What died - video card or power supply?

[jlee]

Antec 500w 'earthwatts', E5200 @ 3.38Ghz, 4Gb DDR2, Visiontek HD 4870, etc. etc.

Symptoms- garbled screen, resets- CCC says video driver has become unresponsive and was reset. A very short time after, lockup and messed up screen again.

I let it sit for a while, booted up again...ran for about 20min, then I got thin vertical black/white lines, lockup. Reboot, booted into windows, lost video. Reboot, POST beep, no video.

I ordered a 4650..installed it and after updating drivers, the system is working fine.

Now.., I'm guessing that the video card went..but I don't know why it would. I opened up the CCC status before it died the second time, and it showed a temp of 47c (or 46..but under 50), so it's not overheating. I wasn't pushing it hard, either- just Windows desktop..firefox/etc. I have not had any prior overheating issues with the card - it ran games beautifully.

I've been told it could be the power supply as well.., but I don't have another power-hungry video card to test it with. The 4650 doesn't require any power other than what it pulls through the PCIe slot.

So.., I'm going to try to RMA my card through Visiontek, but I haven't heard back from them so I'm not going to get my hopes up. Before I drop another ~$140 on another card, do you think there's any chance that the power supply is dying, or is it a safe bet that the video card is kaput?

thanks!

 

[krnmastersgt]

All power supplies slowly become less efficient over time, although I doubt that's the problem in this case. How old are the components/system?

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
All power supplies slowly become less efficient over time, although I doubt that's the problem in this case. How old are the components/system?

I don't remember...I think the Antec was new a couple of years ago. I bought the 4870 used a few months ago, but they haven't been out for too long- a year or so? Nothing is of significant age..

 

[alyarb]

set your CPU to 3.0 or 3.10 and see how it acts.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
All power supplies slowly become less efficient over time, although I doubt that's the problem in this case. How old are the components/system?

I don't remember...I think the Antec was new a couple of years ago. I bought the 4870 used a few months ago, but they haven't been out for too long- a year or so? Nothing is of significant age..

Well that means the PSU and video card were working and that this is a new problem. It's more than likely the video card, however there's also a chance it's the amps feeding over the 12v line, which would only manifest as a problem when you're using the PCI-E connectors.

Try a simple re-seat + double check all connections on the 4870, if it's not working you'll need to find a similar card in terms of power usage, or find another system to put the 4870 in to test if it's dead.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
All power supplies slowly become less efficient over time, although I doubt that's the problem in this case. How old are the components/system?

I don't remember...I think the Antec was new a couple of years ago. I bought the 4870 used a few months ago, but they haven't been out for too long- a year or so? Nothing is of significant age..

Well that means the PSU and video card were working and that this is a new problem. It's more than likely the video card, however there's also a chance it's the amps feeding over the 12v line, which would only manifest as a problem when you're using the PCI-E connectors.

Try a simple re-seat + double check all connections on the 4870, if it's not working you'll need to find a similar card in terms of power usage, or find another system to put the 4870 in to test if it's dead.

I'm no MIT grad, but I got thtat far.. 😛

Speedfan says that my 12v rail is providing 6.34 volts...so I'm going to hazard a guess that my power supply is fubar!

 

[theAnimal]

Originally posted by: JLee
Speedfan says that my 12v rail is providing 6.34 volts...so I'm going to hazard a guess that my power supply is fubar!

I would hazard a guess that Speedfan is wrong.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2268102&enterthread=y

 

[jlee]

I will give that a shot- ty.

Edit: BIOS says 12.02v.