Three DOA GTX 280 HC-16's... I'm at my wits end

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TimCAD

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Oct 3, 2008
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So I'm building a new rig.

Intel Q9650
Striker II Extreme 790i mobo
4GB OCZ RAM
250GB SATA HD
2x GTX280 HC16s
Windows Vista 64



So I put the rig together, everything goes fairly well, except I'm not getting video on the top card. I move the monitor to the bottom card, and it gets video. I install Windows Vista 64, and check the device manager, and sure enough it's only seeing one card.

So I yank the dead card, and move the bottom card to the top slot and try that (to make sure it wasn't the motherboard). I got picture.

So I figure it's a dead card. I send it back and get a new one. Get everything installed, put the new card in the top slot, functioning card in the second slot, and fire it up. No picture. Windows doesn't see the second card. I pull out the second (functioning card) and try the new card alone. Still doesn't work.

So I figure I got two dead cards in a row. I get another card. Get it all installed, and I'm still not getting picture on the top card, and I've now gone trhough three of them. I'm starting to question whether or not I got three dead cards in a row, or if there might be something else at play that I'm not seeing. I'm desperate here.

When I first started this build, I was using a 900w FSP Everest power supply, because everyone told me it would be enough. After the second DOA card, I got a PC P&C 1200w card, just to be absolutely sure that this wasn't a power issue (even though it didn't seem like it would be). Tried the third card on both power supplies, didnt make a difference.

When I boot up the system, on the top card (the one that is frequently dead), there is a little greenish/yellow light, on the underside of the card, near the waterblock, that blinks slowly a few times and then goes solid. I don't know what this light means, and neither did EVGA tech support when I called. The guy said it could mean DOA card, or it could mean lack of power. But it's happened on two power supplies now. The card should be getting plenty of power.

Any ideas here? It's not easy to just pull cards out and test them in other systems, due to the WC loops. I have to drain the system every time I remove these cards. Is there a conflict somewhere in my system that I don't know about?
 
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BustedSony

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Remember that when the motherboard's BIOS assigns resources, (that is, memory address mapping,) it writes the info to the eprom on the VGA card, as with any plug and play device.

Some cards do have an LED indicator onboard to show when there is a mapping error.

I suspect that the top card is being given an illegal or non-functioning address space due to a hardware conflict elsewhere. I had exactly the same problem with an Asus P5W-DH when trying to install two video cards, the top card would always become non-functional, until that card was put in another system, which restored the settings so that it would work (alone) in the first system.

I updated the motherboard BIOS, reset the Cmos, and disabled onboard audio and ethernet BIOS, and set to no Plug and Play OS in BIOS, and finally after one or two swaps back and forth both cards got going.

Oh and my system also uses Vista 64, but that wouldn't matter if it hadn't been installed yet. However only under Vista have I ever had the problem described - with Windows not properly recovering the card from bad BIOS mapping. Seemingly dead cards have happened under XP, but after a system hang during first boot the card would be activated during reboot.
 
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BustedSony

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It wouldn't be the motherboard, since BOTH PCI-E slots have supported a working video card. Read my reply, I've had the same problem. I think it's a resource management error - something fixable.
 
rodney_ws

rodney_ws

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I don't think it's possible to get 3 bad cards in a row. If a company even has a 5% fail rate that means that .0125% of the customers would fall into that category assuming they stuck with the same company for 3 cards... I mean... I guess that could happen, but I think 5% is probably on the VERY high side of the DOA range... ugh... I think the OP is doing something and at some point the company that sold him the cards will get tired of hearing from him.
 
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TimCAD

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I tried the DOA card in another PC, on a different motherboard.

Same yellow light showed up, same lack of video.

The one functioning card I have works in either PCI-E slot, works alone or with another card plugged in.

The DOA cards don't work in either PCI-E slot, doesn't work alone or with other cards. Or in other systems.

I've tried it with two different BIOS revisions (1002 and 1104). I've flashed the CMOS a few times.

I've tried it with Vista 64 and Windows XP.

I've tried it with two separate power supplies.
 
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TimCAD

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I'm going to order one more, direct from EVGA this time.

Maybe Newegg just got a bad batch of OEMs somehow.

If that one doesn't work... I give up, Ill just run with one. :(
 
rodney_ws

rodney_ws

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Are you testing the new cards in a different system before you try them in yours? If that's an option, I'd totally do that to eliminate your system as a card killer.
 
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TimCAD

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If the system was killing cards, wouldn't it have killed my functional card when I swapped their places, or ran it alone?
 
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BustedSony

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The card in the top slot is being killed when two cards are in the system with the known good one present. Try the new card alone in the top slot, then add the known working one to the bottom slot. As others have suggested try a new card in another system before adding to the primary system.

Only the third bad card has had the extensive testing in the other sytem and with bios flash etc. That doesn't say that the previous two cards mightn't have worked.
 
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TimCAD

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I set up an advanced RMA with EVGA. They told me they'd test the new card before they send it.

When it shows up, I'll try it alone in the system first.
 
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gbuzsaki

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Hi guys, I have just about exactly the same situation. I am building a new machine with

- ASUS Striker II Extreme MoBo (BIOS Revision 1104)
- Intel Q9650 CPU
- 2x2GB Patriot memory
- EVGA GTX 280 HC-16 Graphics
- WD VelociRaptor 300 HDD
- Silverstone Strider 1KW PSU
- Vista SP1 32-bit

I got all the parts around October 3 (interestingly coincident with when TimCAD first posted his problem). My GTX 280 is in the first (top) PCI-E slot, it has PCI-E 6-pin and PCI-E 8-pin power connections, it lights up green, but still MoBo does not seem to recognize it.

The GTX 280 does not seemed to be recognized by the bios/mobo and does not produce any video signal. To temporarily workaround the problem, I installed a crap old PCI graphics card in another slot (leaving the GTX 280 in the top PCI-E slot). The old graphics card is recognized, does produce video. Using this arrangement I got Vista installed, and in the Vista Device Manager I can only see the old graphics card, there is no mention of the GTX 280.

After searching around a bit I found this forum post, and I am quite interested to get a status update from TimCAD about what happened with his system. I'm also interested in BustedSony's theory about the card being sort of contaminated with a bad resource assignment from the BIOS (as opposed to being truly DOA). I do not have easy access to another system that I could install the GTX 280 into... is there any way to clear the EPROM or force a new resource assignment somehow? Would it be helpful to try to move the GTX 280 to one of the other PCI-E slots (this is also not easy, since I cut my water cooling tubing to JUST the right lengths for its current position).

More generally, do people normally succeed in installing a single GTX 280 into a Striker II Extreme or is there trouble expected there?

I'll go after the question directly with EVGA support as well, but I thought I would try starting with the experts :) Thanks for your attention.


 
Kari

Kari

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well Tim got it working eventually:
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/news.php?i=1759
He really did have 3 DOA cards it seems and then finally when he got two working ones, he had to install them one after the other to get SLI working in windows.

btw I've been reading CAD comics for some time now and been reading this topic from the start as well, but only now when I saw the news post on CAD I figured who the OP was. :p
 
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gbuzsaki

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Wow, that is a long sad story from Tim, but at least it has a sort of happy "Builds Character" ending. So I'm guessing that that there really was a "bad batch" of EVGA GTX 280 cards released around October 1 2008, and that my card is one of them (since I ordered it at about the same time). I'll start working on that RMA. Thanks Kari!
 
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