ati radeon X800 pro no boot

[iredge]

Hello everyone,

I recently acquiered a radeon x800 pro to upgrade my pc. When I finaly got the package I tried to install the card but the computer wouldn't boot up at all. Then I tried several combinations to give it its most needed power. My question is: is it possible to fry this card by pluggin in any 4pin cable that's in the pc? Say for example I unplugged the cd re writter and used the plug on the gaphic card. Could this damage it?
My next question is will a 350 w power supply be sufficient?

Thanks to you all
Regis

 

[kirock]

Post the details of your PSU, 3.3, 5 and 12V Amps. You can read this off the label on the the side of the PSU.

I didn't think the X800 Pro had a connector for extra power.

 

[sllewe]

I didn't think the X800 Pro had a connector for extra power.

Comfirmed.

 

[connerwayne]

x800 or x850xt?

I recently bought a Sapphire x850xt from NewEgg.com, and the same thing happened to me. The card worked fine, I installed it and the drivers, let it sit for a few hours, and when I came back to it there was no power. My mobo LED was lit, but no post/boot. I got the replacement card (Newegg's replacement process is the worst iver ever dealt with, but thats a separate thread) and when I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was how extremely loud the fan is on boot. For about 1-3 seconds, the fan kicks on at 100%, it literally sounds like a haird dryer. I didn't recall hearing that when I had installed the bad card, but I remember specifcally seeing the fan moving.

I think what happened was the first card's fan controller/temp sensor was bad, and it caused the card to overheat and fry itself. In any case, with this card in the PCIe slot, the pc experienced the same symptoms youve got.
If the card has an externally powered fan/heatsink, I'm willing to bet that the same thing happened to yours.

Do you have a PCIe 4 pin connector on the PSU, or are you using the one that is supposed to go to the mobo?

How much stuff do you have plugged into the pc? HDD's, pci cards, USB devices, etc... The minimum required PSU for that card I believe is 350, but Im also assuming thats with the bear necessities running off of it. Youd be better off going out and buying a 550-600w PSU so that you have the ability to move to a Crossfire configuration in the future.

Can someone post the link to the website that calculates the recommended PSU wattage?

 

[kirock]

Done.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

 

[paranoid guy]

If you're using a 4 pin connection from the PSU or the hard drive 350w should be enough but I've never heard of being able to use a 4pin connection from your cd re-writer. Is it possible that this is the connection from the PSU/hard drive and it was being used in the cd re-writer?
Plus, you can use that link Kirock posted and find out how much power your PSU is actually giving you.
Did the x800 pro come with this?
https://www.techspot.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5853

 

[mailpup]

For the X800 series, ATI recommends a power supply with a minimum of 300W in the absence of any specific recommendation from the PC maker. They do assume you have other devices attached so it's not 300W barebones. Still it depends on what other actual devices that are being used and just because you have a power supply that is nominally 350W, doesn't mean it's up to the job.

Also, the X800 Pro reference model uses a 4 pin molex connector so just about any spare standard molex connector available can be used. Just be sure you don't disconnect any connectors from your motherboard.

 

[iredge]

Thank you all for your replies

First of all my psu was 250. I read many threads on this site and others and learnt that for some 250w was sufficient to at list boot to the bios settings or get a error message display. But I didn't get anything and defenetely no boot. The computer seems to be working hard but no result.
Second the 4 pin connector I am on about is one from the power supply that fits into the graphic card, only it was plugged into my cd rewriter. I unplugged it to fit it into the graphic card as requiered. (my question was "could it fry the graphic card?) Since it wasn't connected the way the graphic recommends (cable from power supply to hard drive and separator to cd and graphic card)
Third I order a 350w power supply, could that be enought?

My spec: (sorry don't ask me for the amps or watts or volts on the rails this is out of my league)

PSU 250w
athlon 2400 xp
Motherboard gigabite triton (4pci slots and one agp)
Sound blaster audigy2
DVD drive
cd rewritter drive
zip drive
a floppy drive
1gb ram
and a would be x800 pro 256 mb agp
Something else that I ignore the use of with a giant slot at the front

Somebody please hellllp!

 

[peterdiva]

The way you powered the card shouldn't make any difference, whether it was on a split cable or one directly from the PSU ( actually the recommendations I've seen is to not use a split cable).

Try booting without the power cable, the card won't let you boot without it, you'll get a message on the top of the screen in red telling you to connect the power cable. If you don't get the message then the card is either faulty or it's not seated correctly.

As for the power supply I got my x800 pro to work with a 250 watt PSU (with minimal componets).

 

[iredge]

Ohh man!!!

This is a ball....I read this before!! You can normaly still run the card with little power. Mine wouldn't start at all even thought many components were unplugged.(cd drive, and zip drive). But it could be down to the amps on the 12v rail. Whatever it is it seams as important as the wattage.So maybe that's where my problem lies.
I don't want to beleive that it comes from the blooby graphic card. It took me 4 weeks to receive it. So I don't even want to think about sending it back!!!
However I brought my pc to PC world to get a 400w power supply fit into it. I also asked them to test and put the graphic card in. I'm scaaaared!

Thanks for the reply Perdiva!!

