2nd graphics card = computer unstable!

[LxMxFxD4]

Solution found:

Turns out the P5Q (in my configuration) does not supply enough power to the 2nd PCI express slot for stable running for a card WITHOUT a 6pin power adapter. Even the low end Geforce 210 could not get enough power directly from the mobo. Hope this thread helps someone out there.

Computer in sig - added a very low end Geforce 210 512MB PCI express 2.0 card that I picked up at frys because it has HDMI - just want to use it to watch bluerays to my 46" samsung.

Popped it in, booted no problem, configured desktops, looked good. Loaded up a sopranos episode in divx and system crashed. Rebooted, crash again.

Downloaded latest nvidia drivers (same driver for both cards), system crashed on driver install.

Bad card? Lack of power?

I'm running an antec 430W with the following specs:

+5 = 20A
+3.3V = 20A
+12 V1 = 17A
+12 V2 = 17A
-12V = .8A

Since i've never put a 2nd vid card in, dunno whree to start to troubleshoot this...

 

[nenforcer]

Well assuming everything was working prior to putting the new card in, do you have 2 monitors hooked up at the same time?

Trying to watch a HDCP protected Bluray via HDMI may be a problem if you also have a connected an analog monitor to the other video card. That doesn't explain the Sopranos DiVX crashing, however. I think you want to make sure you know which card is set as the primary and which as the secondary when running a multimonitor configuration.

You will have to tell us more details about your system.

 

[3DVagabond]

I would guess that the PSU can't manage it. It could be some other incompatibility that's causing it, but I wouldn't try that with less that 650W PSU in that system.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

How much power can a very low end card use? I mean seriously. Most 210s dont even have fans on them.

Anyway - I have 2 monitors (2 DVI) and then the new card would run HDMI 1920x1080p to my 46" samsung tv.

I have just upgraded the bios to the latest one, though the notes said nothing about changes to video. I'll throw the card back in there once the raid is verified and see what happens...

 

[3DVagabond]

How much power can a very low end card use? I mean seriously. Most 210s dont even have fans on them.

Anyway - I have 2 monitors (2 DVI) and then the new card would run HDMI 1920x1080p to my 46" samsung tv.

I have just upgraded the bios to the latest one, though the notes said nothing about changes to video. I'll throw the card back in there once the raid is verified and see what happens...

Well, just looking at your system, how much power does it use before you hook up the 2nd card? An OC 9550, 8GB of RAM, 3xHDD, main VGA, etc... could be close to maxing out a 430W (~350W assuming 80% efficiency) PSU, is all I'm thinking.

 

[Billb2]

5 x 20 = 100w
3.3 x 20 = 66w
12 x 17 = 204w
12 x 17 = 204w
12 x 0.8 = 9.6w
TOTAL 583.6w

So, for example, if all the other rails are loaded to the max, that leaves only 50.4w for the second 12v rail (204w - (583.6w - 430w)). Throw in some heat and that may be zero watts!

 

[ViRGE]

The GeForce 210 draws less than 25W under load. There's always the possibility of a PSU issue, but in this case I seriously doubt that's it.

This leaves us with other possible causes. Start with pulling the 8800GT and seeing if the G210 can run on its own.

 

[Billb2]

That's where I'd start.

 

[yh125d]

Well, just looking at your system, how much power does it use before you hook up the 2nd card? An OC 9550, 8GB of RAM, 3xHDD, main VGA, etc... could be close to maxing out a 430W (~350W assuming 80% efficiency) PSU, is all I'm thinking.

That is not how it works.

Q9550 - ~150w
8800GT - 110w
ram/mb - 40w
5 HD + controller - 65w
GT210 - 30w

under 400w with everything loaded, on an underrated PSU. It's not power related. Something tells me he's not at 100% CPU/GPU/HD utilization watching sopranos

5 x 20 = 100w
3.3 x 20 = 66w
12 x 17 = 204w
12 x 17 = 204w
12 x 0.8 = 9.6w
TOTAL 583.6w

So, for example, if all the other rails are loaded to the max, that leaves only 50.4w for the second 12v rail (204w - (583.6w - 430w)). Throw in some heat and that may be zero watts!

Not how it works either

 

[Seero]

That is not how it works.

Q9550 - ~150w
8800GT - 110w
ram/mb - 40w
5 HD + controller - 65w
GT210 - 30w

under 400w with everything loaded, on an underrated PSU. It's not power related. Something tells me he's not at 100% CPU/GPU/HD utilization watching sopranos




Not how it works either

How old is your PSU? The problem is clearly power related as your system reboots like that. Yes PSU may not be the part that is responsible as motherboard, and anythings that connect to motherboard may also cause this issue, but chances are it is the PSU.

Do a chkdsk and see if the HDD is good, then do a stability check on CPU, GPU, and RAM independently.

The thing about PSU is that they degrades, especially when it is over 80% load.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

The GeForce 210 draws less than 25W under load. There's always the possibility of a PSU issue, but in this case I seriously doubt that's it.

This leaves us with other possible causes. Start with pulling the 8800GT and seeing if the G210 can run on its own.

Finally some quality posts in this thread.

So I played with a while - Removed the OC and took out the 8800GT, put the 210 in the first slot, and it ran the HDMI and one of my DVI monitors fine. Weird thing - Windows 7 found new hardware when I did this, including the HDMI sound devices.

