Officially Stumped - New System Build Advice

Hey guys,

I've got a problem with a semi new system I have just built, I say semi new because its a combination of some older parts I had and a few newer ones that I put together for my friend.

I've been building computers on and off for the past 8 years but I'm completely stumped on this one and hopefully someone can help me out.

I've spent the past 5 hours taking everything apart (some cofffee breaks included), testing every part individually putting it back together, taking it apart again, thankfully I've got quite a few parts to swap in and out to diagnose stuff. So I'll cut a LONG story short and write down what I know....

It's the graphics card, but I don't know why...it's not broken. When the graphics card (ATI 5850) is plugged into the MB (Asus P5E) it wont post, nothing. If I use my other GPU (Nvidia 970) it works fine, if I use another (really old) GPU, it works as well. Plug the 5850 back in and nothing.

So I thought..hmm that's annoying, broken GPU, but I have since tested it on 2 other systems and it works fine, no problems at all. If it wasn't for the fact that I had paired that exact GPU with the motherboard for 2 years prior to me getting new parts I would of thought it is some compatibility issue but it can't be. The only important new part in this build was the PSU (Corsair 550w), I thought there may be some problem with it, maybe not enough power for the 5850, but no, it meets minimum specs and it also works with the 970, which I assume draws more power than the 5850.

The only thing left I can think of to try is to get a different PSU to test it out with, but I'd rather not unless I have to because a) It's going to be a pain the arse to take apart my other comp. and b) I think I've already tested out the solidarity of the PSU by hooking it up with the 970.

This was quite a bit longer than I intended I'm sorry! But if anyone has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks, Joe.


Full system specs:

Corsair CS550M
ATI 5850
Intel Q6600 2.4ghz
Asus P5E Deluxe
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8gb 800mhz CS5
Seagate 1TB HDD

Also, I have tried using different monitors, using DVI and HDMI connections, no difference. Also tried both PCI x16 slots and as many minor things like this as I could think of...

Did you try and reset the bios? Sometimes it remembers settings from systems long past which messes with new component additions.

did you try using the secondary x16 slot, I had a card get one of those TINY smd capacitors just above the pci-e fingers get knocked off and it would only work in 8x slots

Unfortunately tried both those things to no avail :/

I've reset the BIOS and flashed it to the latest update but didn't seem to make a difference.

It works absolutely fine in my other computer, this is what is confusing me...

Also cannot see any firmware updates on the Sapphire website for the card. It it helps at all, it's a Sapphire Vapor-X edition.

I would try swapping the PSU. Those HD 5850s are power hungry and those Corsair PSUs are pretty crappy.

Okay thanks, guess I was delaying the inevitable, I will try that and report back, fingers crossed!

Runt. said:

I would try swapping the PSU. Those HD 5850s are power hungry and those Corsair PSUs are pretty crappy.

Click to expand...

No, they were not. They used as much power as an HD 4850. I know because I was shopping around for one at the time (and would have jumped, if they had ever made it back down to the $270 launch price).

The dual 6-pin connectors (225w) are to support the HD 5870. The 5850 is clocked slower and uses less units, so it uses about 40-50w less power.

There could just be a corner case compatibility issue with your system. PCIe is just like that: because it's so high-speed, you can get occasional compatibility issues. A different PSU might be the answer, but I doubt it.

Did you try a diff PCIE slot?
Try a different type of connector if you have one..
Like..analog to dvi converter or HDMI