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Upgraded Video Card Causes IDE Failures?

T

turbogeek

Junior Member
Hi all,

Just upgraded my video card to a XFX 6800 GT, and something odd happened -- my secondary IDE chain no longer seems to be usable. Here's what I have:

Asus P4S8X-X Mobo (fw 1004)
P4 2.53Ghz 533 FSB
XFX 6800 GT (256MB, not overclocked - yet)
1GB PC2100 Ram (512MBx2)
Maxtor 40GB HD as Primary IDE Master
Samsung 160GB HD as Primary IDE Slave
Pioneer DVR-108 As Secondary IDE Master (Toshiba SDR-5112 also fails in this position)
425W Offbrand P/S

During IDE detection, the Pioneer identifies as "PNNDR DV18" (or something to that effect) rather than the nice clean "PIONEER DVR 108". Then it indicates a secondary master failure. Since this is happening before XP ever loads, I'm ruling out software/driver problems. Also, thinking power might be an issue, I disconnected the Samsung drive to free up a few more watts. Same results.

Anybody seen something like this before? What would be a good next step? Maybe invest in a known good power supply? Bring this to Asus and see what they think? Or just go for a new MB? This system has been evolving slowly over the past year as time and budget has permitted, so I'm not adverse to spending money to correct this problem - I just don't want to be throwing money at the problem until it goes away . . . 😉

TIA

turbogeek

P.S. The XFX 6800 GT has been performing flawlessly 😀
 
Thanks for the quick replies,

Replaced both IDE cables with brand new ones I had squirreled away, with no luck. And yes, if I put the old card back in (lowend Nvidia 5200) it comes back to life - I tested that right away to ensure nothing had been fried.

turbogeek
 
Slightly offtopic, but ANY kind of sign of problem on an IDE channel would bother me, unless there was nothing that couldn't just be reloaded on the drive. Do you have backups, on DVDR? Ghost is a good solution. You don't want your first lesson that you need to backup your PC being that your hard drive just failed or corrupted.
 
My main drive is backed up with Novastore to DVD (or was 😉). The stuff on the Samsung 160GB drive is mainly video files and stuff that has already been burned to DVD for viewing.

turbogeek
 
Just a thought... with the original setup make some rars of some data... 400-500MB or so... video perhaps...

Make a par of it, and then write to a CDR. Burn. Verify the parity of the data.

Repeat with the new setup, and see if the data verifies again.
 
I'd say replace the power supply.

Something is obviously amiss, and it's either not getting enough power with the new card, or else the motherboard has an issue (newer BIOS available?)
 
SadisticOne:

Actually, trying to burn a CD was how I discovered the problem. Went to burn some drivers onto a CD for a friends box that didn't have an internet connection. Neither Nero 6.6 nor XP's drag-n-drop to the drive could recognize a writeable CD in the drive. That's when I investigated further. So, while a good suggestion, it's not something I can do.

Sideswipe:

I'm leaning towards the new power supply. I just don't have a very high degree of confidence in these no-name power supplies. At the risk of starting some religious wars here 😉, do you (or anybody else) have any recommendations for a new p/s in the 450-480W range? I'm leaning towards Thermaltake, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. Also, I'll probably submit this to Asus tech support tonight (I'm at work and don't have all the info they need to enter a case on their website at hand) in case it is something they can address via firmware, etc. (read: a new p/s doesn't help)

Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll keep y'all posted on how this turns out,

turbogeek
 
I had a similar problem when I upgrade to a 9800 XT. It was my power supply. The additional load of the video card toasted it. Replacing the PSU fixed it, but I had to reinstll Windows.
 
I decided to upgrade the psu to an Antec Truepower 430. Surprisingly, this did not solve my problem. I still get the garbled device ID on the secondary IDE controller. Oh well, at least I have a quality psu now . . . guess I'll be shopping for a new mb <sigh>

Thanks to all who responded,

turbogeek
 
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