Motherboard is clicking after installing a new graphics card

KF7lce

Honorable
Nov 25, 2013
3
0
10,510
My system specs http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c01310823. It is around five years old and is running Vista 32 bit Home Premium.

I recently installed a Sapphire Radeon 5450 graphics card on the machine to replace the crappy integrated graphics. After I put it in, I get a clicking from the motherboard speaker whenever I boot my computer up. It clicks about once every second, and the power LED on top of the tower and the hard drive light both flash in sync with the clicking. This all happens eight times, and then my computer boots. I can then do everything fine, unless I open a video game. Games freeze seconds after I start playing, with a godawful static-y sound in the speakers, and I have to hard reset the PC. If I remove the graphics card, the clicking goes away and the PC runs normally.

So far I have

Bought a new power supply (Coolmax CA-400, really cheap generic 400W PSU)
Ran memtest for ten passes - zero errors
Stress tested the video card with Furmark for twenty minutes - no freeze.
Stress tested the CPU with Prime 95 for two hours - no freeze
Tested the hard drive with chkdsk
Disabled the integrated graphics in the BIOS and uninstalled the drivers
Installed and reinstalled the drivers for my graphics card
Cleared my registry

I have no idea what's causing this, especially the clicking. I can't find anything on the Internet where someone has had a motherboard that clicks but the system still boots.

Thanks for your time.
 
Solution
Okay

1) if your system is 4 years or older you should replace it, because the 'cost' to do upgrades as your doing as compared to 'replacing' the computer is MUCH MORE expensive (see below for my IMHO you should do now).

2) It sounds like there is potentially a short in either the Video port or the card itself causing the power to backlash over the board in 'pulses' and then feedbacks into the Integrated Sound.

3) The move to the new PSU was correct as the CARD REQUIRES 400W minimum, BUT you bought a really cheap one and MAY NOT ACTUALLY BE PROVIDING 400W power (I had a few posts on here reveal as low as 300W were actually what those 'cheapy' ones were doing and causing power issues like you said).

4) Steps to test this: Try the...

Dom_79

Distinguished
I'm not really experienced in irq conflict resolution (which I am almost positive this is) have a look at this guide though for a start http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en401407
And if your video card is on the same irq as your sound (my firm belief) and that doesn't help you figure out how to resolve the conflict, perhaps start a new thread in perhaps the CPUs or System forums about irq conflict resolution. Sorry I'm not more helpful, my knowledge to resolve this situation is VERY out of date ( the last time I had an issue like this there were jumpers on the card to switch the irq ;) )
 
Okay

1) if your system is 4 years or older you should replace it, because the 'cost' to do upgrades as your doing as compared to 'replacing' the computer is MUCH MORE expensive (see below for my IMHO you should do now).

2) It sounds like there is potentially a short in either the Video port or the card itself causing the power to backlash over the board in 'pulses' and then feedbacks into the Integrated Sound.

3) The move to the new PSU was correct as the CARD REQUIRES 400W minimum, BUT you bought a really cheap one and MAY NOT ACTUALLY BE PROVIDING 400W power (I had a few posts on here reveal as low as 300W were actually what those 'cheapy' ones were doing and causing power issues like you said).

4) Steps to test this: Try the old video card in another computer, do you get the same results? If so bad card.
Try with a better (500W) powersupply, do you get the same problem still?
Unplug all components including the Mobo from the case, and place on wood (breadboard). Plug in just video card, CPU, Memory and Power to CASE POWER SWITCH, press on, do you get the same issue? If not then there is a short in the case causing the power to feedback, need a new case. If you still get the same issue then the mobo isn't handling the GPU and either a BIOS update or replacement of mobo is the solution.

5) As you can see to 'resolve' the issue will include more 'costs' (new case, new mobo, different video card, different PSU, etc.). Computers performance has radically increased and cost drastically descreased that PCs are disposable like cell phones (and cost as much, go compare it for yourself!). Your CHEAPEST solution would be to go to Walmart, pick up a i5Core desktop (or better yet a laptop) for only $349, then upgrade the PSU ($99+) to a decent power level for the VIDEO CARD your going to invest in ($129-$500). You will get a computer under warranty, that will last 5 years going forward (yours is obsolete and can't be pushed along any further), include a copy of Windows ($249 off the shelf cost normally) free, 6-8GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB-1TB HDD, DVD/BlueRay, keyboard and mouse (sometimes even a FREE LCD monitor!!!) and a decent game card you can even play BF4 on High settings.

Last note: VISTA Hasn't been supported for years now, and has NUMEROUS issues and bad performance that the best solution was to upgrade to Windows 7 or stay back on XP. Even if you ignored all I said you still should dump your Vista, it will keep your system from performing like it was built to do.
 
Solution