Sapphire X1900XTX not booting to 3D?

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Poosnarf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
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I'm trying this in ATI Cards forum because I think it's a GPU problem. I put together a new rig over the weekend with

AMD 64 X2 4400+
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mobo
1GB Kingston HyperX RAM (yanked from the last machine, know it works fine)
Sapphire X1900XTX with VF700 cooler, 6.3 Cats
WD Raptor 74GB
OCZ 520W PowerStream PSU

When I turn on the computer, I get a rather loud "electrical" noise from the PSU that grows and shrinks in intensity and pitch with HD/CPU usage. The OCZ rep I talked to blamed it on dirty power. It's plugged into the same UPS and outlet that my old computer worked fine on. There's no visible impact on performance though. I installed a few games and got the AMD dual core drivers and 6.3 Cats. When I try to run a 3D game, the game does not load. The computer goes to a black screen like it's going into 3D mode, but then the monitor loses the signal and goes into standby. The computer resets itself shortly after.

Is this a GPU problem, or a more serious problem with the PSU?
 
I'd say its a PSU problem, because when u launch a game, the card uses 3-4X the amount of Amps if ATI tool is correct, at 3d clocks the card is around 10A when not playing a game and about 35amps when playing a game :p so maybe ur psu is just not giving it enough power?
 
It's likely the PSU, but it could also be the cooler you've installed. The VF700 really isn't beefy enough for a X1900XTX.

If there's anything in your PC that you don't need (ie. extra hard drives, CD/DVD drives), try unplugging them and see if that helps. Do you still have your old PSU? I'd try installing that as well, perhaps the OCZ is defective.
 
SharpieFiend said:
It's likely the PSU, but it could also be the cooler you've installed. The VF700 really isn't beefy enough for a X1900XTX.

If there's anything in your PC that you don't need (ie. extra hard drives, CD/DVD drives), try unplugging them and see if that helps. Do you still have your old PSU? I'd try installing that as well, perhaps the OCZ is defective.
Click to expand...

while i agree on the 700 not being enough, the card doesnt heat up that fast ^^ i had to play a bit with mine before the heat got to the 90s
 
The temps on the GPU are fine, it was mostly the FX5800-style sound of the stock cooler I was looking to get rid of.

My old PSU was one of the decent 480W Thermaltakes, but it is only a 20-pin. I'm going to RMA the PSU and get a replacement, because the 520W OCZ came highly recommended and surely seems like it would be beefy enough to power the X1900.

Thanks for the suggestions, and if anyone has any more ideas, please share!
 
What game are you trying to play?? Also, do you have a firewall program, other than the one with that comes with WinXP?? Somethink like that used to happened to me everytime I would launch BF2 and it was because of my firewall program. Also, if you have ATiTool scan for artifacts or play the cube 3d graphic for while to see if you get lock up or the same effect. Good Luck!!
 
When you say loud electrical noise...what do you mean? Is it a high pitch squeal type noise?
Is it a ticking noise that varies in speed, like ticks faster then slower? Is it a combination of a squeal and tick noise that changes in pitch/freq?

I just can't assume I know what your describing except in the above terms but it does sound as if your PSU may not be doing it's job well enough.
 
BBA said:
When you say loud electrical noise...what do you mean? Is it a high pitch squeal type noise?
Is it a ticking noise that varies in speed, like ticks faster then slower? Is it a combination of a squeal and tick noise that changes in pitch/freq?

I just can't assume I know what your describing except in the above terms but it does sound as if your PSU may not be doing it's job well enough.
Click to expand...

It is a "squeal" type noise that increases and decreases in pitch and volume proportionally to HD/CPU activity. There's no clicking or anything.

To nicepun, I chose not to install the nV chipset firewall that came with it because I had heard bad things about it. I could, however, open up the CCC and watch the "racecar" running demo for graphics options with no corruption or anything. It would crash at the same time upon double-clicking on any 3D game. Every time, the video signal would cut out and the computer would restart.

Waiting on my RMA number from OCZ, and we'll see what happens. I'm fortunate enough to have a 6800 Go in my laptop to fall back on, though :D
 
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