*Sigh*, now I have video card problems...

[trancejeremy]

Yikes! How can Newegg be so much cheaper than CompUSA/Best Buy, etc. Basically half price, and for better quality stuff? I knew I should have looked there first (OTOH, I have to wait for it to arrive...).

Actually, I can't tell if it's making any noise or not, since I had 3 other louder fans in the computer. However, I was playing around and disconnected my cd and DVD drives, and that seemed to give the video card a little more juice. Which kept the error message away from some 3d games (but not hte Sims 2, which is something of a hog). So either my power suppply isn't putting out as much, or my video card is using more than normal.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

trancejeremy, I always check NewEgg and ZipZoomFly first. Anyway, it sounds more and more to me like it really is your power supply dieing on you. PSUs are the backbone of any rig and once they start going it is amazing the various issues that occur. keep us uptodate.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, usually I use newegg for computer stuff, but I miss my Sims. However, to save $50 or so, I can suffer withdrawl for a few days.

 

[Mycanid]

Hey Jeremy ...

Every once in a while amazon has some good deals for good products ... might look there too.

 

[Redrobes]

Before you go out and splash dosh... have you got a molex extension cable - like you would use for an extra fan that has a female on one side and a male on the other plus some extra fan connector or third molex ? You could try to power up the machine with the extra cable powering up the video card and put a volt meter on the 5 & 12 volt lines on the spare connector and see what they are doing when its running a 3D app. (Just dont short them !!!)

It does sound like one of them is dropping - prob 12V but its real unusual for a PSU to degrade gracefully. Normally one of the switch mode power FETs go and it fails completely if not spectacularly (esp if you drop a screw in there when its powered up... ho hummm, whoops !)

Your error message makes this just feel wrong... but it could be the PSU. It might be that some other periph or fan (esp if stuck) connected to it is sucking more juice than it would normally and its pushing up your power budget beyond the PSUs means. Jeez, 450W is quite a lot tho !

If the PSU is dropping voltage then the mobo will start to whinge and basically most of your system will start to produce errors. It sounds like the PSU section on the video card itself. Take a real close look at the bigger capacitors on the video card, (& mobo and the PSU if you can see them). Any of them loose, leaking an oil like residue or deformed (bloated) ?

You havent added anything recently - like a USB device maybe ? Well I guess no, im curious to see what result this one turns out to be...

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, too late, already ordered. But I do really think it might be the PSU. I noticed that it's not actually 450W, but 420, I was mistaken. And I am running a DVD drive, a cd-rom drive, 2 hard drives, and a zillion leds off of it (which came with the computer for some reason).

Though heh, it would be funny if it was one of the leds that was shorting out and causing the drain.

 

[trancejeremy]

*ding* *ding* *ding* Redbrobes is correct!

Unfortunately, it wasn't my power supply. Put the new one in, same problem.

Sigh, I guess the obvious thing would be to check the video card, but I don't have another computer that would run it.

 

[Redrobes]

*ding* *ding* *ding* Redbrobes is correct!

Not necessarily true at this point but I would get that card out, hold it with an earthed hand (lean on the case with the mains power lead plugged into PSU) and look at it real close with a magnifier or gem of true seeing. Wobble the big components and see if there is any play - esp that big molex connector and big capacitors - but basically all of them. Do it lightly - we dont want to rip components off of it ! Use a wooden toothpick if its small but not a pin, needle, or sharp knife (yes I really -was- that dumb once).

Its possible its something completely unrelated, it could be the power lead to the video card, it could be a semi conductor failure like a blown tranny (no snickering at the back !) which means its a write off, but its also quite likely that its a dry solder joint which could be very cheap to fix.

Be careful - or rather dont go probing with a resistance meter around on the board tho to check for dry joints. There is a voltage / current coming out of the meter probes. Unless you know how big it is, it might be too big. Some of the cheap ones just dump the 9V battery onto the probes and measure the current flow to get resistance. 9V is waaay to big. You could try measuring the voltage on the power input molex when its powered up and running a 3D benchmark. If either 5V and 12V are not there its the lead else lead is ok. If its low then it might not be the video card at all.

You should use a lead that goes directly to the PSU for the video card power connector without anything else on it not one thats just at the end of a power chain running to DVD drives / HD's, the kettle etc...

Basically, your PSU is fine and your 2D desktop graphics is fine also so the power coming up via the PCIe or AGP is fine and (crucially) your graphics card chip (GPU) is also fine. It just has to be something between the start of any extension video power lead and the end of the video card power supply.

Well, hope all this helps and you figure it out.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, it's actually not just 3D graphics, it was 2d as well. I was getting the error message while running the full screen, "move the white dot" test in DXDiag, and while surfing the web on some sites (ones with flash, mostly).

And not just one popup. Dozens. Hundreds.

 

[trancejeremy]

Has anyone ever returned something to Newegg? I actually discovered my card had a 1 year warranty which was still valid, so I sent it back.

They got it monday. Then I think the next day they said they didn't have any replacements, so they would give me a full refund. But that's the last I've heard of them.

Really, can't be upset, because I honestly didn't expect them to take it back, period (I was just hoping for a replacement/repair). But it's leaving me hanging. I dunno if I should buy a cheap card, or count on the full refund and buy a better card.