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Troubleshooting new X1900XT - no signal

foop

foop

foop

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Joined
11 May 2004
Posts
131
After struggling on with AGP for a while I've taken the plunge and bought a Sapphire X1900XT and ASUS A8R32-MVP.

I've just reassembled my new system, using the old 2GB of Kingston RAM, Athlon X2 4200+, SATA disks and Enermax 470W power supply. When I power on I get all the usual activity from the disks and DVD but nothing at all from the graphics card. My Samsung SyncMaster 172x, which I ran with a DVI input before, reports no input. Meanwhile the fan on the X1900XT is whizzing away quite happily.

Anyone got any bright ideas? I hate upgrading to a new format, because I have no other PCI-Express graphics cards to hand to test the motherboard with. And I have no motherboards to test the graphics card with.

I'm hoping that it's something fairly trivial like a power supply issue. The PSU is an Enermax Noisetaker 475 AX. I've tried powering the X1900XT from the six-pin connector and from an adaptor on a molex connector. Neither of these worked.

Anyone? The cost of upgrading was depressing me even before nothing worked :(
 
There's every chance it could be the psu mate :( These XTs are power hungry beasts.There is another thread showing they use up to 30A & 360W to keep them up & running :eek:

How much is on the 12v rail on your psu ?

Try booting with the minimum hardware installed,gfx card & HDD

Rob
 
have you plugged in the atx 12v connector on the motherboard, look on page 2-3 in the manual for the board. It's top left corner 4 pin connector right next to 'Power Fan' ?????
That would be my first question

Second check the rail current ability for the gfx card as suggested above, you need at least 16a available, 18a is preferred.
 
Rob43 said:
There is another thread showing they use up to 30A & 360W to keep them up & running :eek:
Click to expand...
30A? I want to play Oblivion, not make a cup of tea!

This could definitely be the problem, then. I've just looked up the tech specs on the Enermax 475 and it only pushes out 15A and 16A on the two 12V rails. Even with the bare minimum of stuff plugged into the PSU I still get now signal. Now where can I get a 600W PSU at this time of night?

Thanks for the help.

Edit:
Raja said:
have you plugged in the atx 12v connector on the motherboard?
Click to expand...

Yep, remembered that. I never forget that since an embarassing incident just after they first introduced those things...
 
bump my post above, you may have missed it...............

38a is for crossfire, single cards pull half this (worst case scenario peak demand), realistic is about 16a so you should at least get it to boot up.
 
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Make sure when you buy your new psu,you get one with a dedicated PCI-E connector.

foop said:
30A? I want to play Oblivion, not make a cup of tea!
Click to expand...

Seasonic would be my choice,although my hiper is doing the trick,btw Oblivion is the dogs dangly bits :D

Rob
 
I use a Seasonic s12-600, though it's similalry priced to the FSP Sparkle 700w. The Seasonic works fine, but it's right on the border of what it can supply, so for safety I'd go for the FSP, OCUK are using them in their top of the line builds too.

Cheaper is the enermax 550w, if cost is a concern, I think it has 18a or 20a rails??
 
Well, one Hiper 580W PSU later and I get... nothing.

Argh?

Powering the X1900 from the Hiper's PCI-E 6-pin connector. Long ATX connector and 4-pin ATX connector both connected to motherboard. Only other thing connected is a single HD. Boot gives reassuring whirring from the HD and no post beeps, but I still get no signal from either of the DVI-outs on the card. The fan on the card is going at what I assume is max speed (it's whining loudly enough).

Unless anyone has some bright ideas, I guess my next step will be to try and borrow (or buy cheaply) another PCI-E graphics card to test the mobo.

:(
 
Let's just confirm the basics, hopefully you have already nailed all these, but sometimes I have made silly mistakes, so I figured it would be worth asking the following???

have you tried both of the dvi connectors on the back of the card?

Also what slot is the card in on the board, I think it needs to be in the blue, has it seated properly in the connector???

Failing this it probably is the best option to see if you can borrow a freinds card to check out and also check your gfx card on another system........
 
