Underpowered PSU or faulty 1900xt?

[Doormat]

Hi

Hopefully someone can shed some light as I'm not sure where the problem here...

I've just built my first complete new system in about 4 years - parts list below. I'm having graphic corruption problems where the screen will either go a solid colour (all red, all blue, all grey-ish), a striped version of the solid colour, or sometimes traditional "garbled" display where it looks like a nasty "warp your desktop" screensaver.

This happens long before I get to anything 3d - I haven't been able to install anything because of the problem - it even happened during the XP install.

Parts list:
Asus P5W DH
Core 2 E6600 @ stock speed
GEIL DDR800 (@2.1V, 4-4-4-12 as per sticker)
Sapphire 1900xt
Seasonic S12 500W
2 x WD hd's and a DVD-RW
in Antec P180

My guess is that either the PSU can't handle the 1900xt, or the 1900xt is a bad one. I need to send one or both back, but they came from different stores so I can't take them both back and say "replace both" very easily.

I tried powering just the 1900xt from another, unloaded PSU (old Enermax 465 W) but that made no difference.

So - new PSU, or new vid card?

[arthurleung]

Ever think of switching from D-Sub to DVI or vice versa?

Stripped colour appears to be problem with the DVI connection.


If you got another computer you could test the card.

I doubt its the PSU because your computer install Windows XP fine. And X1900XT uses relatively less power in 2D mode

[arthurleung]

Please Delete

[Clunk]

seasonic 500w psu should power that system easily enough, as should the enermax. have you checked to see if the card has been overheating? do the old blow-a-desk-fan-into-the-side-of-the-open-case-trick and see if it still happens. failing that, carefully take off the stock cooler and make sure that it was making contact with the gpu and the ram. is the 6 pin power lead to the card plugged in tightly?, is the card definately seated properly? are there any lights on on the card?

[Doormat]

Thanks for all the replies...answers so far:

Arthurleung: Using the supplied DVI-VGA converter, the same problems occur - I thought of that one

I don't have another PC with a PCIe slot to test the card in, unfortunately - the old system is AGP.

Clunk: That's what I thought (re: 500w S12 should be fine). As far as I can tell it's not a heat problem - the ATI control panel shows the card at about 50C (ish...I think). The power cable's definitely plugged in - the system won't boot (card's bios displays a "you must plug in the power cable, idiot" message if you try without) if it isn't. I'll try the desk fan method but to be honest I'm not hugely keen to take the cooler off - if it seems to be a problem with the card, I'll RMA it first and try another one!

Also - any recommendations for monitoring temps from the 1900xt? I tried ATI Tool but the fan control/temp monitor pages didn't seem to appear...?

Actually, does anyone know if the Sapphire card needs any additional software? Rather than install from the driver CD, I just downloaded the latest catalyst and installed that...am I missing something, perhaps?

Thanks!

[Jay]

i have had problems with bad X1900XTs and i have basically the same setup as you!

I am wondering if its the P5Ws as i RMAs my X1900XT only to find the replacement was also faulty.

[Clunk]

just to clarify, i didnt mean to take the cooler off and run it with a fan blowing on it

as for software, try ati tray tools, i think you can have the gpu temps sat next to the clock on your sys tray.

[Doormat]

@Clunk, re: cooler - I knew that

@jay oasis - interesting. I posted a similar version of this thread in the Anandtech forums, and one poster suggested checking the temps of the mobo chipset - adding active cooling to his mobo fixed similar problems. I've seen a lot of posts about the P5W DH chipset running hot.

I gave up yesterday as I was fed up with trying and failing. I'll give the deskfan technique a try tonight, which will at least give me an indication whether it's heat related from somewhere.

[Jay]

I have chipset problems, tried the deskfan and it dropped my temps by 10 oC but i still had artifacting.

[kempez]

I have chipset problems, tried the deskfan and it dropped my temps by 10 oC but i still had artifacting.

Use the active cooler that comes with the P5W DH - though it may be the card

Have you tried the card in the other slot on the P5W??

[Jay]

no, i havent actually.

Good point, i may give that a go.