difficulty installing a new GTX 470 video card

[TemjinGold]

OP: The fastest test will be what I suggested earlier (try the card in a friend's newer machine) if possible. If it works fine, it means your motherboard can't supply enough power to it.

 

[coleco123]

So, for all of you kind folks out there I would like to bring you closure to this puzzle.

I worked on the pc for several hours last night. A lot of these things don't come very naturally to me but I updated the BIOS one more time (apparently there was a later version I did not realize) , downloaded a third party driver removal program, played with various slots, removed the sound card, etc.
None of these things worked. I hit CMOS more than I can count last night. I am fully aware what most persons were thinking - check the @#$ card on another person's machine or return/exchange it already. I know but the sad truth is I have no friends locally with any type of gaming machine. Most of my friends are older professional type folks who think my gaming is unbecoming! lol.

So, I literally (I mean literally) said I will boot it up one more time. It was getting very late (again). Just before that I decided I would venture into the settings screen and I changed a few different parameters. I once again removed the MSI logo screen but this time I noticed that the DDR2 was not at 800 but 667. I bumped up the multiplier (I think that is the right term) and also bumped up the pci-express voltage from 1.5 to 1.65 ( i guess my mobo has 1.5 to 1.8 total with the highest numbers being in red).
I had increased it before but it had not worked at that time. So, I turned the machine on and guess what. It went right into windows. I then installed the latest drivers from Nvidia and played around with the settings a little bit. Tried it again this morning before work thinking I hallucinated the whole success part but it turned on just fine.
My three kids were jumping up and down happy for me because Daddy was not so happy these past few days.
Anyway I think it could have been a combination of things including the voltage, MSI screen, etc. and I cannot thank you enough for all of the help with the posts, suggestions, etc. THANK YOU!!

Coleco123

p.s. I ran 3dMark 06 thinking I would see some dramatic improvement over my ATI 4870 512mb - nope very little. LOl. I am guessing perhaps the older ram, dual core X6800 conroe cpu might not be strong enough to take advantage of this gpu. I might save that for another forum another time. Its always something with clowns like me.

 

[mav451]

Hah glad to see the good news. I did a quick search on PCI-e voltage on XS...it does turn up a few interesting things (more so if you are OCing though). PCI-e is linked with chipset voltage, which in pre-Nehalem cases would be primarily concerned with RAM/FSB - but you aren't really OCing either, so I dunno.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111040&page=3

Still puzzles me that you would have to raise it from stock to run a GPU, but if it works

 

[lavaheadache]

The reason why you see very little 3dmark 06 score increase is because you are reaching a serious cpu bottleneck in that program. If you had a quad core and overclocked your score would go way up. Feel free to google what i am talking about. Very well known fact about 3dmark 06 and nothing to worry about by the way.

I'm sure all your games will see an increase in performance

 

[Petey!]

Not only that, but the 400 series seem to be fairly CPU dependent. I see a i5/i7 in your future and the biggest smile you've worn in a while.

 

[coleco123]

Hehe. I already have a new cpu and mobo in my cart at New Egg. I haven't pulled the trigger yet - i need to calm down a little and decide what i want to do. I have been accused of falling into the Diderot effect trap often in the past. (buying a new toaster for the kitchen for example, then replacing the refrigerator, oven, paint on walls, cabinets, etc. to match the toaster - you get the idea) I have to rethink what I want to do because a new mobo, cpu would probably require new memory to take full advantage, perhaps a newer velociraptor HD, and of course a new case to show off everthing. etc.. you get the idea. Am I really upgrading my previoul 3-4 year build or in actuality building a brand new one.

I think what I will do is use the computer as is right now (it has a new psu and video card) and upgrade further if I start to see poor gaming in the future. I might be able to squeeze another year out of it.
I appreciate it all.

 

[Genx87]

Heh I am the same way. I bought an EVGA GTX 470 a couple of weeks ago. And of course my mind keeps thinking I should get in on the microcenter 875x deal for 199. Luckily I managed to overcome that urge.