Video Card

[Captain Pooka]

Well guys, I guess I screwed up some how. My video card is dead.

I bought the 4870.. and it worked fine. I'm starting to think building my own computer was a bad idea.

You can see the specs in my signature.

I was playing WoW about ten minutes ago when the screen went green.. I could still see what I was doing but it had a green color to it. I play in Windowed mode so I could see that it wasn't just WoW that was green, but everything... So I shut off my computer right quick and moved my video card to a more open spot. And here's the story on that:

When I got the video card it was HUGE.. I had no idea it took up two slots and went all the way to the back of a full tower I had two x16 slots, one at the head of all the pci slots, and one by the power supply. I had to put it in the one by the power supply in order to have my TV tuner in there, which I use all the time. I was wondering if this was going to be a problem because the 4870 is wide, but half of it is a heat sink with a fan, and the fan was about an inch away from the psu so I figured the air couldn't really vent. I always meant to change it btut I forgot.. until tonight. Anyway -

I moved it and now it just wont work. There are four red lights on the back (or they are red to me, I'm willing to bet they're green when the card works)

When I turn on my computer, much like an old computer, you can hear the fan boot up, then slow down, then go really fast and slow down. Only that was just the 4870, the Tuniq tower and everything were working fine.

How I figured out it was just the card, asside from everything turning green, was oticing the four leds on the back... The gpu fan would go really fast, then not make any noise, then the three out of four lights would blink red, then it would start over with the same thing. (It's like the first two and last LED light that blink).

Any ideas? Did I fry the card? I'm going to take it up to work tomorrow and try it out on those computers.. actually I'm going to try it on this one now. I hope I didn't just waste 250$

And it wont work in either slot.

Thanks!

-Q

Oh yeah.. that fan speeding up and slowing down is almost like it's getting a burst of power, then none.. But everything else works on the computer. And I plugged in both of the 6connectors to the card...

 

[rohan23]

1)Check to see if you plugged in to the power cables in all the way.

This is what the lights mean.

D1601 - Red LED On, shows critical temperature fault
D1602 - Red LED On, shows External power connector A was removed
D1603 - Red LED On, shows External power connector B was removed
D601 - Red LED On, shows critical Core power fault

It seems like you have a heat issue.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Alright, well I don't know exactly if It's the card or not. I said I was going to try it in my friends computer, but I couldn't do it without moving too much stuff around, and he's coming to get it tomorrow morning. I still had the other Saphire card, a cheap one, but it's one I used before I got the 4870. I thought I would put that one in my computer until I got the 4870 fixed. Well that one doesn't work either. I opened my friends computer back up and tried the cheap one in there and it worked...

I tried it in my computer again, in all the pcie slots and it didn't work.

What's wrong lol... the motherboard? I guess I'll try out the monitor next...

As for the LEDs.. There are four, and they are in a vertical row.
Starting with the one at the top it's

RED
RED
OFF
RED

I think that's what it was, or it was red off red red.. but I'm pretty sure it was red red off red.

-Q

Could it be the mobo or something?

Oh, and the critical temperature.. I said I had it about an inch from my psu, but still.. when I was playing games it was at 50degrees (according to HWMonitor).
I'm taking the card to work tomorrow. I'm already haveing problems with the motherboard and I have no problem shelling out another 200$ for that. But the card will piss me off...


I bought the motherboard and all went well, A little later my girlfriend got me surround sound and it would plug in through the 3.5mm earphone jack. Well, when I plugged it in all of the speakers didn't work. I can get some to work, then move the cable and get others to work. I just figuerd it was the cable. Went through two more and had the same problems then I blamed it on the speakers. That's as far as I got, never tried them on another computer, but I will I guess tonight or tomorrow.

Then I read a review on Newegg about the motherboard (or maybe it's just the same brand) that the same thing happened to another guy, spent forever on the phone with the manufacturer and it didn't help. He finally figured out it was a driver problem or something, didn't post the fix though.

So screw this mobo

Yep, plugged it into my bros computer, It's the motherboard. Plugged it into my brothers computer (five active computers in my room) and it worked. I guess the ... brotherboard (LOL, you like that) is fine...

I'm really mad But hopefully I can take this card to work and it will work. Then screw this motherboard. But I don't see what could have happened to it to just make the graphics cards stop working.. the fans work. I can't tell you if the CPU works because I can't see anything. The blue case LEDs work.. the light on the motherboard works, the one that turns green telling me it's ok to work on it or somthing.

I'm rambling. I'm trying to get everything out guys, sorry. I just built this computer to meet the peak of awesomeness.

 

[NEED WOW NOW]

EDIT - About the problem with the sound card. Is is a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy? If it is, good luck if your running Vista! That line of cards has almost no support for Vista.


To inform you, the video card should always speed up to 100% at start-up. It's sorta like the POST for the computer, just on the video card.

But, yea, seems you have a heat problem. I would take the card out, clean the heatsinks and let it sit on a desk in the open air, on top of an anti-static bag for a while. Cool it down then place it back into the computer. If that doesn't work, either request to get a replacement from ATI or try to reset the heatsink.

Putting the video card right next to the PSU was a VERY bad idea - The PSU pulls air from inside the case to the outside - The video card does the same thing. If you place them both right next to each other, you have two vaccum's pulling at each other.

Should have checked for proper airflow out the back of the video card.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Yeah, I don't think the board has Creative Sound Blaster Audigy but I don't have Vista either...

That's what it sounds like. The card is speeding up to 100%, like normal, then down to unhearable.. then the three LEDs blink. Then it does it again, 100%, unhearable, Blink. Over and over.

As for the air flow, I agree it was a bad idea. But the 4870 takes two slots, you can also see how they're taken in the back of the computer. One of the slots has the DVI and S-Video connections, the other is just a big vent. The air is getting sucked out through there...but it also felt like it was blowing out from the actual fan as well. Was kind of weird.

Could have been a heat problem, but like I said: No video cards worked and the card was at 50 degrees when I did the most stuff I do. I tried leaving it out for a while, and of course someones first instinct would have been to air it out if they thought it over heated... that didn't work either

1 - D1601 - Red LED On, shows critical temperature fault
2 - D1602 - Red LED On, shows External power connector A was removed
3 - D1603 - Red LED On, shows External power connector B was removed
4 - D601 - Red LED On, shows critical Core power fault

I switched the 2pin connectors, Still the same sequence. So either 2 or 3 is wrong. 2 blinks the whole time, as well as 1 and 4.

Thanks for your reply!! If I sound mean I'm sorry I'm not meaning to! I'm not paying attention to what I'm writing, I'm just getting it all out...

I'll call ATI tomorrow too if the card doesn't work. If it does at work then I'm calling Asus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157139