Problems with ATI

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
Hello, I currently installed new ATI Radeon drivers for my xfx 4890 graphics card. I decided to check out the new features and I found this tool called Overdrive by ATI. Inside of the ATI Cataclyst center you can access this program and it has an option called Autotune. Autotune basically finds out the most overclockage your graphics card can have, apparently. I ran this program and some weird colors came up on my screen immediately. I assumed it was just benchmarking my card because I kept hearing the fan increase and decrease so I figured I would just let the program do its thing. Well, after about 20 minutes I was sitting next to my computer looking up something on the internet on another computer, and all of the sudden. . . BBBZZUUUUH. My computer just crashed. After about 4 hours of completely testing every part of my computer I have come to the conclusion that the program completely fried my Power supply unit and my motherboard. The graphics card and everything else works perfect on my friends desktop computer. What can I do about this? Is there anyway to get a refund on these things or what? I mean I used a program directly from ATI and did not change ANY settings on my graphics card. All I did was simply click the auto tune button that was posted in the overdrive center of cataclyst. There wasnt any warnings of any such thing. If anyone could help with this issue, I would VERY much appreciate it. Thanks.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
U

uh_no

Distinguished
Jul 8, 2009
315
0
18,810
" After about 4 hours of completely testing every part of my computer I have come to the conclusion that the program completely fried my Power supply unit and my motherboard."

Highly unlikely......can you detail how you came to such a conclusion? also using the autotune feature is generally not a great idea....i've never had any remote success with it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
I used my friends power supply and it booted up the computer just fine however the computer gives off 1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps and will not show a display. I basically took every part out of my computer: Ram, graphics card, hard drive, and cpu. I tested all of them in my friends computer and they all worked. However my power supply does not turn on the green light to my motherboard, and when I use my friends power supply on my motherboard with all of HIS parts, the computer boots up but does not give a display. It just gives off 1 long beep with 3 short beeps followed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
I've done more test on the PSU and it is just fried. It will not turn anything on at all lol. But like I said before, when I hook up my friends PSU to my motherboard, it will turn the motherboard on...but it will just give 1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps. I did some research and it said that those particular sounds meant rather a display adapter (gfx card i assume) or something about physical memory problem. I have tested both ram and graphics card though and they both work just fine so I wasnt completely sure what that means. I guess im looking at replacing a mobo and psu. The psu is about 14 months old and the mobo is less than 2 months old. I dont know if ATI would replace them or not but I highly doubt they would do anything at all. I just do not know at this point.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
Ok I was terribly wrong about my PSU. It is not an antec PSU. It is a Diablotek 650 watt atx Power Supply PHD Series. It is also outside of its 1 year warranty since I purchased it about 15 months ago.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
My friend has the exact same motherboard and processor as me. He has a 650 watt Antec PSU. I would only assume that it would have pleny of power to run my motherboard considering we have the exact same one lol. I also put his graphics card in my comp to make sure that my gfx card wasnt taking too much power up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
G

Guest

Guest
I'll assume you were either broke or didn't have the knowledge you have now regarding computer components when you got your brand X PSU. I hope you learned a valuable lesson. Also the 4890 is a bit of a power hog and if I am not mistaken the minimum recommended PSU is 500 Watts but I think you need more than 15 Amps on the +12V rail to properly power those cards. After looking at the specs on that PSU it should have been able to stand up to what you were pushing on it. But that's if it was new and running at near spec efficiency. As we all know, the older parts get, the more they are used, the lower the efficiency is.

So if you were running this in your PC and lets say you had the PSU overclocked, the GPU overclocked and some other power hungry devices thrown in I could see it dying in less then 2 years. Also I note there is only 1 12V rail on it at that maxes out at 38 Amps. That should have been enough. Anyhow, sorry to hear of your woes but next time I would say get a better brand PSU and learn from this little fiasco.

Here's hoping you get the PC running soon. :D But like I said, hope you learned something from this.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
The 650watt Diablotek PSU wasnt enough to run my card with autotune? And yes, I did get the PSU about 15 months ago and I purchased the gfx card about 2 months ago so there is a time difference but I thought surely that 650 watts was enough to run the graphics card to its fullest. I am still confused about what you are saying that I have learned a valuable lesson. What exactly did I do wrong with using this PSU?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
Alright, so what about my motherboard? Do you think it is fried? It just gives off 1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps. All the other components to my computer work fine on my friends comp so the beep sounds cant be related to my components (ram gfx cpu and such) am I right?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
G

Guest

Guest
Simple answer: You went cheap. Diablotek is not a well known nor recognized brand and so should NOT be used on any machine with higher end (read: Anything retail) parts. If you need a replacement PSU for a dell or HP I am sure Diablotek would be fine. It's probably designed for those kinds of applications. But if your running anything that is demanding you need to get a much better brand. Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, Coolermaster, Thermaltake Those are the PSU's you want to look at. Even Gigabyte would be OK in a pinch. But avoid and "house" brands like Ultra or Diablotek, Enermax, Raidmax, those are all garbage and should never be used in a gaming computer.

The motherboard, if it's firing up at all, has a chance to be saved. If it's beeping codes at you, look them up! It could be something as simple as clear the CMOS and hope for the best. You could have fried your PCIE slot but if the Graphics card still works, I doubt it. But the best answer is "DO RESEARCH!" :D Google is best for these situations.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sabot00

sabot00

Distinguished
May 4, 2008
2,387
0
19,860
That 650 watts could be 12 amps on the 12V rail (not enough to power 4890), 12x12 = 144 watts.
100 amps on 3.3V rail = 330 watt
35 amps on 5V rail = 175 watt.
That could have been tested in a 25C environment when a PSU runs at 90C.

Graphics cards only draw from the 12V rail, the rest of the PSU is irrelevant, a 800W PSU is the same as a 400W if they both deliver 15amps on the 12V rail in the eyes of the card.

How many amps are on the 12V rail?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
G

Guest

Guest


38A on the single 12V rail.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

scorpian61

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2009
57
0
18,630
38 amps are on the 12v rail, I believe I understand now. And yes GreeneMan, I went cheap 15 months ago lol but I didnt have near the gaming rig I have now. I did look up the beeping codes but couldnt find them for my particular motherboard, however I will go to the other section of forums for that I suppose. I appreciate everyone that has posted and helped me with this matter. Tom's hardware rocks! Thanks alot!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
G

Guest

Guest
Scorpian, best advice I was ever given re: Gaming computers you might want to take with you. "When you upgrade your rig, always upgrade the PSU! Your old one from a year ago might seem fine, but it's cheaper to spend $100-$150 on a nice PSU then it is to buy all new parts when the old PSU from last year fails you." And that's cause newer devices has different power requirements then your old goodies. When I've done upgrades I always use the Antec Power Calculator to see if I am still in the ballpark and guess how long I have before I need a new PSU. If it's close I buy a new one right away. If I still have 100W worth of headroom, I usually wait it out for 3 or 6 months.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rofl_my_waffle

rofl_my_waffle

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2010
972
0
19,160
A PSU can't last 10 years because specs change.

5 years is a good average. I had a PSU that lasted me that long until they got PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors and stuff. Then cards started having 300W power draw and multi-rail design PSUs suddenly don't have enough amp per rail to feed these monsters.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom