Cold Boot Corruption

[andshrew]

I've been having a rather odd issue with my new build, but only when cold booting. The system fires up fine but on the main BIOS screen and the Windows loading screen I get graphical corruption down the screen. I've uploaded a picture of it here. Windows then decides to crash but once the system restarts everythings fine and it's been completly stable even in the most demanding 3d games for example. It's almost as if something needs to warm up before it gets going properly.
Anyway I'm thinking its possibly a PSU issue, but honestly I've never experianced anything like this before and I would have thought if it was a hardware issue the system would be unstable all the time. Anyone ever heard of anything like this or know possible solutions?
My spec is:
Core2Duo E6600
Gigabyte DS4
2x1gb Geil Ultra 6400
Leadtek 7950GT 512mb
Akasa Ultra Quite 400w
Everything's running at stock speeds..

Thanks

[abeacock]

That looks like memory corruption possibly on the gfx card. Is the cooler on the gfx card working correctly? What temperature are the Nvidia drivers reporting?

Can your motherboard run with just one stick of ram in it? If so, you could also try taking out one stick of ram to see if that is the cause.

Your PSU does sound a little small for that gear but you are right, I would have thought you would have problems all the time if that was the case.

Let us know how you get on.

[Clunk]

the psu sticks out a mile as the main suspect, it would be my first thing to look at

[andshrew]

First thing that went through my head when powering on for the first time was "Oh no! That looks like gfx memory corruption ", and it may well be that, but I would have thought I would have noticed it in games by now if there was something serious wrong. Nvidia's monitor is reporting the card at around 50C idle at the moment, but I've seen it around 60C when exiting from playing a game. I think thats about normal but I've never had a card which can monitor its temperature before so I'm not sure..
I'll have a go at booting with a single stick of ram in the morning (got to leave the pc off for a few hours before the corruption shows up on boot again) and see if that makes any difference. The PSU could probably do with an upgrade as its one of the few components that moved over from my old system to this and if it comes down to it I'll just have to upgrade that as well. Unfourternatly its the most powerfull PSU I have access to so I can't test the system with another one, but if nothing else can resolve this I may just take the plunge and get a more powerfull one.
I'll give an update tomorrow evening to let you know how I get on..

Thanks

[andshrew]

Well gave it a try tonight with a single memory chip installed and it did the same. Also tried with no hard discs or optical drives installed of which I had 4 and 1 (yes I know, really pushing 400W here but the 4 hard discs was only going to be temporary ) and it still did the same so I'm still not entirely convinced its the PSU since surely with it only running the Mobo/CPU/GFX it should be ok.. but on the other hand I can't really see what else it may be so I think I'm just going to upgrade the PSU and hope that fixes it.
Thanks for the suggestions though guys, much appreciated

[notsobig]

I'm sorry to say but "to me" this looks either defected or soon to be defected card symptom. Can your card run Deep Freeze(3dmark06) without showing artifacts? I think you should test your card in someoneelse's computer to see if you get same symptom or not before shelling out your money for a new PSU. If you get artifact it probably means your card is defected and needs to be replaced(RMA), if you get no artifacts then probably it's PSU problem like other posters said.

[andshrew]

I'm sorry to say but "to me" this looks either defected or soon to be defected card symptom. Can your card run Deep Freeze(3dmark06) without showing artifacts? I think you should test your card in someoneelse's computer to see if you get same symptom or not before shelling out your money for a new PSU. If you get artifact it probably means your card is defected and needs to be replaced(RMA), if you get no artifacts then probably it's PSU problem like other posters said.

I ran the 3dmark06 test the other evening and I didn't get any artifacting in any of the demos, and I've not noticed it in other games I've used on the system. Seems like it may just be a case of the PSU being anable to supply sufficient power on initial bootup.
I was taking a look at PSU's that SCAN offer and I noticed that Akasa sell two different 500w models, one for £58 and one for £70 (PAXPower). Does anyone know if the PAXPower's energy efficientness is worth the extra over the other one?

[abeacock]

I have the Akasa PaxPower 460w and it's quiet and looks great. CustomPC gave it good marks (http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/l...0fg-blv2.html). I think you may need a more powerful one though will your beefy gfx card all your disks. Seasonic also do very good PSU, their Seasonic S12-600 has held the CustomPC Elite top spot for months now... http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/l...60fg-blv2.html

It was a bit too expensive for me and I don't have the same power requirements as you do.

[andshrew]

Thanks for the suggestion abeacock, I'll take a look at those Seasonic PSU's.

[emperoralku]

Hi,

I've been trawling the internet and this is the only thread I could find with this topic.

I'm having exactly the same problem since installing a Geforce 7800GS+ a couple of days ago.

I was wondering if this issue was resolved and the culprit identified cause I'm at a loss.

The graphics card seems to work fine in another system, and the system works without a problem with another graphics card.

I doubt its a power problem as I have a new silverstone 750w PSU capable of quad SLI and before this I had a 6800 ultra working fine.

System specs are:

Silverstone Zeus 750PSU
P4 3.4ee
2gb ram
Asus P4C800E-deluxe mb
SB audigy zs2 pro
Geforce 7800GS+
1x dvd rw
2xhdd in Raid array
1x scsi hdd

[andshrew]

Hi there,

Basically no I've not yet found a solution to this problem. I have had a PSU on order now for a few weeks but due to other items on my order being out of stock its all getting held up, but I will post back results when it eventualy gets here.
But yes I agree it seems highly unlikly it would be the PSU in your case, have you tried updating to the latest BIOS's on your motherboard?

[emperoralku]

Yes, everything has been updated. Its got me completely flummoxed. I'm still inclined to think it's something like a bios corruption or faulty memory on the graphics card. Last time I tested the card in another system it had already just been in mine, so maybe it was already warmed up. I'm going to test it when its completely cold.
Alternatively I'm wondering if it is possible there is a problem with my agp port not configuring correctly for the card on initial boot, which then corrects itself on subsequent boots.

[andshrew]

Alternatively I'm wondering if it is possible there is a problem with my agp port not configuring correctly for the card on initial boot, which then corrects itself on subsequent boots.

I was thinking also along the lines that something isn't correctly configuring on intial boot, although how I could fix something like that I'm not sure at all. I was going to have a play around in the BIOS later on and see if I can see any settings. I'll post back if I have any success with this.
It will be interesting to hear what happens to your card when you try it in another machine when its "cold".

[emperoralku]

I've just restested the card while cold in another system. Its definitely the card. Same problem in the other computer now. I'm going to RMA it tomorrow.

[Boggle]

I've just put a XFX 7950GT card in a system with a Foxconn P9657AA motherboard and am having the corrupt BIOS screen issue as well. I also get 'Invalid DVI Display Mode" on my monitor sometimes at boot up. Leaving the PC off for about ten minutes usually fixes it.

Just wanted to know if either of you had received replacement cards and, if so, if that fixed it. I'm still suspicious that this is some other type of incompatibility issue between the motherboard/card/BIOSs etc. as the card is rock-steady once running under Windows.

Thanks.

[Blitzen]

the psu sticks out a mile as the main suspect, it would be my first thing to look at

I agree.
Also, although that PSU is decent, its getting towards the low side for the set up you have.
Do you also have case fans and lighting? If so that thats contributing to your problem.