[mrreilly]

Just to kinda set the stage for what happened yesterday...
So about a month ago I had some problems with my video card. Sent it to VisionTek to get it fixed. Got it back about a week later. A few days later I was seeing what are called artifacts. Called VisionTek, the guy told me they can't fix that problem but they'll replace the card. So about a week or two ago, I sent the card. Got it today, opened the box expecting to see a RADEON X800... They sent me a RADEON 9800 XT... So needless to say I'm pretty ticked off. So I called them and I'll be shipping it back this morning.

So my main problem:

When I got home from work last night, I figured I'd just put the video card in my computer and turn it on. Come to find my computer won't turn on... When I hit the power button all the fans flash on real quick and then nothing happens. Everything goes dead. I think It has something to do with my heatsink, how its on there... I got a thermaltake blue orb 2 a while back. I was having this problem before too... So I'm going to switch the blue orb with my stock heatsink, and see if that works... If that doesn't work then I'm screwed for now... I may end up having to take it to a shop to get checked out... again...

So does anyone know what might be wrong? Mobo? CPU? Something else?

 

[sccr64472]

Does that video card need a power plug that you perhaps didn't attach? Also, does your motherboard have diagnostic lights for POST?

 

[Ropey]

Damn, you're taking this well. I would be upset at getting a 9800 from an x800 RMA.

At any rate. Do you have a pci video card you can swap to find if you boot? It could easily be that they made a mistake and gave you another RMA'd product. I have seen this type of thing happen before.

R

 

[tatted_taz]

Sounds like a power connection Bro

 

[Human_Gopher]

i had a similar problem before it was my mobo i geuss my mobo over heated and blew a capacitor but the same signs my comp did

 

[mrreilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sccr64472 Does that video card need a power plug that you perhaps didn't attach? Also, does your motherboard have diagnostic lights for POST?

Yeah I plugged the power into the video card.
As for having a diagnostics light for post. Yes, my motherboard has a little digital display that shows post codes as the computer is booting up and shutting down. So my motherboard is getting power. but maybe something it not connecting right or something is screwed up on the board.

 

[Emmanuel]

If you wanna check if your motherboard is fried, open your case in order to see your motherboard, turn your PC on, and then check if you see any numbers or letters appearing as they should on somekind of little screen.

 

[Emmanuel]

When you turn on your computer, can you reach the POST? Or is there any alarms? If there is an alarm, refer to your manual, there should be a page where they speak about the alarm codes each corresponding to a single problem.

 

[mrreilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ropey Damn, you're taking this well. I would be upset at getting a 9800 from an x800 RMA. At any rate. Do you have a pci video card you can swap to find if you boot? It could easily be that they made a mistake and gave you another RMA'd product. I have seen this type of thing happen before. R

Well as far as taking it well... I am pretty annoyed with all the crap I'm going through. I did send them a letter with the 9800 (sending back it today) asking for 10 to cover shipping on my part. i doubt I'll get it. And if they screw it up again, I'm going to ask for what I payed for the X800 originaly. around $300. and then i'll go get a new mobo and video card.

When I called they told me that they had on record that they sent me an X800, so the told me to take some pics of the back of the card with the s/n and p/n numbers for thier referance. so they emailed me back saying to sent it back and they'll get me an X800.

And no I don't have any other cards I can use, but I did put the 9800 in the computer to run it for the time being, and that's when I found this problem.

 

[Emmanuel]

I am gonna try to help you out, I got a Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX on PCI-e x 16, and it required a special cable to be connected directly from the power supply to it. At first, I didn't connect this cable until when I installed OS XP and reached the desktop, it told me, Your Videocard is not receiving sufficient power......make sure it is properly connected or so....

 

[mrreilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuel When you turn on your computer, can you reach the POST? Or is there any alarms? If there is an alarm, refer to your manual, there should be a page where they speak about the alarm codes each corresponding to a single problem.

Nothing happens... when I hit the power button all the case fans turn on for a slpit second and the nothing. everything goes dead. no alarms or sounds. and i'm not real sure of the codes. i'll have to check that when i get home from school today.

 

[Emmanuel]

Do not take visiontek, get it from a trusted brand.

 

[mrreilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuel I am gonna try to help you out, I got a Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX on PCI-e x 16, and it required a special cable to be connected directly from the power supply to it. At first, I didn't connect this cable until when I installed OS XP and reached the desktop, it told me, Your Videocard is not receiving sufficient power......make sure it is properly connected or so....

well as far as that goes, my computer won't even boot up. so there's no way to tell if theres any problem in that area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Do not take visiontek, get it from a trusted brand.

too late for that. i've ad the card for over a year now. and haven't ha problems with it until recently.

 

[mrreilly]

So here are my findings:

-I took off the blue orb two and put on the HS that came with my processor. Plugged in what I needed to and turned the somputer on. Boom! Everything was fine. Minus the fact that there's no video card in it but that's being taken care of.
-So after that, I took off the stock HS and layed the blue orb 2 on the cpu (only layed it on top, I didn't want to have to put the brackets to hold it on right now.) and turned on the computer everything started up just fine.

So for now, everything seems to be ok. I just want to try a few more things and mabey I can pinpoint what the real problem is. And unfortunetly i don't have a video card so i can do anything...

 

[remy5405]

maybe the heatsink was grounding on something. it one computer nerd business in town says that most of the problems like that that hes sees are grounding and power issues. dont know if i trust him thought as he told me sli was still a experament and go or no go back in october of 05. i build a sli system later that week with not one hangup so......