AOPEN 6600GT Total Crap?

[mnarciso]

Hey everyone,

This is quite a story but wouldn't you rather read a story then a complaint that provides absolutely no information other then the fact that the person says he needs help?

I finally built my Shuttle SB83G5 and everything went so smoothly until... bum ba bummmmm!!! 10 minutes into Halo my video craps out.

I figured eh... maybe I didn't configure something properly. So I reset the computer and all of a sudden I see just garbeled video. The Intel logo in pieces showing up randomly around the screen as it boots up the BIOS. So I'm like crapola! what the heck... I turn off the computer for a minute turn it back on and things are back to normal... at least so I thought.

I get into Windows XP and it tells me that there isn't enough power running to my card and I'm like its gotta be lieing to me! I know for a fact that there should be enough power running to the card because I've had my friend run an X800 XT PCI-E in his just fine.

So I'm thinking maybe its a driver problem. I uninstall the driver (proprietary) and things are back to normal. Its detected as an unknown vga card and I get no more lines. Whew... ok so maybe there is nothing wrong with the card (at least I'm hoping). I'll try NVIDIA's drivers since those are usually the most stable. I'm like this has to work right? WRONG... NVIDIA doesn't even detect the card. The installation goes "smoothly" but when I reboot it still detects it as unknown vga card.

My heart sinks and I'm no longer excited anymore. Its such a bitch to return this thing so I'm trying to not return it even though I'm guessing its a piece of junk. I called AOPEN tech support the next day and they told me theres too much voltage going to the card and that its the RAM that displays those corrupted lines on my screen. Now I don't know if this guy is just telling me from a piece of paper but he couldn't find me the required voltages to run the card, and he couldn't tell me any other information.

Now I have a SilentX 250W from shuttle and this puppy is such high quality on the 12v that this card should run with no problems. I was hoping someone with more experience with this stuff or actually have had similar experiences with this could help me settle whats exactly wrong? I have all my voltages on auto, my cpu temp is fine, my ram is fine, everything is fine because I run the onboard graphics perfectly. Even the graphics card temp is fine, 42 degrees idle and I'm sure acceptable levels at full load.

Now as much I'd like to hear replies saying "get so and so *insert fanboy card here* because your card sucks..." I'd like to hear more intelligent posts that might be able to help me solve the problem rather then return it and find a new solution only to find that this problem could have been fixed. So any help would be appreciated even if you want to tell me to get a different card =). Thanks for reading my gripes even though I know you've heard this a million times. Thanks peeps.

- Mike

 

[Acanthus]

Unfortunately it sounds like you got a bad card.

Just RMA it and wait it out.

(artifacts in the bios rule out almost all possible configuration errors besides overclocking and power supply issues)

 

[mnarciso]

Ok but I don't see artifacts anymore? It only showed up like that when the video crapped out. I only see artifacts in Windows now with their proprietary drivers.

Is it posslbe to lower the voltage of my chipset and see if that will help? Also will running lower voltage damage the card?

 

[lithium726]

that card has no aux connector, correct? are you using the new 24-pin power supply connectors for the intel pcie boards and the secondary 4 pin connector? i know hardOCP had some problems with the 6800u when they did not have a new 24-pin psu. when they put one in, all stability problems went away.

 

[mnarciso]

I was looking on the card and there is no 4 pin power connector, and I'm not sure about the 24-pin PSU. I'm using the SilentX 250W for the new socket 745 Prescott's or 3.4E Ghz and the whole board was pre-assembled. I can look but its not easy just adding a PSU in a SFF I have to buy a special one I'll check to see if I have a 24-pin connector.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

you can use Riva Tuner to tell windows what the ID of the card is. maybe you could tell it its a 6600Gt and then be able to install the Nvidia drivers from there. also, the PCI E port supplies all of the voltage, and i am not sure but i think that it uses 3.3V and 5V rails to, so you might want a new power supply.

 

[mnarciso]

Hmm... but I can't see how a my friends SilentX 250W would work with his X800 XT and that has got to take way more power then my card and he runs perfectly fine. Shuttle also tells me that the 250W should handle it and MORE because of the high build quality.

 

[Tab]

Downloads nVidia's lastest drivers, dont download the ones that came with the crappy cd?

