6800 GT Woes

[beltani]

Thinking I was long overdue to get ready for the next-gen games, I decided to blow a wad of cash and spring for a new rig. $1200 later, the fun's just begun. I went with the Leadtek 6800 GT in conjunction with a DFI Lanparty UT NF3 250GB mobo, a Clawhammer 3200+, and Thermaltake's 480W Silent Purepower PSU. Assembled it all last friday, only to find severe artifacting / video corruption when I booted into the BIOS. Since then, I've tried everything.

I flashed to the latest mobo BIOS, tried playing with my AGP voltage, disabled AGP Fast Write, tried different AGP aperature sizes, and unplugged everything but the mobo and VGA. The artifacting is present at the Leadtek boot screen, the DFI boot screen, in the BIOS, and even into windows. It's not a driver error, as the artifacting is present even without a HD plugged in. In fact, when I *do* install drivers, I lose the video in Windows. The kicker is, the card works fine on a friend's rig. My 12V line is running @ 11.89 which is acceptable. I also don't have much in my rig, only 1 HDD, 1 Optical, the VGA, a FDD and the mobo - nothing my PSU shouldn't be able to handle. The only thing I haven't tried is another video card on my rig to see if my AGP slot is bad. In the meantime, though...

HELP!?!

 

[mechBgon]

If you haven't tried a different video card in the DFI yet, that seems like a logical next step.

 

[beltani]

I went ahead and tried an old ti4200, and it booted successfully. The card, however, doesn't require a 12V connection which leads my to believe it's not a bad AGP slot, but rather a PSU issue of some sort. Any thoughts?

 

[mechBgon]

Would your friend let you borrow his power supply for a test in your system? Also, if the PSU has dedicated variable-voltage lines for powering fans, like some do (Antec TruePower series for instance), then you wouldn't want one of those powering the video card, obviously.

 

[Goatie]

A new powersupply might fix the problem.

Good luck, I hate the feeling when a new system has troubles when it should run like a dream.

 

[beltani]

Thanks for the support, guys. I went ahead and RMA'd the PSU, although I won't have a chance to test a new one until friday or so. Anyone have experience with Thermaltake PSU's / can evaluate their quality? My understanding was that they're repackaged Zalmans. In any case, if the PSU wasn't the problem, I'm gonna send things back one part at a time until it all works.

 

[SilthDraeth]

did you try your video card in another rig?

 

[beltani]

Originally posted by: beltani
The kicker is, the card works fine on a friend's rig.

 

[SilthDraeth]

My bad, I remember reading that, but when I posted my reply, I had forgot about that part.