PNY 8800GTX - Alarm coming from case

M

MERKMAN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2004
Messages
226
Greetings all. BFG 7800GTX user that decided after 2+ years it was time to reimage his primary PC. So I took it outside, blew out all the parts with canned air, removed the old video card and hard drive (250GB Seagate SATA), replaced them with the new parts (PNY 8800GTX and a 500GB SATA drive), hooked it back up at the desk and installed Vista.

I actually did some downloading, installed the drivers, and had started Windows Update before going to bed. A while later, I heard this whine that I believe was an alarm on the video card. I guess if power is an issue with the 8800GTX, an alarm will sound? In any event, I didn't even see where my downloads were at. I simply held the power button and stopped the noise, then went back to bed.

This morning, I'm trying to put my arms around the situation. Obviously my computer specs will be necessary for those inclined to help...

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA4400CDBOX - Retail (using stock heatsink and fan)
2x1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR Memory
PNY Verto GeForce 8800 GTX - VCG8800XXPB
Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Silver IDE Model ND-3540A - OEM
Apple G5 Case modded with Aluminum Motherboard Tray and JB Welded Drive Bays

The only real quirk to my PC is given the G5 case, I had to mount the PS vertically, with the power connector facing down. Essentially the airflow was backwards at this point, so I opened the power supply and inverted the fans. This allows cool air to be sucked into the case from below, and that air is forced out of the power supply and blown out the front of the case. Though I've gone through a PS already, as the original Enermax 600w I purchased died within about a year, the Corsair has been a great fan and worked well (at least until now).

So as I sit here I see a few possible issues:

1) Motherboard firmware maybe requires updating to provide the correct on-board power for the 8800GTX?
2) Motherboard will not support the 8800GTX, requiring an upgrade.
3) The Power Supply, though mentioned as having run 8800GTX's in SLI mode at computer shows online (don't have links at hand, sorry), isn't providing enough power. I'm currently using the 2 included 6-pin video card connectors to go straight from PS to Video Card. (Maybe I need to use the molex adapters and see if those work better?) If the PS is the issue, then obviously I'll upgrade.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. I have other PC's, but this upgrade is my primary and I use it daily. The faster it's running full speed, the better. ;)

Thanks!!!
 
Sounds like not enough power is getting to your card. Make sure both power connectors (PCI-E) are snug as well. Do you have a different PSU you can test it with?
 
It's either you forgot to connect the power cord to the video card or like Proxy said it's not having enough power. Make sure your PSU have a six pin molex and connect that to your card or connect 2 4pins molex to the card.

My BFG 8800GTX OC makes one hell of a loud sound when I forgot to connect the power to the video card.
 
that power supply should definitely be pumping out the require juice for the card, is everything plugged in right?
 
Unplug it all, and then reseat and plug it all in again. Paying particular attention to doing it correctly. That did it for me.
 
make sure you have the 4pin molex connected to the motherboard. It is not the cpu one it is a normal 4 pin like what you would see on a cd rom drive or a older ide harddrive.
 
Good evening to all. First of all, thank you, each of you, for replying. It's moments like these a person really needs help, and I can't thank you enough for that.

As to my issues... I believe they may have been threefold. In order...

1) It turns out there was a power problem in my neighborhood last night. I know because about 8:30am this morning I lost power for about an hour and a half. So the beeping I had was likely a drop on the line that affected my PC. I figure I'll need to do some looking both online and local, and pickup my first UPS. This was the 2nd outage for more than an hour in a week, and I can't afford to replace my PC if surges/sudden outages try to break things.

2) My BIOS was about a year out of date. I had trouble updating using the Win utility, so I plugged in a Sony USB Floppy I bought about a year ago, formatted it with a utility that gave me the software I needed, booted to it, updated the BIOS, and now it's as current as it can be. Took some pics of the BIOS settings before I formatted, and put all the same ones back as best I could. Definately seems to have helped.

3) Finally, I experienced OS crashes including blue screens when trying to watch HD-DVD videos in PowerDVD. After one of the reboots, Vista actually told me my audio driver was the problem, and to update from Windows Update. And while Windows Update didn't have a newer driver, I downloaded the latest from Realtek's website and then ran an HD-DVD for an hour and a half with no reboots. No blue screens either... ;)

So for the most part my new card seems fully functional. Left the two 6-pin connectors on the PS directly connecting to the vid. card, so those were NOT the issue. In fact, aside from HD recording of Las Vegas Season 5, Episodes 1 & 2 looking kinda crappy... everything is perfect. I downloaded FFDShow to have the codecs I needed for the video. Anyone else noticed less than perfect video playback with those codecs? Any suggestions on others that work great but won't have watermarks on the video?