 

[mnarciso]

Yep I've tried that, like I said in the post that the nvidia drivers did not detect the card properly and installed the drivers like it never happened after reboot.

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it. This is the fastest and most replies I've ever had in a forum glad I came here.

Anyway for an example of a configuration that works and its similar to mine just without the X800 XT,

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/vie...ewshuttlep4&page=7

 

[Acanthus]

Unless i misunderstood you, you said that there were lines in the Video or Motherboard BIOS, this indicates that theres a hardware problem and it is not driver related.

The Shuttle 250w power supply is extremely high quality, ive seen very high end systems run fine on their 220w PSUs.

 

[lithium726]

the 6600 does not have an AUX connection like the x800 does. also, i think there is an issue with the 6 series cards and the PCIe bus, you HAVE to have that 24pin power supply, as it powers the PCIe bus.. i would expect this to be even more true with a card taht does not have an AUX connection.

at the hardOCP, they had an early 925x board and a PCIe Ultra. when they had it with the prevoiusly standard 20-pin psu and a 20 to 24 pin converter, boom artifacts, instability, ect

when they got a new pcp&c with the 24pin, it worked wonderfully

i think this might be the source of your problems, perhaps when the drivers are installed it is allowing the card to be used as it is spossed too, and it is trying to draw more power than the board is suppling it.

maybe check for a BIOS update from shuttle?

edit: i dont think it is the psu's inability to handle the load, i think it is the board and the voltage given to the card by the PCIe bus.

 

[mnarciso]

I think you are totally right. I just exchanged for a second card the same exact one. I'm going to check right now if I have that 4-pin. Looks like I have a 20 though. What are my options then for a PCI-Express card? I really wanted the 6600 GT as it gives the most for your money. The X700 doesn't come close to the 6600 GT. I wanted to go 6800 PCI-E but there is no PCI-E version at the moment.

I have the latest chipset drivers and BIOS.

I'm so sad now =(, I love my Shuttle and I feel limited, did I make a mistake buying this thing? Anyway any alternate solutions would be great. I now have to use the internal graphics for now until I sort this out. Looks like its plenty of Starcraft for me!

edit: Ok so it says its a 20-pin PSU with another 4-pin connector that connects elsewhere on the board. Is that a 24-pin psu? If that is what your talking about then there must be something else wrong. The card might be poorly built. I'm going to buy an X300 and see what happens I'm not sure if it will supply the same results or prove that my board is ok and it was just the card. Thanks for all your help!

 

[df96817]

Take a look at these threads as this person had the same problem with the AOpen 6600 GT:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...1794&enterthread=y

http://forums.us.dell.com/supp...o&message.id=94800

 

[mnarciso]

Man everyone is having problems with this card, I'm hoping its not my board and it is the actual card, I just hate returns and stuff and I paid with check and I have to wait a bit longer to get things oh well the onboard on the shuttle is pretty good. I just don't want to go buy another card and the have it fry like the others if my shuttle is the one that is causing these things. However, it doesn't look like its just the shuttle as a lot of other people have the same symptoms, plays for about a few minutes then BOOM gone...

I called AOPEN and the tech support knows NOTHING at all about the card. They said its new and they don't know anything... what the hell is that all about its like they released a card without testing it. Well I didn't sign up for a 215 dollar test card.

Anyway, I'm gonna return this thing and try an eVGA or Chaintech not sure which one yet. Hopefully those don't fry.

Thanks for the links

- M

 

[Pete]

An X700XT isn't that much slower overall than a 6600GT, though nV will be faster in Doom 3.

Could be a PCIe bus power problem, as first-gen PCIe cards and first-gen PCIe MBs may not be the most stable/reliable.

Sorry, can't offer anything to solve your problem. Normally I'd say it sounds like a faulty card, but with PCIe being so new, I can imagine the MB may be partially to blame. Have you asked Shuttle what cards they've tested on your model SFF? I'd insist they get an AOpen of their own and let you know if they have problems, given how new PCIe is.

 

[mnarciso]

I really just want to believe that its the card because I haven't seen one good thing about this card. Everyone is reporting problems not only on the Dell 8400 but my shuttle.

I'm going to try posting at SFFTech and see what they say about it, however it can't be a PCI-E thing because everyone runs everything else really well. Yes, PCI-E is pretty new there are reports of success in lots of areas. I think I just need to get a more reliable brand even though I've had no problems in the past.