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A single XT doesn't use 30A/360w, CF doesn't use 38A either. The second card isn't using half of the first. Combined crossfire is about 15A, maybe maxing to 20A, then you have a problem as its beyond ATX spec for one rail.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1932947,00.asp

A single XT's taking something like 10A/120w. Dual rail PSU usually feed from the same 12v source. All the "rails" are is 20A/240VA current limiters on each output. The second rail 12v2 is supposed to feed the CPU. The rest is on the 12v1. And its the combined total wattage for the 12v supply that is critical. The Enermax NoiseTaker 475w supplies a combined wattage of 372w which is 31A. Which is more than enough for your setup.

Sounds like it's the card or the motherboard, sorry.
 
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475w PSU shoud be fine for a single card, i would'nt rule out the motherboard, as theres already 4 faulty ones, my mates was one of them, DOA, id try and get the card tested, maybe you could take it to your local shop, and ask them if they would'nt mind giving it a quick test for you, its what i did when i thought my x1800 was faulty. :)
 
Single X1900XTX ATI advise 480W with a 12v rail @ 30A.

My first X1900 had similar probs and it was a failed mobo. My bad luck the X1900 then failed. :( But my new card is perfect :)
 
First of all: Thank you so much for all the helpful replies. This is why I visit the OcUK forums whenever I'm thinking about buying hardware (and occasionally when I've bought it and it doesn't work). You're all lovely.

Secondly: I think I may stop working with computers and become a mushroom farmer. The good news is that the card/mobo combo has suddenly decided to work. I'm not sure I trust it much, though, so I'll be keeping a close eye on it as I reinstall XP.

For those of you that are interested it, this is how I fixed the problem:

1) Strip down system to one stick of RAM, X1900XT, cpu and one HD.

2) Check card is seated, check power connections. Check all connections. Make sure mobo has both power connections. Recheck all connections. Fire up machine and test both DVI outputs on the card. Get nothing. Swear.

3) Repeat step 2.

4) Repeat step 2.

5) Girlfriend comes home. Extract sympathy from her.

6) Repeat step 2.

7) Eat toast.

8) Repeat step 2.

9) Repeat step 2. It works.

I'm thinking it might be the toast. I'm just popping out to get some more bread in case the problem reappears. :confused:
 
fornowagain said:
Have you put the second mem stick back in? May have been a memory thing and you messing with it, a cmos clearing thingy.
Click to expand...
It's funny you should mention that, because I just put the second memory stick back in and the problems came back. With a little experimentation I've discovered that two sticks work okay as single channel but not as dual channel. Odd.

It's Kingston KHX3200/1G RAM, which worked fine dual channel at 200MHz in my old ABit mobo. This new Asus board (I know, I should have paid attention to the cries of anguish over in the mobo forum) wants to run it at 166MHz even in single channel mode. The finger of suspicion begins to point at the motherboard.
 
foop said:
First of all: Thank you so much for all the helpful replies. This is why I visit the OcUK forums whenever I'm thinking about buying hardware (and occasionally when I've bought it and it doesn't work). You're all lovely.

Secondly: I think I may stop working with computers and become a mushroom farmer. The good news is that the card/mobo combo has suddenly decided to work. I'm not sure I trust it much, though, so I'll be keeping a close eye on it as I reinstall XP.

For those of you that are interested it, this is how I fixed the problem:

1) Strip down system to one stick of RAM, X1900XT, cpu and one HD.

2) Check card is seated, check power connections. Check all connections. Make sure mobo has both power connections. Recheck all connections. Fire up machine and test both DVI outputs on the card. Get nothing. Swear.

3) Repeat step 2.

4) Repeat step 2.

5) Girlfriend comes home. Extract sympathy from her.

6) Repeat step 2.

7) Eat toast.

8) Repeat step 2.

9) Repeat step 2. It works.

I'm thinking it might be the toast. I'm just popping out to get some more bread in case the problem reappears. :confused:
Click to expand...

this post really made me smile....very nice.
 
ah yes!, There is still certain ram this motherboard does not like!


there is a chart in the manual............
 
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