New build rarely boots up properly

vj8usa

Senior member
Dec 19, 2005
975
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I just put together a new system for a friend (Q9450, P5QL Pro, BFG GTX280, 2x2GB OCZ PC26400, Corsair VX550 PSU), and it only turns on properly about 10% of the time. Most of the time, everything turns on, the vid card fan spins at 100%, and it sends no display to the monitor. However, the LED on the card turns green, meaning it should be getting enough power. I tried running with the bare minimum of components plugged into the PSU, and the same problem occurs. When it does manage to power up properly, everything seems fine - I actually ran Crysis for an hour or so, and performance was what I expected it to be. It hasn't ever randomly shut off, either.

Is this a problem with the PSU, or the video card? I can't really test the parts without buying new parts, since my other video cards don't need nearly as much and my other PSUs don't provide nearly enough power (I plugged in an X600, and it worked fine). On a side note, a friend with a similar PSU (same line, but 450W) had similar problems with his build, which had a 4850. He said it only worked once he used a 4 pin to 6 pin adapter, and not with the real 6 pin connector. Any help would be appreciated.
 

Atheus

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2005
7,313
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Corsair is usually a good PSU, and you say it never randomly shuts down... then again the fact you can run Crysis for an hour indicates the card is ok too...

When it powers up but nothing shows on the screen, does it actually fully boot? Like can you ping it after a few minutes?
 

vj8usa

Senior member
Dec 19, 2005
975
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I think it does. We just went out and got a brand new PSU (750W PCP&C), and it started doing the same thing. Time to RMA the GTX280, I guess.