Hi,
Ahh what a headache... (apologies for the long long drawn out post/ramblings)
Just dropped £1.6K on new rig, and it's all gone pear-shaped :/
This will be the 2nd PC i've built/modded upgraded in the past few years, so was hoping this would have been smooth, but no joy. Anyway, the components:
£27.99 x 1 - Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple (KB-019-SK)
£191.99 x 1 - Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(CP-128-IN)
£169.99 x 1 - Asus P5WDG2-WS Professional Intel 975X (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express
DDR2 Motherboard (MB-191-AS)
£214.99 x 1 - ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** 512MB GDDR3
(PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
£214.99 x 1 - OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel ATI Crossfire Series DDR2
(OCZ2A8002GK) (MY-075-OC)
£87.99 x 1 - Hiper HPU-4M730 Type R 730W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-011-HP)
£77.99 x 1 - Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black)
(CA-049-AN)
£189.99 x 1 - Viewsonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-046-VS)
£140.99 x 1 - Western Digital Raptor X 150GB WD1500AHFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB
Cache - OEM (HD-073-WD)
£24.50 x 1 - Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - Retail
(CD-020-AS)
That's her all above, all the components used ^^
Anyway spent 2 hours putting her together, and was then 4 hours trying to work out what was wrong with her- the graphics card is not working...the nature of the problem is that I can get no signal from the card to the monitor. I have tried 2 different monitors, and different cables, and I can still receive no signal. I have also tried both PCI_E x16 slots on the motherboard, and this has not solved the problem. Whenever I try to boot up the PC I receive no picture on the monitor and after between 40-60 seconds the PC will autmatically switch itself off.
I've also stripped her to the barest of basics (mobo, CPU, graphics card, RAM), resest the BISO/CMOS, different cables etc, and still nothing. Hell tried it with just the mobo & graphic card & power (no CPU(phew, no pins bent, RAM), still nothing.
So, with an RMA, returned the graphics card to Overclockers, who checked it on their rig, and it was grand, so the graphics card is working and returned back to me.
Borrowed the brothers PC to use his Hiper 550W PSU power supply to run this new rig, still didn't work. The PSU i bought, is ATI certified to run a crossfire rig, so presuming the PSU is functioning, its not a question of insufficient amps down the rail etc..
The monitor works, currently using it on this old rig.
So all the tests I've ran, seems to indicate that all the individual components work, are not damaged, but as a whole/put together rig, there is problems.
Talking to myself now (as this is driving me round the bend)... my understanding of Crossfire is that you need you require...
Either:
Cross mobo + crossfire grahics card (master)
Or:
Cross mobo + crossfire graphics card (master) + crossfire graphics card (slave)
^^ assuming these assumptions are correct, the rig should work fine???
But after howling at the moon for inspiration, its been over a week now since i first started this god-awful journey, and when cooler heads prevail, and with a fresh set of eyes, it has been brought to my attention that I ordered the:
ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx1900/radeonx1900crossfire/specs.html
Yet I believe I was delivered this:
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
http://www.sapphiretech.com/uk/products/products_overview.php?gpid=138&grp=3
they are the top and bottom graphics cards shown on the following link
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X1900_Series.html
Both look the same, have the same specs etc, but what I ordered was the crossfire master, which should have worked when put together with rest of the components; however, in error they supplied me with a crossfire slave? On the 'Sapphire' card I received, on the box it mentions you need the following 3 items to complete your crossfire multi-gpu platform
1) Crossfire Ready Mobo (still required)
2) Corssfire Ready Graphics Card (still required)
3) Crossfire Edtion Graphics Card (in this box)
So, the $64'000 question is:
Does a crossfire mobo + crossfire (slave/'edtion' - i.e. the one they sent me) gpu = an error/lack of anything on the monitor (blank screen/no signal)/what would appear to be a faulty graphics. If so that would explain the problems I've found with the rig.. would/should also explain that when overclockers checked it, it worked on their rig, as they would have had it connected with a master gpu + mobo?
Thus "all" I need to do is get on the phone with them, return the wrong product they sent me, I get what i ordered (a master card), I hook her up to the rig, cross the fingers/a nod to the gods, turn her on, and she works, install xp/games and max out the AA/AF and enjoy eye candy?
Can i have some comments, words of wisdom, ideas, insight?
