Video card help -- is this normal?

[skyfujin]

Hello,

Well I received my new video card today and assumed it was broken because of a copper contact being broken. However I was just watching this video review for the same card(different manufacturer though) and it has the same exact thing on the card shown in the video. Are they showing off a defective card or is this normal? Look at the screenshot below at the yellow circled part:

[img width=651 height=495]http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9760/normall.png[/img]

[glc]

Does the card work?

[skyfujin]

At this point I am not sure, but I am fairly certain the problem is not the video cards at all now. I have posted this issue on a few other tech support forums and from what I can gather the issue is the PSU. I have actually now found multiple screenshots of HD 4850's and HD 4870's with the same exact thing as mine has, apparently it is just how they design the card. I have a new 650w Corsair psu ordered already so I will have to see what happens then.

Back in july when I first got this PC together I had put my old HD 2600xt into the system and it worked fine. When my HD 4870 arrived I installed it briefly to test if it worked and it also worked fine. I then removed all Video cards from the system and stored them away until I could afford a better PSU. However a month later I decided to try to put the HD 2600xt back into the system to test something. And at this point the card would not initialize at all. I then attempted to put the HD 4870 into the system to see if it would work and I had the same problem. So I assumed that I may have damaged the cards at that point while installing and uninstalling them. So last week I bought a new HD 4850 assuming it would fix the issue. When I installed the 4850 nothing happened.

The PSU that I currently have in the system is a very cheap generic 450w powersupply that came with the case. The general response I have gotten so far is that the PSU has "degenerated" enough to cause it to be unable to power the cards enough now. Hopefully the new corsair PSU will be here next week and will resolve the issue.

Another point here: When installing the cards, they do power up and the cooling fan does come on however the card just doesn't initialize. So it seems very logical I guess that the PSU just doesn't give it enough juice. The only thing I can't figure out is this: technically I would think it should generate enough juice to run the 2600xt regardless. I ran the 2600xt on a generic 350w psu for 2 years without issue before this. I am getting worried that the issue could be the PCI-E slot on the motherboard.

[David M]

How can you not be sure if it works or not? It either works or it does not. Have you tried it?

[skyfujin]

Originally Posted by David M How can you not be sure if it works or not? It either works or it does not. Have you tried it?

Because it is not working in my system. And I have no other system to test any of my cards on right now. However it seems more logical that it is an issue with my system rather then 2 brand new unopened cards being DOA. Read above post, I updated with more info.

[David M]

Ok...now I understand.

It is unlikely that you received two bad cards in a row.

First, do you have the most current drivers downloaded from the manufacturers website, downloaded and installed? Don't use the old drivers that are on the CD that came with the card.

Second, is your PSU meeting the power requirements of the card? The vast majority of the PSU's that come with cases are absolute garbage. It sounds to me like this is indeed the problem. You will need a digital multimeter to confirm this. If you have a big voltage drop at your cards 12 volt connection when you boot up, then you have a problem that only a good enough power supply can provide.

The chances of the 450 watt PSU that came with the case powering a 4850 or 4870 is virtually nill. The specs for a 4850 and 4870 cards is 450 watts minimum. Many of the lesser quality PSU manufacturers flat out lie about their products specifications.

[skyfujin]

Yes I realize it will not power the 4800 series cards(at least not for continued use). However confusion is why the HD 2600 xt will not even boot. I used the HD 2600 extensively for 2 years on a piece of **** generic 350w psu without issues.

The problem is not tied to drivers. I can't even get to the point where drivers would even matter. None of the cards will even initialize at all on boot. The PC will begin to boot but no display will show. I can then plug the monitor into the onboard and the display will show.

At this point I am just waiting on my new PSU and I will update this thread later on when the 650w corsair Power supply arrives.

[David M]

Yes, try it when you get the Corsair PSU installed. Corsair makes much better units.

Just out of curiosity, you might want to break out a multimeter and see what kind of voltages your current PSU is providing. I bet its some real garbage voltages especially when there is a load on the PSU.