Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Hi all, Wondering if you can help especially those with this card. I bought a OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) graphics card from Overclockers.co.uk the other day, mainly as my Gigabyte X800 XL 256mb card is struggling to even run Ghost Recon 2, let alone play it in a decent resolution. I installed this using PIC-E slot, connected up the 6-pin power lead direct from PSU to the card and fired her up - got nothing apart from a dead screen and PC didn't seem to boot. The fan on the card was rotating and there was power going through it for sure, but no further activity. I reinstalled my X800XL and it worked fine. What's up here? Surely even if the drivers ARENT loaded yet (can't do that anyway if there's no monitor picture!) the card would still display an image on screen? Anything else I can check or have I bought a dud card? Thanks, Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 IS your power supply up to more than just spinning the fan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 If it's not getting to BIOS then it's most likely to be a power or memory issue. If it's working fine with the other card you can more or less rule out system memory. What sort of PSU are you using? Edit - or what martin said 2nd edit - what motherboard are you using and is the firmware up to date? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 Hi guys, It's a ENERMAX NOISETAKER II EG495AX-VE PSU that puts out 485 watts so should be fine. The card only needs 450 and I'm not under heavy load - just running 3gb of memory. Motherboard is a Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLi Motherboard inc uGURU panel running a AMD64 4600+ X2 CPU. Not sure if the firmware is up to date Darryl, I'm using the standard drivers that came with the mobo on disk mate. Memory: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) Memory Latency: CAS 3.0 8-4-4 @ DDR400 PC3200 Hope that helps Thanks, Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 So you're leaving 35watts to run the rest?? (Yes I know it doesn't need it all the time). Are you able to try a bigger PSU? Without buying? What's the ATX revision number on the PSU? That can have a bearing on it's abilities... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daston Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Very weird, normaly its a case of swapping them over like you said. Have you got access to another machine that you can try your new card out on? Not unheard of for cards to be shorted out or damaged. If it does work then you know its something else in your PC thats at fault. The PSU should be ok however it still has to power the CPU, mobo, HDD and fans etc so that could be a factor (although without knowing what you have in the case its hard to tell) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Thats a rather high spec system and I presume you have some fairly large HDD's to power too? Initial boot requires a huge amount of power to start all those systems and I'm not sure your 480watt PSU is enough to power all that. Even on my low spec system a 400watt system sometimes fails to provide enough surge capability to start the system up. Gamer or Pete are probably the people to speak to here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daston Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 during boot a PC needs around 2x the idle power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Leading on from what the others have said. Disconnect all drives from the PSU...if it still can't fire up, to the BIOS, try it in another PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daston Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Good idea Alex! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 PSU or card is shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 Hi Alex. ATX Ver 2.0 if that makes sense mate? I know, 35 extra bits of juice aint much but I was expecting it to run. I can't imagine the 256mb X800XL was much different? Got a 10,000rpm Raptor drive and 500gb Maxtor drive too and 2x DVD burners. Nothing else except the U-GURU panel running up front. Perhaps I do need a bigger one then. All my mates are back in the AGP days so no use testing it with them! I submitted the problem to overclockers.co.uk and they have given me an RMA number so they know my system spec and PSU should run it as I had to provide those details. Just don't want to send it back, them test it and it check out all OK, me get charged £10 + delivery back and suffer a delay in playing GR2! Thanks for your help so far guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Sheefa mate , do as Alex said - disconnect power on DVD's and HDD and start it up. If it will go - your PSU is not enough. If it will not, I say card is shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Raptor drives use a massive amount of power, especially on start up. As suggested by Alex, try booting with all the drives removed, including aux fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 I may of done this arse about face guys. i.e. I've already sent it back thinking it had a fault and I was sense checking my rationale which was clearly stupid! Note I sent and got from overclockers: Dear Greg Wheatley, Please use the above RMA number for the return of this item. I have sent an RMA email to the registered email address. Please read through this associated RMA email to return the item for processing. You will be able to check your RMA status online by logging into your account. Regards, matthew burton ---------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE USING YOUR E-MAIL CLIENT You can reply via WebNote: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/webnote.php In reply to --------------------- Hi, I have been running my Gigabyte X800 XL Graphics Card without problem but have upgraded with the purchase of the OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB card specified above. I have connected all necessary leads including the PCI-E Power feed from the PSU to the card itself, but am not getting any signal to the monitor. The fan on the card does spin but there doesn't appear to be any activity from the card other than this. I have removed and re-fitted my X800XL and low and behold, everything works again. I believe the graphics card is faulty unless I'm doing something else wrong? Thanks, Greg Support Details: Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLi Motherboard inc uGURU panel Motherboard Driver: Motherboard Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Motherboard BIOS: CPU: AMD64 4600+ X2 Memory: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) Memory Latency: CAS 3.0 8-4-4 @ DDR400 PC3200 PSU: ENERMAX NOISETAKER II EG495AX-VE 485 WATTS Graphics: OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) Graphics Driver: Sound Card: Integrated Fatal1ty 7.1 Audio Card Sound Driver: Operating system: Windows XP - Service Pack 2 Changes prior to problem: None Oooops Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Theres a good reason 800 watt supply is the norm on higher spec systems (like yours), many overclockers are using 1000+watt PSU's now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 What should I go up to then guys? Would 600watt be sufficient for a budget of around £80 and can anyone recommend a decent one? Thanks. Greg EDIT: Ok thanks Homer. Shit. More money. Should of bought a damn Xbox at this rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 When I had an ATI card that needed power from a molex connector, and my 450w PSU wasn't good enough, I just got the beeping and flashing black/red text on the screen for five seconds "PLEASE CONNECT THE 4 PIN POWER CONNECTOR AND TRY AGAIN!" This was because my PSU wasn't up to scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daston Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 yeah that would be fine I had an enermax 600Watt and that was £80 years ago. Now running a 1000W one. Just to really turn the knife in OCUK tend to be rubbish with their RMA's took me 4 months to get my gfx card back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I run a 1000w PSU. Just for info your card specs state the following regarding the PSU requirements. 450-Watt power supply or greater, 30 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended (assumes fully loaded system) IMO you should get at least an 800w PSU, go for a decent make as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 I run a 1000w PSU. Just for info your card specs state the following regarding the PSU requirements. IMO you should get at least an 800w PSU, go for a decent make as well. Thanks Gamer. I was thinking of one of these, can anyone advise please on best probable option? Cheers http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=148 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-063-TT&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=926 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-084-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=103 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Antec will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I run 3x optical drives, a DDS4 DAT drive, 2x IDE drives, 1x SATA drive, 1x U320 15,000rpm scsi drive, scsi card, a geforce 5900xt which also draws power from a 4pin molex, and various USB devices. I use a good 400w PSU. I think some people go a little OTT with their PSU requirements. I just ran your specs, substituting a 10,000 scsi drive for the raptor, and your power requirements came back as 325w. Obviously you would need a good quality, properly rated PSU. a 1,000w PSU would be well below its efficiency in your system. You probably had a duff card, although it would have been nice to do what Alex suggested Calculate PSU requirements here: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 Thanks Carlos that's great mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Jesus, didn't realise PSU's were so expensive now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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