Put the 210 in my 2nd, "black" pci-express 2.0 slot.. also ran great.

I just put the 8800GT back in, in the first slot and it seems to be stable! Im watching a sopranos episode that is on my RAID array so all 5 HDs in there are spinning. So far so good.

I also just loaded up CS while playing a sopranos episode and it also ran fine.

Also - the reason I didn't think this was a power problem is because when I load up warcraft or FEAR the system was rock solid, and i know that uses a good 80+ extra watts on the "video rails" by which i just mean whatever voltages a video card usually uses. Sinc the 210 uses only about 25W, I figured this couldn't be it.

I presume this was a windows 7 driver issue. Don't know. Anyone have any theories? I'll repost here if it dies suddenly again.

 

[GotNoRice]

Have you tested the card in other ways? Run a game or 3dmark?

When it "crashes" is it a bluescreen and is that bluescreen giving you any useful information? (you might have to disable automatic restart to see what the bluescreen says)

Is it possibly a DivX codec issue? You might try the latest opensource koepi XviD build instead of the "official" DivX codec.

 

[yh125d]

How old is your PSU? The problem is clearly power related as your system reboots like that. Yes PSU may not be the part that is responsible as motherboard, and anythings that connect to motherboard may also cause this issue, but chances are it is the PSU.

Do a chkdsk and see if the HDD is good, then do a stability check on CPU, GPU, and RAM independently.

The thing about PSU is that they degrades, especially when it is over 80% load.

Except that the crashes occur at low load, when only light GPU acceleration is going on. It's not power related

 

[LxMxFxD4]

UPDATES:

System is crashing still! Roughly 15 mins into a DVD, this one "Baraka" it hard crashes. By that I mean, system lock and sound repeats in a loop. Only solution is 5s press of power button.

This *seems* like its overheating. I could be wrong though? One note: I have about a 1/2" space between the 210 and the next pci card which is my sound card. I also hav ea fan blowing directly onto the expansion cards. I dunno.

I will try a direct3d test next... any other ideas?

 

[yh125d]

Bad ram?

 

[blanketyblank]

try just playing a movie from the HD. I don't see people calculating the power requirements for the bluray drive which would also draw power on the 12 V line when in operation.

 

[ViRGE]

UPDATES:

System is crashing still! Roughly 15 mins into a DVD, this one "Baraka" it hard crashes. By that I mean, system lock and sound repeats in a loop. Only solution is 5s press of power button.

This *seems* like its overheating. I could be wrong though? One note: I have about a 1/2" space between the 210 and the next pci card which is my sound card. I also hav ea fan blowing directly onto the expansion cards. I dunno.

I will try a direct3d test next... any other ideas?

Overheating is fairly easy to test for. GPU-Z should be able to give you a temperature reading. However I wouldn't expect a setup like that to be overheating.

I would run the G210 on its own for a while just to rule out any problems with the card. Beyond that, I'm starting to wonder if NVIDIA's drivers can't handle dissimilar cards like that.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I'd check the rails while the system is under load to make sure that the ps is not the culprit.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Well, got some interesting updates (Road Runner has been down for a full day).

Card just doesn't like my 2nd PCI-E 2.0 slot. Its not a power problem - it just doesn't like it. I ran 3dmark06 3x in slot #1 (alone), no problem. Put it in slot #2, crashed.

Figuring it might be a bad slot.. I put my 8800GT in slot #2.... ran 3dmark06, ran no problem.

My conclusion is that this is just bad card.. maybe with some bad ram on it. I dont know. Very strange.

Just going to bring it back to frys tomorrow. Too bad, it was $20 after MIR!

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Anyone btw got any recs on a replacement? Something that wont conflict with my 8800GT? Should I put an ATI card in there? Just something cheap or reasonable - I mean this will only be playing blu-rays from HDMI out...

 

[ViRGE]

Anyone btw got any recs on a replacement? Something that wont conflict with my 8800GT? Should I put an ATI card in there? Just something cheap or reasonable - I mean this will only be playing blu-rays from HDMI out...

Humm, that's a toughie. You certainly can go with an ATI card since you're on Windows 7, but I'm not a huge fan of mix & matching like that since not all software is down with hetero video cards. However the 5000 series is better equipped for BluRay playback and HTPC use according to AnandTech's articles, so I certainly would give a 5450 a shot.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-on-the-best-radeon-htpc-card

 

[blanketyblank]

personally I'd just replace the 8800gt. 5770 is 50% faster and 5850 is 120%.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

personally I'd just replace the 8800gt. 5770 is 50% faster and 5850 is 120%.

Can you run 3 monitors on one card? I heard somewhere that you cant.

I need 2xDVI and 1x HDMI

 

[busydude]

Can you run 3 monitors on one card? I heard somewhere that you cant.

I need 2xDVI and 1x HDMI

Yes, you can run 3 monitors using one card but at-least one monitor should be connected to a display port and all the 3 monitors must have the same resolution.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Yes, you can run 3 monitors using one card but at-least one monitor should be connected to a display port and all the 3 monitors must have the same resolution.

Display port? Does that mean Analog?

Also, all monitors are different sizes so looks like a 2nd card is in order.