Legit Reviews

Back in February I purchased a new video card and it had been working great until about a month ago. My system will not load windows fully and gives a blurry image (not really blurry, but more of a broken image) even in the bios. I installed an old 9500 pro and the system boots right up. Could I be lacking power or is my card dead? Would it be worth it to buy a new PSU just to find out? Below you will see my system specs.

Current system:

PSU Vantec 480W
Asus P4C-800 E Deluxe
P4 3.2E @ 3.6
2gb (4 x 512mb Corsair pc-3200xl pro @ 225 @ 2.5 3 3 7
HIS Radeon X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Video Card
2 x WD 250gb hdd's
Viewsonic 22" Monitor
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 gamer
Logitech 5.1 Speakers
2x DVD drives

it'd be worth borrowing a friends psu to find out, not necessarily buying a new one unless your current one is cheap as is. shouldn't need "that much" power.

image corruption in the bios lends me to believe its a bad video card. Try the suspected dead video card in another system. If its bad in two its bad

After trying the good solutions given above.. if the problem remains try to check the bios... see this http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/i ... -8312.html for help and try to do it... but only if the card doesn't work also in other systems...

Thanks for the info guys! It looks like I am going to write this one off. I will have trouble with the RMA since I didn't keep any of the original packaging or heatsink that the card came with. I am now looking at a new card. My choices are these two http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco ... 6814161082. My question is this, are the extra pipes and less memory on the gecube card better than the extra memory and less pipes on the HIS card?

After the reviews I've read I would choose the 512mb card...

Try lowering your overclock, or even underclock the CPU. Also try booting with one stick of ram.

Image corruption at startup can be the gfx card, psu, cpu or memory.
You could also try running Memtest.

kenc51 wrote:Try lowering your overclock, or even underclock the CPU.

Tried it.

kenc51 wrote: Also try booting with one stick of ram.

Tried it.

kenc51 wrote:Image corruption at startup can be the gfx card, psu, cpu or memory.
You could also try running Memtest.

I have ruled out cpu or memory. I tried my old 9500 pro and the system boots right up.

Do you have a multimeter? You should check/stress the voltages using the 9500pro. If they fluctuate or are out of spec, then it's the PSU.
Also does the GFX card cooler have good contact with the gpu? It could be heat related!

kenc51 wrote:Do you have a multimeter? You should check/stress the voltages using the 9500pro. If they fluctuate or are out of spec, then it's the PSU.

Nope, but I could probably get my hands on one or buy one they are pretty cheap. How would I check the voltages? I have never actually used one before.

kenc51 wrote:Also does the GFX card cooler have good contact with the gpu? It could be heat related!

Yeah, I checked that as well. The cooler was seated properly, but I removed it and reseated it just to be suer and had the same issue.

Here's a nice guide on how to use a DMM

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/s ... p?t=137886

kenc51 wrote:Here's a nice guide on how to use a DMM

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/s ... p?t=137886

Fantastic, thanks.

So I haven't done anything about this yet, but just thougt of something I could try. I have a Antec 430w PS in an old system and was thinking I could hook that up to just the video card to test it. That should be more than enough power if used all on it's own right?

Racerboyf1 wrote:So I haven't done anything about this yet, but just thougt of something I could try. I have a Antec 430w PS in an old system and was thinking I could hook that up to just the video card to test it. That should be more than enough power if used all on it's own right?

Yep

OK so how do I get the second card to power on?

If you mean second PSU, then you need to jump a green and black wire together on the 20/24 pin connector.

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:If you mean second PSU, then you need to jump a green and black wire together on the 20/24 pin connector.

Dan

Yeah, I meant second PSU. So I just connect a green and black wire together from the 20/24 pin connector and I'm good to go?

Racerboyf1 wrote:

DMB2000uk wrote:If you mean second PSU, then you need to jump a green and black wire together on the 20/24 pin connector.

Dan

Yeah, I meant second PSU. So I just connect a green and black wire together from the 20/24 pin connector and I'm good to go?

Yep, use a paper clip and bend it, also make sure the PSU is OFF before you do it. There is not real current on the green wire, but just in case you slip and touch the wrong one! Once its done, youll want turn on the PSU via the switch.