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll be buying an X300 just to test out and see if its indeed my board. If it is well looks like I'll be going AMD64 and AGP and a eVGA 6800.

Is it easy to remove a Pentium 3.4E Ghz CPU if all goes to hell with this PCI-E?

 

[Smonkey]

I've got the sparkle 6600GT and it's working great with no problems.
The drivers on nvidia site don't support the 6600 yet, I had to use drivers for the sparkle site.
I have a 300 watt Antec ps with 20pin main and 4pin aux connector to the mother board. The 4pin connects near the pci-express slots on my foxconn 915 mb.

-Tom

 

[mnarciso]

ok this is exactly what I mean, people are reporting success, so I'm hoping that it really is just AOPEN. My manual and I've seen with my eyes has both the 20-pin connector and the 4-pin connector that connects to the mainboard.

 

[mnarciso]

*update: I put a PDF on my server of the mainboard ATX connectors. Please take a look and see if I qualify for what lithium had talked about.

http://www.mnjdesigns.com/pict...ainboardconnectors.pdf

 

[Smonkey]

Looks right to me.
My mb has a 24pin connector and I have a 20 pin connector plugged into it from the ps.
Too bad these things are so new, the ideal solution would be to swap the card out with another brand for testing.

-Tom

 

[Keysplayr]

Do PCI-e mobos require the 24 pin PSU? the extra 4 pins is what supplies the proper voltage to the PCI-x slot for video cards. the motherboard may have come with an adapter for a 20 pin to 24 pin, but I have heard that this does not cut it. Stability issues occur. When a true good quality (of course) PSU that is PCI-E ready (24 pin power connector), stability was acheived. Hope this helps.

 

[mnarciso]

Ok I'm kind of getting confused with this 24-pin PSU thing. Now when you guys are saying 24-pin does that mean 1 connector with 24 pins on it or the 20-pin ATX-1 + 4-pin ATX2 connector? Because my mainboard has 3 ATX connectors. 1 is 20 pin, the other is 4-pin and the other is also 4-pin that is connected near the PCI-E slot.

 

[Keysplayr]

A single 24 pin ATX power connector. I'm not saying this is the definitive answer to your problem. I'm just saying its worth looking into.

 

[mnarciso]

Yeah, well it looks like so far all the cards that have worked without an AUX 4-pin connector on the graphics card works... because proper voltage is being fed to the graphics card. For example take this SFFTech's new review on the SB83G5 which is my case and they ran the 6800GT just fine. They also report X800's running just fine. However both these high end cards require a molex connector of some kind or external power source other then just the PCI-E slot.

Which makes me wonder that power is not being properly fed to my PCI-E slot unless the card has another source of power. I hope because of this I'm not forced to go out and buy a 6800GT those cards are just flat out expensive. Mid-range has always been the best way to go for me. I'm going to go home and test some stuff out and let everyone know. Man I feel like I'm beta testing the PCI-E slot for everyone =).

Thanks for help though keysplayr2003, I'm just trying to cross my fingers that its not my shuttle =).

 

[videoclone]

Computer Repair. Step by Step.

Step 1. Test your PCI-E videocard on a PCI-E main-board if you don?t know anyone with 1 willing 2 let u test on take your PCI-E videocard to a local Computer-Shop but Make sure they have a PCI-E system set up you can test the card on.

Step 2. If the video card still displays the corruption and not accepts the install of video drivers ?.RMA it and go find something else 2 do while u wait for the replacement. If the card works fine then go to step 3.

Step 3. Ok so the card worked fine? What you do now is make sure all your other components like ram hard drive are also working if these are second hand components and they worked fine before you upgraded then no need 2 test these ?after the testing if you come to the conclusion all the parts are fine then ?RMA? your Shuttle SB83G5. and find something else 2 do while u wait for the replacement. ? its not a quick fix but it?s the easiest way 2 go about it.

The Computer manufacturing industry is extremely competitive and with a highly complex piece of hardware like a main-board its not shocking that 1 out of 20 main board sold are found to be defective and RMA?ed this is common and its due to lowering the cost of production buy reducing the time spend on testing components.

Bad luck you got a bad apple ?maybe? ? but it happened to me 3 weeks ago when I upgraded oh well.

Good luck.