6600 displays garbage

[cscs]

Hello, I'm switching from a 9700 pro to a xfx 6600 gt agp with a zalman v700 heatsink. the problem is that when my comp uses the card to display gfx, the screen is garbled. that is, i can see the bios logo and recognize the bootup text, but rather than text chars, it is all garbled. same in windows.

i've tried numerous times to install the graphics card and it would just restart my computer halfway through the installation. eventually, whenever i bootup i just get a black screen, no xp or restart or anything.

anyone else have experience with these symptoms?

 

[Powermoloch]

Had you uninstall the ati and install Nvidia for the 6600 GT card? was it like that before you switched the HSF?

 

[cscs]

I had uninstalled the 9700, yes. I didn't try the 6600 with the stock fan, it was new, so I just put the HSF on it.

 

[Powermoloch]

You must try out the 6600 with the heatsink first IMO, sometimes components could be Dead On Arrival (DOA)

 

[cscs]

Not sure I follow? The zalman heatsink works just fine, I can see it power up. Plus, XP would be giving me heat warnings if the GPU got too hot, wouldn't it?

 

[coomar]

during shipping there is the chance the card could become damaged, before altering it you should have just tested it once to make sure it booted and the core was undamaged

 

[Powermoloch]

Just a note, that changing the heatsink also voids the warranty. So RMA will a bit difficult in some cases.

Originally posted by: coomar
during shipping there is the chance the card could become damaged, before altering it you should have just tested it once to make sure it booted and the core was undamaged

thoughts exactly

 

[cscs]

How would you folks explain the fact that sometimes when I do a fresh video card install on the 6600, it sometimes loads up in 1280x1024 (native res is 1600x1200)? My Abit IS7 has no onboard vga, so surely it's going through the 6600, right? Also, during these times, there are no visual artifacts.

Really having a tough time diagnosing what the problem is or what is going on. XFX's support is slow to respond, been 12 hours already and no response yet.

 

[Crescent13]

about that support, xfx is known to be the ABSOLUTE WORST for support, and pretty much everything else. do you have a TIM on that zalman, and if so is it seated properly?

EDIT: and you should NEVER start messing with the HSF, until you know that the card itself works. You are going to have a tough time now deciding if the problem is the seating on the zalman, or the card is just a dud.

 

[Powermoloch]

Never ever ever (such seriousness...start changing stuff on a component on vid card without knowing if it is working or not.

 

[Crescent13]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

that's what I said!

 

[Powermoloch]

I know, I know ! !!!

 

[cscs]

I appreciate the advice, but that's in the past. Now I'm dealing with a video card that garbles the screen. If any of you have experience or any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks

 

[Fallengod]

Dont buy xfx.