1900XT Problem

[Xylomn]

When I try to start the system, nothing happens, nothing on the screen, no beeps nothing (all the component do start whirring though and yes I have pluged in the pci-e cable)

On the 1900XT card both the ext_pwr and t_fatal leds are lit...

I'm guessing the card is simply a duff card but I thought i'd check...

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
ATI Radeon 1900XT PCI-E
Gigabyte GA-K8NE
3GB DDR 400 (have tried with these in every combination and with only 1 or 2 of the sticks in)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Music
580W PSU (does supply the required 30A)

This is my first PCI-E build and unfortunetly dont have another pci-e mobo or vga to try

Only thing I know is those 2 lit leds dunno if its the vga or mobo, just hoping the fact those 2 leds are lit will help diagnose the problem.

Any help will be apreciated..

 

[nannerla]

Whats your power supply?

 

[Ian]

Have you tried your monitor on another comp? As the others said, what psu do you have? Might not be supplying the right power, if you bought an older power supply. Needs special power for PCI express.

 

[Xylomn]

Sorry forgot to post the psu info

the psu is a 580W and i've checked it does supply more than 30A

checked the monitor works perfectly

 

[Xylomn]

Ok I managed to fix that problem (don't ask me how :? ) but now I have a slight problem that I dont understand one bit.

The computer works fine, except when you try to run anything (even opening something such as 'my computer')

The problem is it takes the system a massive amount of time to load anything, however once its running it runs at the normal speed the application should as if nothing was wrong.

For example I run Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to test this out, it took about quater of an hour for the game to start, but it ran perfectly fine, full graphics, no problem once running :? same thing happens with other games, apps, etc, even sometimes happens when my pc is starting (ie when its loading the firewall/antivirus/etc)

I have installed all the updates for windows, done full virus/spyware/rootkit/etc scans and found nothing.

My bios and all of my drivers are up to date (unless they've release new ones tonight lol)

The system is not overheating infact its running at about 31 celcius (max).

I just dont get it, I dont know if this is software or hardware although i'm leaning strongly towards hardware, like i've buggered my cpu (woo yey )

Has anyone else encountered this before or knows a fix.

Again any help would be appreciated (I must sound so dim )

Regards

Xylomn

 

[ikaz]

Does it take that long when you first launch it ? (the part where you get the main menu in the little window) or is it when it go full screen. I think you may want to have your taskmanger open and see if the CPU or memory is pegged while you try to open applications.

Also check the event vewier to see if you seen any time out errors in the logs.

You should also check to see the properties on your HD and make sure they are not running in combatility mode.

If this is a "new" PC meaning you got a new MB make sure and load the Mb drivers.

 

[Xylomn]

The long wait I get is whenever I first try to launch an application, the computer will sort of freeze but sort of not at the same time.

My hard drive goes crazy that buzzy/clicking sound going like mad.

Any application currently running for example windows explorer, a web browser etc will run fine but if i attempt to run another program the system locks up.

I reinstalled the mb drivers again, latest ones available were the ones I had previously installed, no difference.

If 'task manager' manages to run (sometimes this problem happens when I even try to open that) and I try to run an application that and this problem happens the cpu and memory don't do anything special. They just float around the standard values as if the computer was doing nothing (i.e. would float around 99, 98, 97% unused) and the memory does the same.

I've given up trying to look at the event viewer to check the logs, it will not open no matter how many times i restart the system, just locks it up every time.

Checked the hdd's and no compatibility mode.

Anyone else got any other ideas? If not do you think giving it another reformat a shot might help?

 

[pauldh]

You running a Maxtor SATA HDD? If so, ever have it take a long time to boot up... just sits there on th windows screen while the blue bar scrolls across?

 

[Xylomn]

No I'm using 2 older hard drives (tested in other systems work fine)

IDE Hitachi Deskstar 8MB Cache 7200rpm 120GB
IDE Maxtor 16MB Cache 7200rpm 300GB

 

[pauldh]

OK, just wondering if the NF4/ Maxtor SATA compatibility bug hit you.

 

[Xylomn]

dammit, all those who agree i should just reformat and start from scratch say I. lol