HELP.. New Video card problems...

[BlackAdder]

Hi All, I just got a used NVidia 6800 Ultra OC for AGP. When I installed it and booted up I got a screen full of ??? and ((( over top of the Bios screen. The Windows welcome screen was OK as well as the desktop, BUT when I loaded drivers for it about half way thru the card shut down and the screen went blank. I have a Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe MB, XP3200 CPU, 1 gig Corsair ram, Antec Neo 480 watt psu...I also tried booting it up with an external extra psu rated at 250 watts hooked to it's two power connectors...with that set up it cut off going to the Windows welcome screen...any ideas??? THANKS !!!

[spikey_richie]

Did you install the drivers BEFORE you put the card in?

What happens if you put the old card back in?

[BlackAdder]

No, I uninstalled the old drivers for my ATI card,restarted in safe mode and used a driver cleaner, shut down, put in the new card, wired it for power, got to the desktop and installed the Nvidia drivers. Half way thru installing the drivers the card cuts off ( fan noise goes away ) and the screen goes blank.Then nothing........I cut it off, put back in the ATI card, restart, and all is well .....I am not aware that you should install new video card drivers before you install the card, is this the best way to do it??? Thanks !!!

[spikey_richie]

Fan shutting off is a bad thing.

Is the socket AGPx4 or x8? Is the card x4 or x8? They're different voltages...

[vaughan]

My guess is it needs the GPU fan replacing. That's why it was second-hand.

[BlackAdder]

They are both AGP 8x ...the A7N8X mb has a AGP 3.0 rating...I guess the fan is cutting off, the noise coming from the computer is lower when the screen goes blank during the driver install. It seems like the drivers cause the card to pull more current maybe and the power supply trips the circuit. It has two power inputs, one named Primary and the other Secondary. The primary one is connected straight to the PS's modular hook up by it's self, and the secondary one is jumped from the DVD and CD's power cable. They may both by on the same PS rail, I don't know which of the four modular hook up's are the same circuit and which are different. I would assume the first two are one circuit and the next two are another circuit or rail, I may experiment tomorrow and switch the PS outputs around.....

[spikey_richie]

So you're saying you have 2 molex connections to the gfx card?

[BlackAdder]

Yes there are two molex connectors going to the GeForce 6800 Ultra card, and it's suppose to be a huge power hog. My PS is rated 480 watts which is the cards rated minimum PS to use, but I have two hard drives hooked up with molex connectors on one PSU output, and one hard drive SATA hooked up by a SATA drive power connector which is by it's self going to the PSU's modular connectors. I also have a DVD and CD drive and the water cooler pump on one PSU output which goes also to the video card's "secondary" input, and the last PSU output goes to the video card's "primary" input.The PSU also has a thermostat controlled fan output which goes to several case fans.....the PSU which is an Actec Neo 480 watt unit may be overloaded.....I'm reading it needs at least 18 amps on the 12 volt rail just to the "primary" molex connector.I found a typical PSU hookup diagram for this card.

[spikey_richie]

http://www.journeysystems.com/power_...calculator.php

I guess you could disconnect an optical drive temporarily to try it out

[BlackAdder]

I think I might end up selling the 6800 Ultra and buying this monsterhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...9384&rd=1&rd=1
It should smoke the Folding @ home gpu client and should be at least 3 times faster than the Ultra since it has 3 times the pixel shader engines...a bit costly though but the absolute fastest AGP card ever... anyone care to comment on that??