About ready to toe-punt my xfx 6600 gt agp off the balcony

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Keshik

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Messages
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Here's the situation: I just bought a xfx 6600 gt agp off a member of the anandtech forums (I would've got it here, but the ones up for sale were sold). This was to replace an ATI 9500 pro. So I plug it in and am ready to rock. But the computer isn't.

Here's the problem. On boot, I get vertical dashed lines running from top to bottom, a couple of mm apart all the way across the screen. This is on top of my MB bios splash screen. When it is in the text parts of the bootup (checking hard drives, saying what vid card I have...) it displays random "a"s with an accent on top. When it goes into the loading windows screen it appears fine. When it makes it into windows I get the same vertical lines, only they're blue.

So, I read around online and hear that psu's are a big problem. "That's got to be it" I think, so I go order a brand new psu to replace the 420W Raidmax that came with my case. The one I end up getting is the OCZ Modstream 520W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104155). This psu does 26A on the 12V rail. So I order that.

Meanwhile, I plug my old ATI card back in and keep on using that. It works fine, no problems.

Today, the new PSU got here. Excited on my new toy, I plug it in. After first blowing the dust out of the case, I put it in and proceed to fire it up with the 6600 gt in it. I wasn't too impressed when I saw the same problems.

After uninstalling the old ATI drivers, and running drivercleaner in safe mode I install the latest nVidia drivers (82.something). Now, after restarting the monitor loses signal and shuts off after it goes through the loading windows screen. It's around here that I notice something interesting: while my background image still displays the vertical lines, the taskbar doesn't. Neither does an open window (such as "My Computer"). This leads me to think it's still a driver issue.

So now I go and reinstall windows (a little more interesting when half the words are gibberish). After reformatting my boot drive I go through the actual windows install. Here I excitedly notice that there is no graphical distortion - everything appears as it should. However, when it is done this part the lovely characters and lines reappear.

Here's my specs:
520W OCZ modstream PSU
P4 2.6C
Asus P4P800 Deluxe mobo
1 gb pc3200 ram
Audigy 2
120gb Maxtor SATA HD (boot drive)
40gb, 250gb pata hd (storage)
XFX 6600 gt agp/ATI 9500 pro agp
lite-on dvd-player and cd-rw (2 drives)
leadtek winfast tv tuner
win xp pro - sp1
neither system or vid card is overclocked

Another thing, the 6600 gt is running on it's own dedicated wire from the psu - there is nothing else on it, not even another connector. The 6600 gt's fan is spinning and the heatsink is warm to the touch.

I also don't think that the case is overheating: on boot the CPU temp is about 36C and the case around 30C. I have 2 80mm fans in the front and 2 80 mm fans in the back and the case side is removed.

The problem is similar to this one: http://edseek.com/archives/2005/08/16/xfx-video-cards-6600gt-dont-waste-your-money

I haven't had a chance to test it on another computer yet, but I'll try that after I get some sleep.

Here's what the seller had to say:
Hmm, it definitley sounds like you are having problems with it. I did test it before I sent it out, it worked fine; I've even got 3dmark scores from it. The thing is I only had it for a few days, because the day after I sent payment on it I ended up buying a 6800. I recieved them the both on the same day, so I tested out the 6600 first and ran through some benchmark's with it and played Doom III, Quake IV to see how it compared to my former 9800 Pro. It smoked it to say the least, the 6800 I have is hardly that much different even being unlocked. So that's why I wanted to sell it. I didn't overclock it or anything.

I'm trying to remember how I installed it. I think I just started the comp with it in, and it booted into XP. Then I downloaded the newest drivers from nvidia and it all went smoothly.

Have you tried booting into safe mode? The random characters and stripes are really stumping me; is the fan turning on it? The monitor turning off sounds like it could be XP. I know I have experienced problems with the monitor turning off after post with other cards.

Believe me, I wouldn't sell you something I knew was bad. Not worth my time(or yours) or reputation that I'm atleast trying to build.

One thing I can say is I've never had good luck with drivercleaner, in fact one time I used it I had to "repair" windows because my monitor would turn off after post.

Have you tried using the other video out? I have no idea if that would make a difference but is worth a try...

I want to help you figure this out, just let me know if you have any luck...

Here are the scores I got with it btw

3dmark05 3226
3dmark03 7827
Click to expand...

Well, there's my story. I'm going to guess that this thing is done for, but hopefully you guys have some ideas :) Thanks for any replies!!
 
Toe punt away! :D Just kiddin, you may want to ask him for the project page for that card on Futuremark's website so you can check the dates the scores were submited. You may have been taken :( Does he have heat, or an ebay score that you could look at?
 
Was it well packed? Sounds like something might have gone bad in shipping.

-wil
 
The card definitely sounds like its screwed... and you went through all the proper procedures. Definitely would send it back...
 
inotocracy said:
Toe punt away! :D Just kiddin, you may want to ask him for the project page for that card on Futuremark's website so you can check the dates the scores were submited. You may have been taken :( Does he have heat, or an ebay score that you could look at?
Click to expand...

Yeah, he does have heat and ebay, with not a single negative.

http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=45380
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=pioneercrazed&ssPageName=STRK:ME:UFS

It does sound like he's trying to be as helpful as possible on this thing:
Alright man, I feel your pain. I agree that it sounds like it's toast, but it worked fine in my machine; honestly. Just let me know what you want to do though. If you would rather me refund your money plus some to ship it back to me, or if you want to go through the RMA proccess yourself. Another avenue we could try is the post office, I got insurance on it and I genuinely believe it must have been screwed up during shipping. Even though I shipped it very good, no? Like I said just let me know what you want...
Click to expand...

Any suggestions as to what I should do? The post office idea seems like it would be a lot of hassle with a minimal payout: what do they care?

Thanks again guys.
 
pigwalk said:
Was it well packed? Sounds like something might have gone bad in shipping.

-wil
Click to expand...

Yeah, the card was decently well packed. It was in it's vid card box in a static bag, and that was in a larger cardboard box with packing peanuts and a little newspaper. I'm looking at the box right now and there's no obvious crushing or puncture wounds on it. It was shipped priority by USPS.

And I was able to register the card at xfx's website. Does anyone know what they're RMA process is like? Worth it? Or just a complete hassle.
 
Assuming he's telling the truth, which I'm inclined to believe that he is, I imagine it got damaged by ESD between when he packed it and when you installed it.
 
Based on his refs he seems like an honest guy, and from Talonz suggestion, chalk it up as a loss :(
 
I dont know if they offered this when that 6600GT was originally purchased, but now XFX offers double lifetime warranties that are transferable to a second owner, if you havent' looked into that yet
 
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