OCUK competition card arrived! few questions!

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:48

Hi folks,

The GFX 285 I won in the ocuk competition has just arrived and I'm fighting with the non-existent instructions to get it up and running.

It has two 6 pin pci-ex power cords which I've plugged in and it boots up to the windows start screen and then freezes... there's also a very small two pin cable (like one of those fan cables) - can anyone tell me what this does and if I need to plug it in (if so where!)

Might try reseating the card in the meantime...

BloomerzUK · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:50

katie279 said:
Hi folks,

The GFX 285 I won in the ocuk competition has just arrived and I'm fighting with the non-existent instructions to get it up and running.

It has two 6 pin pci-ex power cords which I've plugged in and it boots up to the windows start screen and then freezes... there's also a very small two pin cable (like one of those fan cables) - can anyone tell me what this does and if I need to plug it in (if so where!)

Might try reseating the card in the meantime...

Sorry I can't be of much help, but I think the little 2 pin cable is a audio passthrough from your sound card to your graphics card to allow audio through HDMI.

Ben M · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:51

Don't reseat the card, until you know that the card is alive and not DOA. If it was dead and you RMA it having removed the HS, then they will refuse the RMA.

I think that it only needs two six pin cables (I don't have one, so I'm not sure about that) Is your PSU up to the job.

Oh and congratulations, I like your design very much

uv · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:53

Have you removed all previous graphics drivers? Freezing at Windows loading sounds like a driver conflict to me.

Boot up in safemode, remove all graphics drivers, reboot, install newest nVidia drivers

PiKe · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:55

Ben M said:
Don't reseat the card, until you know that the card is alive and not DOA. If it was dead and you RMA it having removed the HS, then they will refuse the RMA.

lol @ this, how is reseating removing the heatsink?

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:56

Hi Ben - by reseat I mean, take it out the PCI slot and refit it, not start the assault on the heatsink etc!

Hmmm, was hoping the PSU would be up to it, but could possibly be the issue - have a Corsair 620W - box says 550W recommended by Nvidia, XFX 'ideal' is 630W - that said I'm not exactly heavily loaded with drives etc - have them external to the system:

Q6600 - standard clocking
8gb ram
5 or 6 fans
GTX 285
2 HDs and a DVD Rewriter
Onboard sound etc

This sound doable? (googled around and folk seem to be running it on even lower PSUs without too much issue - seems to be more about the 40A being available)

uv · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:58

The Corsair HX620 is plentiful.. I really doubt the PSU is the issue

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:58

UV - think you might be right, no I haven't (was too excited - besides the instructions say to do it after windows boots up)

AAHH! we have life as we speak, it apparently needed 15mins to boot up!?!? Now let's see if I can break the back of this card!

Thanks ever so much for all your tips! Will keep you posted on whether it works!

Ben M · 2 Jun 2009 at 14:59

PiKe said:
lol @ this, how is reseating removing the heatsink?

For me "reseating" is taking off the HS, cleaning it, new thermal paste, reseating the heatsink. Apparently to you and the OP it means unplugging the card =\

geuben · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:01

Ben M said:
For me "reseating" is taking off the HS, cleaning it, new thermal paste, reseating the heatsink. Apparently to you and the OP it means unplugging the card =\

You described reseating the cpu. Reseating a PCI card is just taking it out and putting it back in again imo.

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:04

Hmm, just trying to work out how to uninstall the bleedin ATI drivers - there doesn't seem to be an uninstall option in Vista uninstall programs, device manager it's already disappeared, maybe Vista's trying to be clever...

reflux · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:05

Ben M said:
For me "reseating" is taking off the HS, cleaning it, new thermal paste, reseating the heatsink. Apparently to you and the OP it means unplugging the card =\

Reseating is removing the graphics card and reinserting it. To everyone.

spitzoid · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:06

The little cable is an SPDIF cable which you will need to connect from your card to mobo if you want to hear sound via HDMI.

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:17

Ah, silly me - to uninstall radeon drivers, uninstall is greyed out and you need to click to 'update' and then uninstall is hidden within update! It's like they don't want to lose a customer to nvidia or something...

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:18

spitzoid said:
The little cable is an SPDIF cable which you will need to connect from your card to mobo if you want to hear sound via HDMI.

Ah, gotcha, so guess that's if I wanted to hook the PC up to a plasma or something, then the sound would also be able to go through the HDMI cable? Does it just plug into the audio connectors on the MB then?

Rroff · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:24

You say 2x 6pin - I thought the 285 was 1x 6pin and 1x 8pin - or are there some models with 2x 6pin?

katie279 · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:26

Nah it's 2x 6 pin - I 'thought' the 280 was 6 and 8 and they dropped it for the 285s, but I know very little indeed, so could be wrong!

uv · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:29

katie279 said:
I 'thought' the 280 was 6 and 8 and they dropped it for the 285s

My GTX280 has a 6 and an 8.

alex24 · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:29

The long bootup is probably a driver issue. I'd start in safe mode and uninstall the ATI drivers, then reboot, then use driversweeper to remove all traces left. Then you can install the latest geforce drivers for the card and you should be on your way.

Rroff · 2 Jun 2009 at 15:29

Could be so, I've not played around with the 285 much compared to the 260 and 280, the only 285 I've got my hands on used 6+8.