nvidia FX 5950 Ultra problem!

[ThanksInAdvance]

My friend bought a 6800 and gave his old 5900 ultra to me.

I installed it fine but it has this error everytime I boot up;

"The NVIVIA system Sentinel is reporting that the NVidia-powered graphics card is not recieving sufficient power.

To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations."

Hrmmm. I run a 2200xp system w/ 512mb RAM. From what I understand, this card is fairly decent, im an ATI guy, I don't really keep up w/ the nvidia cards.

What could be causing this problem? Could it be my power supply, mine is a 300W right now. It seems weird, but it seems the card runs pritty crappy, I downloaded the demos from the nvidia site that matched the regular 5900 and they run pretty bad :\ even most of the 5400 MX demos runs pretty choppy.

My friend also has 2 extra power supplies (350w and a 400w) but hes not certain they work. Am i doing something wrong, because it wont read the video card thereforce the screen stays black after i boot it up.

I plug the 20atx plug into the mobo, a powercord into the harddrive and a powercord into the fx5950. When I boot it up, the fan from the video card turns on but there is no connection between the computer/monitor.

I'm out of ideas, I've been up for 30 hours so I hope this made some sense.

I really appreciate any help or thoughts,
Jonas Sven Tardiou

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Oh and I borrowed FarCry to do some testing and it is the buggiest thing I've ever seen. The screen is all blue, choppy, you can see some faded textures if you are really close. Sigh ='[

 

[jiffylube1024]

Try a different power plug in the GPU's power socket - it sounds like the one you have on there is either defective or not providing enough juice to the card.

Since you have a 300W and this problem, my suspicion is that you have a cheap generic PSU.

Regardless, I'd recommend buying a good name brand 350W PSU (Enermax/Antec).

 

[Matthias99]

Since you didn't mention a brand name with your PSU, I'm guessing it's utter crap. Try a different power supply, preferably a brand-name one (look in General Hardware for a million threads on "which power supply should I buy?").

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Hrmm I tried a 400W ANTEC PS and when I boot it, the screen is still blank. It seems there is just no connection between the CPU->monitor. I tried the same 400W PS on a different computer, and it works fine. Only difference is that it has a 12V connector on that mobo and mine doesn't.

I'm really hopeless and I'm not the biggest comp wiz

Please, please help!,
Jonas Sven Tardiou

 

[Gamingphreek]

The molex connector on the back of the video card MIGHT be dead the card is virtually useless as it will underclock itself severly.

-Kevin

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Hrmm. What does that mean?

the 5950fx works decently on the 300W. I still manage 100FPS on Counter-strike. It's just games like Farcry they run so choppy, and I don't think a game like farcry should run at 2fps on a 5950fx.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Like the place on the video card where you put the molex connector, that could have gone bad therefore no power is getting to the card from that. However it does sound as though its some sort of PSU issue.

-Kevin

 

[LTC8K6]

Does your mobo possibly need the extra ATX12V 4pin connector from the PSU?

Only difference is that it has a 12V connector on that mobo and mine doesn't.

EDIT: Yeah, that might be it. Your mobo is probably not providing enough power without the extra ATX12V connector.

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Like I said, my mobo doesn't have a 12v connector on it.

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, I edited my post to reflect that that's probably why you are having trouble.

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Is that even possible? Someone I talked to said that there is no way the problem is the 12v connector and that has nothing to do w/ it.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

think u could hook us up with some pics.....then people will be able to see ur problem more clearly

 

[jiffylube1024]

Now it sounds like the problem is that you actually broke the connector - no wonder it doesn't work!

 

[Dman877]

If you have access to a voltmeter, you can check to see if indeed the 5900 is drawing 12 volts at the onboard molex connector...

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Well im not entirely sure that its broken. Its not harmed physically. It still looks brand new. It's just the only solution that I haven't scratched off yet.

 

[ThanksInAdvance]

Hey dman I asked my dad and he said all he has is this gadget that lights up when volts go through it or what not. He wasn't really sure what exactly.

Will that work?

 

[caz67]

I had the same issue with my 5900Ultra. The sentinel kept warning me about insufficient power. I change from generic psu to Antec 480W. Ive never had a problem since.