As it stands I have a £1300 paper weight in the next room, and I'm still using this 3 year old rig - but admittly she has a gorgeous keyboard and monitor now - and had a good bit of luck in that she has no dead/stuck pixels
Thanks in advance
Ahh what a headache... (apologies for the long long drawn out post/ramblings)
Just dropped £1.6K on new rig, and it's all gone pear-shaped :/
This will be the 2nd PC i've built/modded upgraded in the past few years, so was hoping this would have been smooth, but no joy. Anyway, the components:
£27.99 x 1 - Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple (KB-019-SK)
£191.99 x 1 - Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(CP-128-IN)
£169.99 x 1 - Asus P5WDG2-WS Professional Intel 975X (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express
DDR2 Motherboard (MB-191-AS)
£214.99 x 1 - ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** 512MB GDDR3
(PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
£214.99 x 1 - OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel ATI Crossfire Series DDR2
(OCZ2A8002GK) (MY-075-OC)
£87.99 x 1 - Hiper HPU-4M730 Type R 730W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-011-HP)
£77.99 x 1 - Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black)
(CA-049-AN)
£189.99 x 1 - Viewsonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-046-VS)
£140.99 x 1 - Western Digital Raptor X 150GB WD1500AHFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB
Cache - OEM (HD-073-WD)
£24.50 x 1 - Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - Retail
(CD-020-AS)
That's her all above, all the components used ^^
Anyway spent 2 hours putting her together, and was then 4 hours trying to work out what was wrong with her- the graphics card is not working...the nature of the problem is that I can get no signal from the card to the monitor. I have tried 2 different monitors, and different cables, and I can still receive no signal. I have also tried both PCI_E x16 slots on the motherboard, and this has not solved the problem. Whenever I try to boot up the PC I receive no picture on the monitor and after between 40-60 seconds the PC will autmatically switch itself off.
I've also stripped her to the barest of basics (mobo, CPU, graphics card, RAM), resest the BISO/CMOS, different cables etc, and still nothing. Hell tried it with just the mobo & graphic card & power (no CPU(phew, no pins bent, RAM), still nothing.
So, with an RMA, returned the graphics card to Overclockers, who checked it on their rig, and it was grand, so the graphics card is working and returned back to me.
Borrowed the brothers PC to use his Hiper 550W PSU power supply to run this new rig, still didn't work. The PSU i bought, is ATI certified to run a crossfire rig, so presuming the PSU is functioning, its not a question of insufficient amps down the rail etc..
The monitor works, currently using it on this old rig.
So all the tests I've ran, seems to indicate that all the individual components work, are not damaged, but as a whole/put together rig, there is problems.
Talking to myself now (as this is driving me round the bend)... my understanding of Crossfire is that you need you require...
Either:
Cross mobo + crossfire grahics card (master)
Or:
Cross mobo + crossfire graphics card (master) + crossfire graphics card (slave)
^^ assuming these assumptions are correct, the rig should work fine???
But after howling at the moon for inspiration, its been over a week now since i first started this god-awful journey, and when cooler heads prevail, and with a fresh set of eyes, it has been brought to my attention that I ordered the:
ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx1900/radeonx1900crossfire/specs.html
Yet I believe I was delivered this:
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
http://www.sapphiretech.com/uk/products/products_overview.php?gpid=138&grp=3
they are the top and bottom graphics cards shown on the following link
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X1900_Series.html
Both look the same, have the same specs etc, but what I ordered was the crossfire master, which should have worked when put together with rest of the components; however, in error they supplied me with a crossfire slave? On the 'Sapphire' card I received, on the box it mentions you need the following 3 items to complete your crossfire multi-gpu platform
1) Crossfire Ready Mobo (still required)
2) Corssfire Ready Graphics Card (still required)
3) Crossfire Edtion Graphics Card (in this box)
So, the $64'000 question is:
Does a crossfire mobo + crossfire (slave/'edtion' - i.e. the one they sent me) gpu = an error/lack of anything on the monitor (blank screen/no signal)/what would appear to be a faulty graphics. If so that would explain the problems I've found with the rig.. would/should also explain that when overclockers checked it, it worked on their rig, as they would have had it connected with a master gpu + mobo?
Thus "all" I need to do is get on the phone with them, return the wrong product they sent me, I get what i ordered (a master card), I hook her up to the rig, cross the fingers/a nod to the gods, turn her on, and she works, install xp/games and max out the AA/AF and enjoy eye candy?
Can i have some comments, words of wisdom, ideas, insight?
As it stands I have a £1300 paper weight in the next room, and I'm still using this 3 year old rig - but admittly she has a gorgeous keyboard and monitor now - and had a good bit of luck in that she has no dead/stuck pixels
Thanks in advance
