful enough or it's broken. However I have known people to run the same card, but AGP on something less powerful.

Any ideas, and any respective ideas for what we should do if it is the power supply?

Many thanks, Matt.

[iranu]

I would suspect your PSU is not upto it

From a review at Hardocp.

The side of the box gives a very thorough listing of system requirements. Interestingly, the box recommends a power supply that can provide 30 amps on the 12 volt rail. This seems rather high for this level of video card. Our Corsair HX 620 Watt power supply provides 18A on the 12 volt rail, and we had no problems running this video card whatsoever.

Sapphire Troubleshooting FAQ seems to say 30A sustained on the 12v rail, but I would expect the card needs a minimum of 18A on one 12v rail as per Hardocp's findings. This is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of dual/multi-rail PSUs.

[Blitzen]

Im not sure it is the PSU.
Get someone to test it for you first before getting another PSU.

That rig isnt demanding at all and i would expect, if the PSU isnt faulty, that it should be able to power you up completely.

[moogle]

PSU it is, I had a 6600gt and it wouldnt power up without a 17a psu, a higher card is unlikely to power up with that rating.

[Agent]

There is a known issue with high power cards and split rail PSUs.
Some can switch between split rail and single rail, some can't. If it can't supply the amp's needed at start up, you would get the exact issue you are seeing now.

Sadly, the only way to actually test it is to put it in another machine.

[scsaus]

Problem might be with your pci -E Slot because of low fluctuated voltage.Either try your gpu in another pc or use 400 watt psu atleast.

[Agent]

Problem might be with your pci -E Slot because of low fluctuated voltage.Either try your gpu in another pc or use 400 watt psu atleast.

What?

[scsaus]

What?

WHAT WHAT??

[Blitzen]

PSU it is, I had a 6600gt and it wouldnt power up without a 17a psu, a higher card is unlikely to power up with that rating.

The draw on that system is very small.
It could be PSU related but only if its faulty. If the PSU is OK then i really doubt its that.

[predatorMC]

Cheers for all the help, I was so worried that it was the PSU, as it did seem like the diagnosis. Did lots of checking and swapping of hardware. I got him to take a picture of the motherboard (as i'm doing most of this over the phone), and I noticed his ATX12v power 4-pin was oddly unplugged!
Windows booted fine after that was back in, he must have knocked it out by accident whilst swapping cards.

Only issue now is that the monitor, LCD Acer 1714 is displaying an "Input not supported" message on Windows (and safe mode), probably because the refresh rate is set wrong, although i'm not quite sure what it should be, resolution has been set correctly using a temporary alternative monitor.

[Agent]

WHAT WHAT??

What the heck does "Problem might be with your pci -E Slot because of low fluctuated voltage" mean?