Sapphire 4870 three red LEDs

I am doing a new build with an Antec Sonata III case that included a 500W Earthwatts PSU (model EA-500D). I am pairing this with a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L motherboard. I am trying to install a Sapphire HD 4870 w/ 1 GB vram. When I power up the system I do not have any display at all, and I have three red LED lights appearing, labeled D1601, D1602 and D1603. Googling this seems to indicate a power problem but I think my PSU is enough to power this card. The only other equipment connected to the PSU is an E8500 with the stock cooler, a DVD drive, a single hard drive, and one case fan.

My biggest question is how to connect this video card to the PSU. The power supply only has one PCI-E power plug. The Sapphire card came with two cables that appear to be adapters to connect the six pin connection of the card to the standard four pins of the PSU. I have tried using both cables and I have also tried using the PCI-e power cable from the PSU in one connection and the adapter cables that came with the card for the other connection. In both instances I do not have anything displaying on the screen (the light stays amber so the monitor never even "wakes up" ) and I have the three red LED lights.

Any insights?

Thanks for your response. The problem was indeed not enough power but not because of a PSU problem. The problem was an improperly seated auxillary power connection. Once that was plugged in properly, everything worked great.

For me it turned out there was no actual hardware problem. My motherboard has two power connections. The primary 24 pin power connection plus a 4 pin auxillary power connection. I was experiencing the above problems because the auxillary power was NOT plugged in. I think while assembling the computer I unplugged it and when I plugged it back in I hadn't plugged it in all the way.

My power supply is comfortably handling the E8500 and 4870 graphics card in my PC. Grand Theft Auto IV is playing great! I should note that contrary to what I had stated in my original post, the power supply does indeed have TWO PCI-E power connections and I did not need to use any of the adapters that came in the 4870 box. This might have also been contributing to my problems. Next time I assemble a PC I will keep the Jack Daniels in the cabinet until I've successfully POSTed!

bump

I am also having the same problem with the red lights except mine turn on and stay on from the get go and I don't even see anything post. I have a brand new system that came in two days ago (3/18). The following is my system spec:

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V
nForce 790i Ultra SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA HD

Another issue I seem to have is that the USB keyboard and mouse dont' power up either. Is this a PSU problem? Yarr!

For the life of me I cannot figure out what the issue is. Now, grant it, I haven't built a new system in a long time, but for crying out loud, I should be able to do this.

Any help is greatly appreciated

It may just be a faulty PSU, as that Corsair should have enough juice to power your rig, but rather searh for the online PSU calc and make sure you have enough wattage etc.

PS, it has a single 12V rail

Very true , I figured out that my problems were a motherboard issue.

Its not that the motherboard isnt "handling it" , its that the motherboard is just bad. At least mine was , and make sure it doesnt need extra power from a floppy cable like mine did.