Thanks again to all! Have a great night!!!
 
MERKMAN said:
So for the most part my new card seems fully functional. Left the two 6-pin connectors on the PS directly connecting to the vid. card, so those were NOT the issue. In fact, aside from HD recording of Las Vegas Season 5, Episodes 1 & 2 looking kinda crappy... everything is perfect. I downloaded FFDShow to have the codecs I needed for the video. Anyone else noticed less than perfect video playback with those codecs? Any suggestions on others that work great but won't have watermarks on the video?

Thanks again to all! Have a great night!!!
Click to expand...

FFDSHOW is /trash/ so far as codecs. It does everything in software, and it does it badly, plus it can cause any number of seemingly unrelated issues if you game on your PC (which I imagine you do, with a GTX...). Unfortunately it's near to impossible to really get rid of. Rather than use FFDSHOW get Quicktime for H.264 and the XVID codec to handle pretty much everything else.
 
download k-lite codec pack but DON'T install anything ffdshow related. It will work fine and you'll have what you need.
 
silent-circuit said:
FFDSHOW is /trash/ so far as codecs. It does everything in software, and it does it badly, plus it can cause any number of seemingly unrelated issues if you game on your PC (which I imagine you do, with a GTX...). Unfortunately it's near to impossible to really get rid of. Rather than use FFDSHOW get Quicktime for H.264 and the XVID codec to handle pretty much everything else.
Click to expand...

What unrelated issues?
 
Well I'm having more trouble with the 8800GTX. I was trying to get Nero installed earlier, but it seems many versions aren't Vista compatible. In order to get SOMETHING working, I downloaded Nero Lite 7.10 and got that running. But it seems I got a virus in the process. And while running a full scan of my C drive, the video card whine occurred not once but twice. :(

Deciding I'm probably going to need a different Power Supply, or power from the wall COULD be the problem... I ordered a 550V APC Battery Backup from Circuit City for $40. Has great reviews, and should provide some necessary line conditioning and backup power to avoid further trouble. If I STILL have power issues, then I presume it's the Power Supply and I'll upgrade to something bigger.

In the meantime, I uninstalled FFDShow, stayed away from K-Lite because that uses FFDShow too, and installed both Xvid and Quicktime. Then I converted my copy of Las Vegas Season 5, Episode 1&2, to DVD using WinAvi Video Converter. Just gotta burn it and see how it looks...
 
Your PSU is more than sufficient for your system. It's probably at less than 1/2 of capacity when you're sitting on desktop and less than 3/4ths when you're running Orthos /and/ 3Dmark 06 at the same time for full stress. It might be defective (doubtful -- more likely the card), but you absolutely do not need anything 'bigger' than 620 watts. 520 watts would be find for that system. You could get away with 450 if it were a high quality supply... and the 620HX is a high quality 620 watt supply.

If you have low quality power from the wall then yes, that might be the issue, but again it's doubtful and at this point I'd be looking at your card. It is apparently normal for some cards to briefly 'tweet' when you turn the machine off, but it should not be making the alarm sound while the system is running normally.
 
Final followup to my issue. Once again, let me thank all who posted. Times when your having trouble with PC's can be stressful, and it's great to have a community to come to that...

1) Knows their stuff
2) Is willing to help
3) Sympathizes, because they've been there

:)

In the end, updating my MB Bios may have helped... but I feel the combination of UN-overclocking my CPU, running it and my 2GB at "auto" settings in the BIOS (presumably stock for those parts), and setting power management in Vista to "High Performance"... so the video card is never taking a power hit. Since then... all has run smooth as silk.

As another precaution, I purchased a 550va Battery Backup from Circuit City. While this APC unit was $70 some places, Circuit City had it for $40 with free shipping. And given the weight of the unit, I'll be amazed if they made any money on the sale at all. ;) Many figured because I'm running a X2 4400+ CPU, 2GB Ram, and the 8800GTX, I wouldn't even be able to use this unit... not enough power. Well, I haven't disconnected my power from the wall to test, but the APC is fully charged, plugged into Vista and set to power down my PC if I lose power for more than a single minute, and seems great according to the monitoring software. I just know I haven't had any issues since I installed it. :D

Well, off to finish my daily reading (just finished reading the 7800 GTX back to life story here) and see what's next on my agenda. My best to all and be well!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top