Vid problem? or maybe not. Advice???

[Shecky]

Ok here are the details

The system:
amd 64 3000
xfx 6800 gt
1 gig ram
anadtech sonata
msi neo platinum
2 x ide drives
nothing over clocked
fresh XP pro install

The problem: Artifacts after about 2-4 minutes of using the comp.

Testing done so far: Ive put the 6800gt into another system. Tested for 15 plus minutes. Ran the source video stress test. No artifacts came up.

I put a 9700 and a geforce 3 into the first (problem) system. Ran for a while with both. Loaded up Rome total war... no problems detected.
After that I decided to reformat. Put the 6800gt back into the problem system. Did the whole reformat without incident. As soon as the windows logo came up during the loading of windows... artifacts are back.

I suspected it could be too much power draw on the PSU. I unplugged one drive. Tried switching molex connectors to other devices. Artifacts are still there.

Has anyone, anywhere got any advice about what this could be???
If its the 6800... why does it seem to work in the other system?
If its the system... why does the system work with other vid cards in it?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Its possible you're over stressing your PSU, the Sonata comes with a 380W rated unit, both the 9700 and the GF3 consume over 50W less than the 6800GT.

Stupid question(s): you had the additional power connector plugged in? and you're not overclocking the card?

Try: running the system with just the video card and one hard drive connected (your boot drive obviously), make sure there's no external USB or Firewire devices attached. Disconnect anything else that's not essential and consumes power for a test run. If it runs OK you need to upgrade your PSU.

 

[Shecky]

I have tried disconnecting one of the hard drives
But i guess I can try to unload the cd rom, floppy and anything else I can think of.
But the old system that the 6800 run ok with has a cheapo case and 300 watt power supply. Ill have to check it out for sure.

By the "additional power connector I am assuming you mean the 4-prong connector that goes into the motherboard. It was connected, Ill make sure it hasnt come loose.


Also. I am not overclocking the Vid card or the CPU.

 

[Uncle Bob]

disconnecting one of the hard drives will get you about 10-15W, the CDROM about 10W, disconnect the case fans temporarily (not the CPU fan of course)
regarding 300W cheapo unit, it's possible that the system was using a CPU that consumes much less power than your AMD64 ??

additional power connector I was meaning was the 4pin molex on the end of the card (the same type of power connector as on a hard disc) - yeah I know, stupid question but these things have to be asked.

 

[Shecky]

Update!
Ive done some additional testing including...
updating the bios, changing agp aperture size, changing refresh rates, more testing of the system with geforce 3

So far no change. Artifacts remain only when 6800gt is connected

I plan to try another PSU. See if that helps.

I have had one person tell me it may be a timing issue between my mobo and the vid card.

Question: I once tried to install coolbits but decided not to try any overclocking. Does coolbits write any data to the vid cards bios? I have since reinstalled winXP so if there was any thing in the registry, its gone now.