What would you do in this situation?

Z

zaroba

Member
yesterday i got my GeForce 8800 GTS. i put it in my pc, turned it on, and the computer just beeps at me and doesn't boot. try the alternate slot and the computer just beeps at me again. i stick my 7600gs back in and boot up the computer with no trouble, windows doesn't detect the 8800 at all.

apparently in my excitement and desire to get a nice new video card, i had forgotten the motherboard only provides 8x speed if you have 1 card and that you need sli to get 16x speed. so the pc i only just built in october can't handle the video card.

i could do one of two things, either method would take a few weeks.
1. return the card, upgrade the mobo and possibly the ram, then rebuy the card in a few weeks.
2. keep the card, replace the motherboard and possibly the ram with one that provides full x16 speed in a few weeks.

so what would you do?
 
I believe it is the other way around; with one card, it provides 16X, but with two, it only provides 8X per card.
 
If the board includes an American Megatrends BIOS - that's the one that beeps once on a sucessful POST - it means I think that you haven't got enough power going to the card, as when we built mine we accidentally didn't connect the PCI-E power cable, it beeped repeatedly until we switched it off and connected, then it POST'ed fine.

Check the 8800 has got a PCI-E power slot and that your PSU has a connector. If they both have the same type then connect them and the PSU should hopefully work, but does anyone what he Ampage required is?
 
yep, it had power. had all the cables hooked up. the psu is a 650 watt coolmax thats sli ready, the gts needs a minimum 400watt psu. it has 1 power input on it and i had a 6pin pci express connector going to it.

unless i'm misunderstanding it, from the specs on newegg for the motherboard:
PCI Express x16: 2 x PCI Express x16 slot (SLI mode: x8+x8, single PCI-E is x8 mode)
 
Last edited:
The fact that the 7600GS works is enough to say that it's not a bus issue, it may be either a lack of power or a faulty card, or a combination of both.
 
zaroba said:
yep, it had power. had all the cables hooked up. the psu is a 650 watt coolmax thats sli ready, the gsx needs a minimum 400watt psu. it has 1 power input on it and i had a 6pin pci express connector going to it.
Click to expand...

Can you give us a link to it?

unless i'm misunderstanding it, from the specs on newegg for the motherboard:
PCI Express x16: 2 x PCI Express x16 slot (SLI mode: x8+x8, single PCI-E is x8 mode)
Click to expand...

Can you give us a link to where it says that?
 
The PSU looks to be an issue as someone on NewEgg has said it can't run their 2 7900GT's in SLi and the power consumption of one of these cards can't be far off the mark there.
 
hmm...i am also running 4 hard drives off the psu.

i'll have to try popping in a seperate psu for some stuff to see if the psu alone can handle the card. if it can, then i'll either replace the psu, or stick with duel psus. if it still doesn't work...then...maybe buy a new psu or perhapds wonder if the card is defective.
 
I reckon a good high-efficiency PSU with at least 750-800W available should give you enough power, drives take a fair amount of power to spin and read.
 
tried booting the pc with the 650 watt only connected to the 8800 and to the motherboard via the 24 pin connecter and had a 400 watt power supply for the hard drives, 2x 4 pin motherboard connectors, dvd drives, and fans. same thing happened. just a 3 second pulsing beep shortly after turning on the pc with the dvd roms clicking like there checking for a disc.

and (tried out of curiosity), if you try to boot up WITHOUT a 6pin connector going to an 8800gsx, you'll just hear a loud sharp ringing noise coming from the card, and the fan on it wont spin :P
its atleast getting enough power to spin the fan.



btw, i don't think it'll have anything to do with the problem, but the card only has 2 dvi outputs and i'm useing an analog monitor with one of the included dvi -> analog convertors. but, seeing how the card comes with the convertors, i don't see how that could be a reason for the problem. unless the card doesen't support the hp monitor.
 
Last edited:
ty for all the help guys.
after looking around a bit more, i found out about list of certified power supplies on the nvidia site. mine isn't even on there. so am now looking into getting a coolermaster 850 watt. it's certified for duel 8800gtx cards, so should be able to provide plenty of needed power for the gts and hard drives. plus the price tag isn't scary :P
 
The Coolmax 650W isn't a great PSU, but it shouldn't have any problems powering up a single 8800GTS, unless it's simply a defective unit. I'd suspect the video card before the PSU. Can you try it out in another machine?
 
Why did they design that board to be so friggin stingy with the speeds like that? Thats just ignorant. I would trade in the card, get the upgrade, and then buy it back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top