Black screen with new 3dFuzion 7600GS

[nickdv]

Hoping to pick some brains here about a problem with my new 7600GS PCI-e. After installing the card, the screen is black. The monitor powers on and off a few times and the dvd drive spins up and down. Occasionally when the system is turned on, the monitor will show garbled video bios messages, other times not. Either way, there are no post beeps and the system doesn't boot any further.

The system is:
Biostar Tforce 6100-939 (w onboard gpu,sound,NIC)
Athlon XP 3000
1 GB corsair RAM (2x512)
400W noname PSU (came with Athenatech case)
WinXP
2 HDDs and 1 DVDRW

The system worked fine before trying the new video card.

I figure the problem is one of:
1. Bad video card
2. Poor power supply
3. Conflict with the onboard GPU
4. A bad PCI-e slot
5. Possibly a bios issue

So far I've tried a few things.

1. Tried reseating the card a few times. No obvious damage on the card itself. Don't have any friends closeby with a PCI-e slot to try the card in.

2. I know, its a no name PSU. I don't have much experience with this, so I tried the only thing I could think of. I unplugged the HDD and DVD to decrease power consumption, but it still doesn't make it to post. As far as I can tell from the label, the PSU is 20amp on the 12+V.

3. Can't disable the GPU in the bios (that I know of), but I did try disabling the onboard in WinXP. Didn't think this would work considering the system doesn't even post, and it doesn't work.

4. Don't have any way to test the slot, since I don't have alternate cards to try in it. And the MB only has one slot. This is the first time I've used the slot, so who knows.

5. Bios is the most recent from the MB makers website.


So, any ideas? Does this sound more typical of a bad card or insufficient power? I'm going to return the video card to newegg and try a replacement before I consider changing the power supply. Any troubleshooting ideas would be appreciated.

[ATOJAR]

No way you could borrow a decent psu just to test? i had a a problem a while back when i first got a 7800GTX, i had a 500w cheap psu, as soon as i put the card in the pc wouldent boot, even if i unplugged everything and just left what was needed for the system to boot it still wouldent, bought a decent psu and it worked first time, when you unplugged everything did you unplug your gfx card? if not try not haveing the cards 6 pin power connector plugged in, it will still work/boot but you will get a message saying your card has lowered its clock speeds because its not getting enough power, at least this way you will know if its your psu(if it boots), only thing is when i had that power problem i couldent get into the bios, the screen just stayed black, i had to use the card without it having the 6 pin power lead in for afew days untill i got my new psu!

Have you tried resetting your bios?

[nickdv]

Thanks for the reply ATOJAR

Tried resetting the BIOS, that didn't do the trick
As far as borrowing a PSU, none of my friends are really into computers so I know they wouldn't let me borrow parts :)

The 7600GS doesn't have a separate power supply, it just draws from the PCIe slot. I'm thinking the power supply is a probable cause. My biggest problem now is deciding whether to RMA the video card once before buying the new PSU. Oh, and my case is mATX which also limits me. So, a standard size case may be in my future. Anyone have any suggestions for economically priced mATX psu or small ATX that would fit?

One more question. My PSU label says:
----------------------
|--12V1--|--12V2--|
----------------------
|---20a--|---20a--|
---------------------
|------- 25a-------|
----------------------

Does that mean that each draws 20a, but together can only draw up to 25a? is that relevant to my prob?

Thanks again

[ATOJAR]

My biggest problem now is deciding whether to RMA the video card once before buying the new PSU

Thats not a bad idea, BUT if you ask me in my opinion its your PSU, ive said this many times before.... alot of people miss judge just how important a decent psu is.... there just as important as any other part of your pc, especially with the power of the cpu's, gfx cards and so on that are comming out today!

My old 7800gtx alone recommended a 400w psu with 34a!

[candle_86]

Thats not a bad idea, BUT if you ask me in my opinion its your PSU, ive said this many times before.... alot of people miss judge just how important a decent psu is.... there just as important as any other part of your pc, especially with the power of the cpu's, gfx cards and so on that are comming out today!

My old 7800gtx alone recommended a 400w psu with 34a!


a 7800GTX is also power hungry. The 7600GS should be fine on that PSU unless your PSU is damaged.

[nickdv]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've decided to return the card first. Even if I order a new psu today, I'd need to have it sent overnight to avoid having the return period on the video card run out before I got the psu. Can't see spending 20 bucks on that if the psu isn't the problem. If the card isn't the problem, I'll probably end up buying an FSP AX450-PN PSU to replace the old one (low budget here :D ).

[nickdv]

Just a quick warning for any other low end economy buyers. I've read some reviews on newegg stating that this board has compatability issues, specifically with ASUS motherboards. Though I don't have one of these mbs, I figure I'd post it just the same.

Myself, I tried replacing my psu with something of reasonable quality (Nextherm 460W) but still no luck. Waiting on the RMA from newegg at the moment.

[$kyh@wk]

This is worth a try - I had a simular problem, My computer was crashing while playing games. It was Random. sometimes for hours with out crashing and then one after the other. I replaced my MB, Ram, HD, CPU, Power supply. No one could figure out the problem.. Everything was replaced even the videocard. Keyboard, Monitor.

Guess what it was? The DVI adaptor. It was shorting out my Videocard. I have SLI. One of my DVI ports now does not work on one of my video cards but the card itself is fine..

I was getting a blackscreen and it wouldnt load into or pass my Bios display or setup option.

It my not be your problem but its worth a try. Try changing your Monitor Display output on your video card.