- Joined
- Feb 18, 2006
- Location
- Ellensburg, WA
Hi all, I need some help figuring out what might be wrong here.
The backstory: A while back my video card (a Radeon 9800PRO) died. It started getting all sorts of artifacts and soon even windows was getting graphic glitter all over. I tried one last hope of oiling the fan, cleaning the dust, checking the connections, but still the same. I tossed the card and started using a hand-me-down 9600. "it's been giving me problems" he had said when he gave it to me, but some oil in the fan did wonders and it works great. Until now... It started glitching. Ok, so maybe he was right, I swapped the card for my media machine's 9600XT 256MB that I bought for it about a year ago. The card is in great shape, works great in the media machine, and barely been used for any kind of hard rendering. In my machine... graphic artifacts right away... in the boot process before it even gets to Windows. BTW, I'm pretty certain this is not a heat issue. I have a lot of fun controlling airflow, and the typical signs are not there. The system temps are fine, and the graphics glitched right after a cold boot.
The troubleshoot: Great, so maybe my AGP port is dying then, or something else in the motherboard. (A-bit IC7-G w/ Swiftech MCX159) I haul my machine to my work table and open her up. Nothing seems wrong. Boot again and go to BIOS and, hm... those voltages are... interesting:
CPU Core - 1.47V
DDR Voltage - 2.43V
DDR VTT Voltage - 1.20V
AGP VDDQ Voltage - 1.45V
ATX +3.3V - 3.08-3.10V !!!
ATX +5V - 4.86V
ATX +12V - 11.55V !!!
I have an Antec True Blue 350W PSU. When I bought it I was looking for something with enough 12V and a reliable name. I can't look at the sticker without undoing my cabling job, but I'm pretty sure it has around 28W on the 12V rail. I remember the 12V showing low in BIOS when I got it, but all ran fine and by the spec it should have been more than enough, so I didn't worry about it. I don't remember if it was this low or not, but the 3.3 is definitely off...
So, maybe it's a PSU problem then and not my motherboard. After some poking, I found that the three 3.3V plugs on the ATX connector had become pretty brown and burnt. The motherboard side looks like it's pretty much ok, but those three slots are still darker than the rest.
The Solution: ...So, I assume I need a new PSU. Unfortunately, I left my multimeter in another part of the state, so I can't test it out thoroughly at the moment. I suppose my motherboard could be bad as well, but if it's purely the PSU, could that really cause the video to go crazy and no other symptoms? What if it's purely the motherboard and the PSU is fine, how would that explain the charring on the 3.3 connectors? Should I replace both just to be sure?
The only things I have still in warranty is my 9600XT and my hard drives. Here's my general layout for power needs:
P4 2.6Ghz
AGP - 9600XT 256 (no extra power connector)
1 GB DDR (2 sticks)
2 SATA Drives
SB Audigy 2
1 DVDRW
1 CDRW
5 system fans (including cpu fan)
1 cold cathode tube
No floppy
I'm friends with a local computer shop owner, so I may be able to head up there tomorrow and use some of his equipment to test some things. (Test a new PSU, use his multimeter, try a brand new video card, etc) Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your advice!
What should I do?
The backstory: A while back my video card (a Radeon 9800PRO) died. It started getting all sorts of artifacts and soon even windows was getting graphic glitter all over. I tried one last hope of oiling the fan, cleaning the dust, checking the connections, but still the same. I tossed the card and started using a hand-me-down 9600. "it's been giving me problems" he had said when he gave it to me, but some oil in the fan did wonders and it works great. Until now... It started glitching. Ok, so maybe he was right, I swapped the card for my media machine's 9600XT 256MB that I bought for it about a year ago. The card is in great shape, works great in the media machine, and barely been used for any kind of hard rendering. In my machine... graphic artifacts right away... in the boot process before it even gets to Windows. BTW, I'm pretty certain this is not a heat issue. I have a lot of fun controlling airflow, and the typical signs are not there. The system temps are fine, and the graphics glitched right after a cold boot.
The troubleshoot: Great, so maybe my AGP port is dying then, or something else in the motherboard. (A-bit IC7-G w/ Swiftech MCX159) I haul my machine to my work table and open her up. Nothing seems wrong. Boot again and go to BIOS and, hm... those voltages are... interesting:
CPU Core - 1.47V
DDR Voltage - 2.43V
DDR VTT Voltage - 1.20V
AGP VDDQ Voltage - 1.45V
ATX +3.3V - 3.08-3.10V !!!
ATX +5V - 4.86V
ATX +12V - 11.55V !!!
I have an Antec True Blue 350W PSU. When I bought it I was looking for something with enough 12V and a reliable name. I can't look at the sticker without undoing my cabling job, but I'm pretty sure it has around 28W on the 12V rail. I remember the 12V showing low in BIOS when I got it, but all ran fine and by the spec it should have been more than enough, so I didn't worry about it. I don't remember if it was this low or not, but the 3.3 is definitely off...
So, maybe it's a PSU problem then and not my motherboard. After some poking, I found that the three 3.3V plugs on the ATX connector had become pretty brown and burnt. The motherboard side looks like it's pretty much ok, but those three slots are still darker than the rest.
The Solution: ...So, I assume I need a new PSU. Unfortunately, I left my multimeter in another part of the state, so I can't test it out thoroughly at the moment. I suppose my motherboard could be bad as well, but if it's purely the PSU, could that really cause the video to go crazy and no other symptoms? What if it's purely the motherboard and the PSU is fine, how would that explain the charring on the 3.3 connectors? Should I replace both just to be sure?
The only things I have still in warranty is my 9600XT and my hard drives. Here's my general layout for power needs:
P4 2.6Ghz
AGP - 9600XT 256 (no extra power connector)
1 GB DDR (2 sticks)
2 SATA Drives
SB Audigy 2
1 DVDRW
1 CDRW
5 system fans (including cpu fan)
1 cold cathode tube
No floppy
I'm friends with a local computer shop owner, so I may be able to head up there tomorrow and use some of his equipment to test some things. (Test a new PSU, use his multimeter, try a brand new video card, etc) Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your advice!
What should I do?
