6800 GT Freezing up the computer

[liquidice]

I have a problem with the 6800 GT video card that I bought from Newegg a few days ago. It would be great if someone here could help.

My computer speccs are the following:
350W power supply
P4 2.8 ghz
1 gig ram
9800 pro ATI video card <=== old card
MSI motherboard

The new card is a WinFast A400 GT TDH GeFore 6800 GT 256 MB DDR3.


I had a 9800 pro video card before, so I uninstalled all the 9800 pro drivers first, removed the card, installed the new Leadtek 6800 GT card. When I first booted up the PC, I saw strange different colored dots (artifacts) on the screen (on the windows loading screen). When I opened the BIOS setup, I saw strange artifacts on the blue screen as well (but everything was visible enough to make adjustments - aperture size change to 256 MB for the new card. Then, when windows loaded, I saw artifacts of other colors on the screen. I installed the Nvidia drivers from the CD first, then updated them from the official site.
When I rebooted the computer, it froze and no signal was going to the monitor - it went blank right after the windows loading screen. I repeated it several times and the screen never went back to normal.

I readjusted the cables to make sure everything is put in correctly, repositioned the card. Then I reinstalled windows, saw artifacts again on screen (even in BIOS mode), installed new drivers again. On reboot computer froze.
When I put my old radeon 9800 pro card in, windows booted again.

I am not sure what the problem is and whether it is with the video card itself, with the motherboard compatibility or with the power supply giving enough power.
How can artifacts appear in BIOS mode?


Can someone please help?

 

[etherga]

Well just right offhand i'd suggest a new power supply. I have a MSI 6800 GT and im not 100% sure but hold on let me get the manual...yep, 350W power supply is MINIMUM for this card. Now I'm not an expert on this so its very much open for correction but i'd say that there's a decent chance that your card isnt gettin the juice it wants. Thing about these higher end nvidia cards is they're power hungry. If i remember correct they even require their own power dongle. Maybe you got a bad card, i seem to remember seeing some bad reviews for that brand card when i was reading up before i bought a 6800 gt. But i cant really remember.

 

[2ndasscheek]

same problem

i just bought a 6800 from newegg to and mine does the same thing. I looked around and found out that a bunch of people are having the same problem. IT's NOT the powersupply i got a antec 500 watt and mine does the same thing.

 

[liquidice]

Soooo it is a known problem? I called Leadtek and their technical support department doesn't respond. I call them every hour during their service hours and they are never there.

I am not sure if its the graphics card or something else... No other computer to test this card on.
If someone had a similar problem with the card and was able to resolve it, please help =)

Update: I flashed bios, installed the newer one. The problem is still there.


I am not sure if this problem anyhow is connected to my old problem with 9800 pro which is still in the process of being fixed.
I owned the old card for 2 years with no problems.
One day it started overheating for no reason when I was playing games and I saw artifacts all over the screen. Graphics were completely unviewable and text was garbled. I tried everything and figured out that it was the card's fault. Well, now I got this new card and still see artifacts (but differently looking ones) in BIOS as well as during windows startup, and after windows starts.
I think the motherboard could be somehow involved in this. Or the card was just getting really old and started overheating, causing artifacts.


update: about to reinstall drivers suggested by leadtek (not the most recent ones)

update: the drivers still made the computer freeze while loading windows.
A representative called me at 4 AM and left a message that the video card is probably defective and that I should send it back to leadtek for repair. Obviously he didn't want to pay for the shipping costs either.

 

[showman111]

Any update on this? I have a similar issue. Just upgraded from a Radeon 9800 pro. Seemed to work OK at first but this morning playing Rainbow 6 Lockdown, the screen went into diagonal lines and froze. Restarts immediatly after did nothing. I will switch back to the Radeon for now, but is there a known bug I just havent found?

 

[tweakboy]

Your PSU of 350watts is not enough for this 6th gen card,

You need minimum 400w ,

This is most probably your problem,

 

[Spaltazar]

Your PSU of 350watts is not enough for this 6th gen card,

You need minimum 400w ,

This is most probably your problem,

Please take time to read through the posts

 

[showman111]

I didnt say what my PSU was, i think its 400, although Ill have to check it. A post on another forum with the exact same problem had a 400watt PSU. He descrbed it wor for word "with a scrambled image on screen (wide vertical lines, almost like wallpaper )". Here are his specs...

Asus a8n-sli premium
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Corsair Twinx1024-3200XL Pro DDR 1024MB, 2x512
Corsair Value S PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB, 2x512
XFX Geforce 6800GT 256
WD Caviar 250GB S-ATA
NorthQ 400Watt

 

[showman111]

Ok, just installed a 400watt power supply. Now while the fan spins up, there is no display at all, with dvi or vga. Any other ideas?