I don't know what I'm doing!

[christopher.w.l]

Can anyone help with this issue? I recently added a 7850 card to my machine but first upgraded the power supply because it required more. For the first few days it ran my intended game great with no issues but then, after only 30 mins of light playing, computer went to a black screen. The only way I could get it to show something again was by pulling card out and putting it back in. Now it has done this once or twice a day since then.

Any ideas what might be wrong? I'll list the power supply and card I'm using below. I'm completely new to gaming on the pc and only interested in playing The Old Republic.

Thanks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182044

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161426

 

[Skurge]

I had that issue with 1 of the 3 faulty 7850 that I got. The display would go black and display no signal after gaming for a while. It was a gigabyte 7850 oc. Had to replace the clients card. I'd say try it in a different system and if the issue persists RMA it.

 

[christopher.w.l]

I don't have any other system to try it in. I'm a Mac person under normal situations. Also, don't know what RMA means.

Thanks for replying so quick.

 

[Dstoop]

Most likely a bad card, or an unstable OC (if its a factory-OCed card, these happen a *lot*). I'd send it back and get a replacement.

RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization. In a nutshell you need to fill out the request with the retailer you bought it from, and then they say "ok, here's your RMA number, stick this paper in the box and send it back." It's just the way they keep track of returns so when they get some random video card mailed to them they actually know what its all about and who the return is for.

 

[christopher.w.l]

Hmm, I think I may have solved my problem. I took the whole pc apart to clean it(even though it was new) and this time I used a different 6pin cord for the graphics card.

Played a few hours and not a hiccup. Also ran a full screen stress test for 2 hours and it didn't budge.

Is it possible that just one plug of a power supply be bad? It's brand new.

 

[AnandThenMan]

It's possible but more likely the connector was not plugged in securely and was making a poor connection.

 

[christopher.w.l]

I don't know about that, if it only crashed once maybe but it was repeatedly, I doubt I left it loose each time I took it out. Unless a defect in the plug prevented it from going all the way in, I honestly didn't look at it that close.

 

[notty22]

Hmm, I think I may have solved my problem. I took the whole pc apart to clean it(even though it was new) and this time I used a different 6pin cord for the graphics card.

Played a few hours and not a hiccup. Also ran a full screen stress test for 2 hours and it didn't budge.

Is it possible that just one plug of a power supply be bad? It's brand new.

This might have allowed you to run. It's not a great PSU. It has 2 -12V rails. One with 15a and the other with 16a. You times those by 12 to get the wattage potentially available. Sometimes internally they may join, lowering the possible stable voltage/wattage further.
31 X 12 = 372 watts on 12V rails. The 7850 needs only 1- 6 pin external pci-e power connector. One may be on the same 12V line as the cpu power and other m/b draws. Where the 2nd is not. By hooking up a external pci-e connector without other parts of your computer drawing wattage from that 12V PSU source, allowed the PC to operate correctly.

 

[christopher.w.l]

Makes sense. About the PSU, card said to I need 500 so I bought what I thought was 500.


I can always get another. Thanks

 

[zaydq]

Basically, from how it sounds, you had most of your system running off the same 12v rail. The gpu wasn't able to get the intended power it needed to function normally and would eventually choke, hence your black screen. Once you used another connector, you probably tapped into the second 12v rail, which sounds like it had very little load on it, and the card was able to run with all the juice it needed. You don't necessarily need a new PSU, but multi-rail PSUs can cause this issue.

 

[christopher.w.l]

So, give it a few days of playing and see how it goes?