Regis

 

[kirock]

You need a new PSU, so you're on the right path. Good luck getting that to run on a 250W PSU with probably 10A on the 12volt rail. When I read your 1st post it sounded like you had a 350W supply and I has concerned with the amps then, let alone a 250W. When you install the new PSU, try to use one 4 pin molex direct to the card first, then maybe tap off that to a cd player only if required. My pt is try to didicate one 4pin molex to the video card itself.

BTW, these can be read off the label on the side of the PSU, the A's are the amps, the V's are the volts and the W's are the Watts. W=V x A See pic attached. In the pic example the 12Vdc has 28Amps (good supply)

Cheers.

 

[iredge]

Thanks Kyrock

Your words are reasuring. So you think that it's down to the PSU anyway. Sorry but I can't give you the details of the votage since my computer is on the operating table as I speak. I wouldn't chance changing the psu myself... I should get it back tommorrow and I will tell you if everything is OK or a big tragedy...

Cheers mate,
Regis

PS:One more question...do you think that my spec wil run oblivion smoothly:

PSU 250w
athlon 2400 xp
Motherboard gigabite triton (4pci slots and one agp)
Sound blaster audigy2

and of course a would be x800 pro 256mb agp x8

 

[connerwayne]

Settings = Low

Settings = Low

I just upgraded last month, and I havent had the time to purchase Oblivion yet, but from everything I've seen on it, I dont think it will run very well at all on your PC... The game is mostly Graphics card intesive I think, so thats good for you, the x800 pro is an ok card, not great, especially only being AGP, but the processor needs upgrading desperately. Also, better get another gig or three of memory.

Wayne

 

[iredge]

Dear connerwayne

I myself own Oblivion. And from what I know the indoor levels where running fine on my PC with my outdated radeon 9550. The graphics where pretty smooth on medium setting, and the frame rate really fine at 800x...something setting. The outdoors were really jerky so I had to put most of the sliders down when I was outside.
So I believe it has nothing to do with the ram. I don't expect top noch performance with all the settings up to max, but at least a real improvment on the 800xsomething setting on medium.
On the other end I tried it on a friends of mine who has a 3G pentium and a radeon x600 with only 512 mb ram and the outdoors framerate was much better on the same settings but surprisingly it was taking ages to load the levels, and get the menu compared to my specs.
I really don't know what to expect from my new spec but if the radeon x800 is a top mid range I should be happy enough.

What I mean is that I already know that it will work well but I wonder if I will be able to get some real eye candy effects, or even if I will get the oportunity to set the quality level to high.

Thanks for the reply man

Regis

 

[connerwayne]

No doubt it will be better. Even with only 12 pipes, its a nice card. As far as eye candy, the main bonus for this card is the shear speed of it. The visual effects are not that great. When comparing my x850xt to my x1300 pro, the x1300 looked sooo much better with lighting and smoke effects, but the x850xt smokes it in pure speed and overall usability. So, no SM3, but its a great card man.

Wayne

 

[iredge]

Resurecting my pc from the deads

Ok,

I should get my pc back this afternoon or sometime in the morning. I will let you know what was the real problem (if it works), and I will tell you what kind of setting I can run Oblivion up to, and how smooth or jerky the frame rate is. I don't expect a 200fps score but even with sometning like 35 fps I am a happy man. I am not a fly after all. (the human eye flicker fusion threshold is of 25-30 images second) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold
I would love to ask some questions to the technician but they don't have a clue about how to handle customer in that shop. I called yesterday at a time given by the technician himself. And all the girl who picked up the phone said was I quote: "Yeah pffffffffffff! I KNOW!! We'll call you back when it's ready!!! BYYYYYE".
Conclusion: After four weeks of battleling it out on the phone to get my Card delivered, my computer fixed and upgraded, the shop owners to to improve their communication skills to level 2. I really feel as if I never left Cyridill, and the acquisition of a mere radeon x800 itself was a quest paved with obstacles. Thanks to my patience I finaly stand in front of it and I expect all those tubulences to stop as soon as I grab the card and close shut this gate of Oblivion wich will spew me back in Cyridill. LOL

Regis
Ireland

 

[iredge]

Got the card back

Ok I got the card back. Verdict: My problem was defenetely down to the power supply. This card is needy. But once I got it working I could finaly set all the sliders up to max on a 1024x...something resolution on oblivion on the outside. sometimes I get a bit of a slow down in the towns when there are loads of people about, but for that I only need to turn the slider for the caracters faiding a bit down and the it's just fine.
Connerwayne was right about the graphics thought. Even thought it's smooth enought there is nothing eye candy to mesmerize my eyes there. The lignting effects are a bit bland. For exemple, believe it or not, sometimes I could swear that my 9550 abit was performing better when it was able to cope with the frame rate. In the inside levels things were shinier. And the shadows look broader than they did before. I haven't found any of my old games games yet that really made me feel like there was any massive graphic improment. Even Half life two which was running fine with my old card.
Verdict: Well I defenetely don't regret being this card because at least my
computer will now be able to cope with all the new demanding games coming up without breaking a sweat at hight levels of resolution. Especialy when you consider that I only got an athlon xp 2400.
Those who really want to feel like they belong the next gen should look elsewhere thought. Maybe an x1000...something.

Thank you all for your support
All the best
Regis