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BIG problem with LeadTek 7900 GT Card

J

jhpowe

Junior Member
A few days ago I upgraded my video card from eVGA 5900 to LeadTek 7900 GT and now one of my favorite games -- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach -- does not work correctly. After playing the game for a few minutes, the graphics start looking corrupted and the problem keeps getting worse until the system crashes. Usually I get a blue screen that indicates an infinite loop error in the graphics card and/or drivers, but sometimes the system just hangs. The weird thing is that Seriou Sam 2, which came bundled with the card, works fine, but Black & White 2 seems to be a bit slower, but hasn't crashed yet. Also, 3DMark05 works fine, but 3DMark03 shows the same problem as D&D Online. Another thing, once the image corruption starts, even if I exit the program before the system hangs, the problem keeps getting worse, even while I try to work with just Win XP, until the system hangs. What is going on? Is the card bad? I'm working with the latest nVidia drivers and Audigy drivers, so the drivers can't be out of date. Here's a quick summary of my system

MB -- ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 w/ most recent bios update
Sound Blaster Audigy ES card w/ most recent drivers
LeadTek 7900 GT (PCI Express) w/ most recent nVidia drivers (i think ver. 91.13)
Old card was 5900 (AGP) that worked just fine

Any information would probably be helpful since I'm at my wit's end on this one.
 
Chances are the PSU is your issue... if you're using the same PSU that adequately powered the 5900, it's doubtful your PSU is adequate for something as beefy as a 7900 GT. You should have at least 450 watts... MAYBE 400 watts would cut it. Part of the reason is, the ASRock board only takes a 20-pin mobo connector, which would lead me to believe you have an old PSU. Check it out and report back with the specs. Thanks!

Edit: my 6800 Ultra did the same sort of thing, and the power supply was indeed the issue.
 
PSU came with the case I purchased -- it's 450W.... I'm thinking that should be enough, right? The only devices installed are a CD/DVD Rom drive, one hard drive, sound card, floppy drive, and a USB add-in card. The case came with 3 fans, so I've got those plugged in as well.
 
450w is a nice big number and all, but what really matters is your amps on the 12v rail...check the side the of your PSU, what's the amperage on the +12v?
 
I left out part of my upgrade saga because I eventually got everything to work fine until I got this 7900 card. Upgraded the cpu, memory, MB, and PSU a few weeks ago, but kept the 5900, case and all other add-in boards. Everything worked fine after that upgrade. Then, a few days ago, got a new case (which came with a 450W PSU) along w/ the 7900 card, and I though things were OK until I tried to play D&D Online. Now, the PSU is short on individual connects, and the 7900 has a cable which needs two 4-pin connectors, so I had to share the two 4-pins for the card with the hard drive and a case fan. Could that be the problem?
 
could be, is there another way your could rearrange your cables...it's best to have a direct line from the PSU to the 7900 only.
 
PSU doesn't have enough connectors...plus the 7900 needs two 4-pin connectors.....Think a power problem is more likely than a faulty card? It would be easier to walk into the store to get a 500+W PSU than to wait for an exchange from New Egg, but you know i'd rather be sure about the power issue before i pluck down another $100 for a new PSU. BTW, thanks for the help, guys.

J-
 
Get a new power supply. Get one with a dedicated PCI-E connector on it or two extra power connectors that you can dedicate to the video card.
 
7900 uses two 4 pin connectors??? ur joking right? only the 6800U did that O_O

check the amperage on your psu
 
OK, just bought new PSU (500W) with a PCI express connector. I'll install tonight and post how it goes.
 
Installed the new PSU and ran 3DMark03 and I still got the graphics corrpution issues. This time the system crashed similarly to how it did when I first got the motherboard with the 5900 card. To solve that problem I updated the MB bios from ASRock's website. You think I could fix the problem by going back to the previous driver? I'll try that and see.

J-
 
Tried going back to a previous driver, and I have the same problem.....I'm really frustrated with this one.....Is it the video card or the Motherboard or what?
 
Are you able to try any other video cards? Check and see if anything else works. If not, it's likely your mobo. Would you be able to test your video card in another mobo (someone elses maybe)?

That should show you your problem.
 
Firstly, the 7900GT will require 2 molex connections if your PSU does not have a PCi-e power connector. I would not share the hard drive molex, hard drives require the 12V line full time. Instead share the cd-rom power connector.

Uninstall current drivers and run driver cleaner in safe mode. While in safe mode check the device manager for "ghost" devices and if you see any related to your GF-FX remove them.

Personally I'd probably reformat just to be totally sure.

Then install new drivers. I'd avoid 91.xx, try 84.21 if you want official drivers or 84.43 if that doesn't bother you.
 
what's your idle and load temperatures? your card maybe be overheating...if haven't already, download Rivatuner to monitor your temps. and also exactly which Leadtek model 7900gt do you have?
 
Only use ONE of the 4 pin molex connectors on that adapter. Leave one empty. Try one or the other independently.
 
Well I tried just about everything that was suggested, but no luck......Went to 500W PSU w/ a dedicated PCI-E power connector, installed RIVATuner and the temps were good (idle temp was around 52C), used DriverCleaner software per instructions and installed 84.21 NVidia drivers, but I still have the same issues. I'm assuming that it's some undocumented incompatibility b/w the MB and Vid Card and/or the Vid Card is busted...So I'm gonn return it to NewEgg and exchange it for an eVGA card. My 5900 eVGA has ran great for me over the past year or so, so I hope I get the same results on the eVGA 7900 card. I'll post again (hopefully good news) when I get the new card in. Thanks,
j-
 
Sorry to tell you this dude, but you got one of the bad 7900gt's. I know because I've got one too (EVGA). Artifacts in 3DMark06, crashes in FEAR. Switched back to my 6600gt and everything's fine. Your power supply probably wasn't the problem since the 7900gt's only draw about 60 watts at full load. If you're still within newegg's 30 day return policy, I'd return it and get an X1800XT instead. If not, then just RMA it through Leadtek and hope that you get a good one. (By the way, if you do decide to get an x1800xt, then you might want to keep the power supply you bought, since they consume a lot more power).
 
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