Video Card Help

[Seraphim]

So I in installed a 9800 Pro and I didnt bother plugging the part to the power of the hard drive... for all of you who have a higher end video card will know what Im saying. So the comp was running fine for a few hours, then I was testing out BF Vietnam and the comp just crashes. Now the comp wont even boot up. Only thing happens is the fan lights flash for a split second when I press the power button.

[Kenshin]

do u hear any beeps after hitting the button?

[Jack Mehoff]

ATI Radeon 9800 requires a lot of juice from your power supply. I'm thinking your power supply couldn't handle that video card.

[Seoulstriker]

ATI Radeon 9800 requires a lot of juice from your power supply. I'm thinking your power supply couldn't handle that video card.

that's what I said. :)

you need a better PSU. preferably 420W+.

[Herrmannek]

bling bling :)

[2Sheds_Jackson]

ATI says a 300W PS should be OK.

But - I'm pretty sure that the 4 pin MOLEX connector only powers the fan on the 9800. So you prolly cooked your graphics chip. That chip gets super hot, even with the dedicated fan running (which it wasn't) If you ran 3D apps for long without the fan - it's most likely charcoal.

Do you have another video card you can swap in to test? You should at least get a POST beep. My guess is that your PC will boot just fine with another card in it...but the 9800 is dead.

[Jack Mehoff]

Before asking for computer help, why don't you tell us your computer spec? Especially the power supply.

[Jack Mehoff]

ATI says a 300W PS should be OK.


A generic 400watts power supply produces less performance than a brand name 300watts power supply.



But - I'm pretty sure that the 4 pin MOLEX connector only powers the fan on the 9800. So you prolly cooked your graphics chip. That chip gets super hot, even with the dedicated fan running (which it wasn't) If you ran 3D apps for long without the fan - it's most likely charcoal.
It's not the fan. It's the video card itself is power hungry.

[2Sheds_Jackson]

ATI says a 300W PS should be OK.


A generic 400watts power supply produces less performance than a brand name 300watts power supply.



But - I'm pretty sure that the 4 pin MOLEX connector only powers the fan on the 9800. So you prolly cooked your graphics chip. That chip gets super hot, even with the dedicated fan running (which it wasn't) If you ran 3D apps for long without the fan - it's most likely charcoal.
It's not the fan. It's the video card itself is power hungry.

I dug into this some more. Yeah, the molex connector on this card is for "basic card power", though they don't say exactly what for. Maybe that incudes the fan too? And I verified 300W is the spec. Yes there can be individual differences between PSs & of course the load on the system will be different depending upon how many drives/cards are installed. Lots of people running these cards with sub 300W systems out there.

ATI says the 9800 Pro uses 75W under "normal" conditions.

I resist throwing money at problems - i.e. running out to buy a new PS just to see if that's the problem. I'd swap the card for the old video card, unplug all the drive power cables, other cards etc, boot it & see if it POSTs.

Interestingly, ATI sez the system shouldn't even boot up if that molex connector is off...it was supposed to give a warning message.

[Seoulstriker]

video cards these days require insane amounts of power. not only that, but with leakage due to moving to smaller wafer processing sizes (it's at .13 micron for GPUs now), they need even more power. the nvidia card requires at least 350W (quality PSU).

[Jack Mehoff]

I have:
2 hard drives
DVD-RW
CD-RW
2 80mm lighted fans
Koolance water cooling
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
ATI Radeon 7000 PCI card
NIC
Sound blaster sound card
Floppy
Antec TruePower 550watts

[jassemon]

Now the comp wont even boot up. Only thing happens is the fan lights flash for a split second when I press the power button.

First of all, are you sure *EVERY* cable is properly connected?

I've had a few mystery lockups where my comp refused to boot up myself as well, this is how I managed to "fix" them, don't know if it will help in your case though (and I'm not a computer specialist so if your PC blows up after trying this don't hold me responsible :).
1. Unplug your PC.
2. Press the power button a couple of times.
3. Plug the power cable back and hit the power button.

[Seraphim]

New power supply, old one was a pos.