Various question regarding the X1900xt 256mb

T

Thuban

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
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97
First the background on my current situation.

I was putting together a system in a hurry for my brother and didn't do much research. I saw the X1900XT 256 MB at newegg for $240 and I grabbed it.

There was a problem during installation, it didn't fit really well and I had to pushed hard. I snapped into the PCIx slot real hard and making a loud bang. I started the computer up and there was a clear signal and everything so I thought I was in the clear.

Here's my questions/concerns.

First I have the Antec Sonata II with the 450W Smart power II PSU. With 15 amp and 17 amp on the 2 12v rail. Is this enough power for a system with the x1900xt, Intel E6400, 2gig of ram and one 320 GB HD and 1 DVD drive?

Reading around the board, it seem the x1900xt run quite hot, still the fact that an electronic component is running at 60 C idle and 90+ C under load is quite worrying to me. How much amp is it suppose to draw anyway? Using the amp reading from ATI Tool (don't know how accurate it is) and running the build-in 3D test, at idle it draw about 5 amp, running the test it draw about 10 amp. When the temperature reach around 75 C, the amperage jump to about 30 amp, then the temperature start going up faster. I don't know if the jump in amperage cause the temp rise or the temp rise cause the fan to spin faster therefor the increase in amperage or it has reached the limit of the PSU and is drawing on power that the PSU can't provide and causing everything to go crazy and overheat.

Third problem, some time the monitor will seem to lose signal or something and go blank for about a second. Usually happend right after logging into winxp or entereing/exiting programs, other time it seem random or in the middle of a 3d gaming session. I've tighten the the DVI cable, and will switch out the monitor with an old one this weekend to see if it's the monitor. Other than that could this be cause by not having enough power or damage substained during the problematic installation?
 
I have the same things pretty much

I'm not sure about the PSU

But... about the flickering... that happens when CLI.exe loads up I believe (you'll notice the flicker happen and then you'll see the little ATI icon on your system tray - meaning it loaded)

Also entering and exiting games, I think the flickering is due to the GPU changing clocks. There are different clock speeds for 2D and 3D applications.

And download ATI Tool or ATI Tray Tools and manually adjust the fan speeds. My x1900xt hit 90C at load, but the fan speeds were set ridicolously low by default, so I changed them myself, and now the hottest I ever reach is slightly over 70C.
 
I switched monitor and the montior is fine. I played BF2 at 1600x1200 on my 7800gt and it work fine. Less aliasing and run smoother than on the x1900xt. There's also no screen blanking out and the hottest it get is 80 C.

So it seem the problem is the video card but I still don't know what the problem is. It may be getting too hot (90+ C) or the card is defective. It certainly get artifact when it get hot but it seem to get artifact when it at 65 C. It can't seem to handle 1600x1200, BF2 ran fine with lower resolution. I downloaded one of those screen testing utilities and ran a horizontal/vertical lines pattern test (one where they draw every other line in whatever color you chose). The monitor go crazy it keep losing signal and the monitor itself display a message that the mode is incompatible. I did this with the montior on my comp with the 7800gt and it can display those type of pattern fine. If it get hot and get artifact then I can say it's a heat problem but if it can't display a 2d pattern at 65 C then I don't know what it is, defective card or bad drivers? I'm using catalyst 6.9.
 
it might be cat 6.9 causing the problem. try downgrading to 6.8 and see if it helps.

i just got a sapphire X1900XT 256MB also but mine is watercooled so i can't say that it artifacts when the temps go up. i too, am using cat 6.8 with no issues. also, download ATi Tool 0.25 beta 14 (thats the version i use) so you can set the fan speed thresholds of when the fan can spin faster or you can set the temp and make the fan keep it below it, ie. like keep below 75c. hope this helps.
 
Well I get the lose signal when windows loads, that's about it. Everything else runs fine, no artifacts or anything yet. But I do have the 512mb version though.
 
I get the same lose of signal when windows boots, and everything else runs fine except when doing chkdsk to run before bootup, the screen is blank and I get no signal on the monitor.

Amuse me and see if you get the same no signal/blank screen when you set chkdsk to run at startup, safe mode runs ok, just I get a no signal on bootup and when chksdsk is set to run on bootup, the monitor shows no signal but chkdsk runs but i just cant see it..

I am using nvidia cards tho.
 
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