Need help with FX 5900XT

[mainevent13]

hey peeps,
i aint a real techinal person when it comes to computers so please dont laugh at me. i got a pretty old AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 1998MHz and my mate brought round a FX 5900 XT card that he had lying around. So i chucked it in my comp but after the very first loading screen where it says the name of the graphics card all i get is this black screen with a typing cursor and white dotted horizontal lines all over the screen..?? can anyone help or is my comp just too crap..??

 

[buzznut]

hey peeps,
i aint a real techinal person when it comes to computers so please dont laugh at me. i got a pretty old AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 1998MHz and my mate brought round a FX 5900 XT card that he had lying around. So i chucked it in my comp but after the very first loading screen where it says the name of the graphics card all i get is this black screen with a typing cursor and white dotted horizontal lines all over the screen..?? can anyone help or is my comp just too crap..??

Is that an AGP card? There's a difference between AGP pro and AGP4X/8X. Is the card seating properly?
If all is well with the slot and/or seating then my guess is a bad card or driver issues, which probably won't get solved with the card installed. What were you running previously? Was it onboard?

 

[mainevent13]

yeah ah AGP 8x and yeah i checked it was all seating right 3 or 4 times but same result.its got a Galaxy Zeus 5500 at the moment which is running sweet and before that i think just the onboard prosavageR 32mb..do you reckon it could be a power unit problem..?not enough power to run it..?

 

[buzznut]

Its possible but I couldn't say for sure without knowing more about your PSU. I wouldn't think the 5900XT could pull alot more than the 5500, but that's another issue as I just don't know the power draw specifics.
Lets eliminate driver issues as they are both nVidia cards from the same 5000 series, no?

 

[mainevent13]

yea both nvidia both 5000 series..

 

[mainevent13]

yeah i wouldnt even no how to get the specs for my psu aye.i was just reading up on some other posts and power supply problems came up on a few of them but yeah not too sure..

 

[mainevent13]

yeah i wouldnt even no how to get the specs for my psu aye.i was just reading up on some other posts and power supply problems came up on a few of them but yeah not too sure..

 

[buzznut]

Well, typically the PSU information is located on the side of the unit. If you remove the side panel, the side of the power supply should show information about the Volts and amps available.

Did you plug a molex into the power connector? It looks as though the 5900XT does require more power including an extra 12V molex connected. It is looking more likely that there is a power issue.

 

[mainevent13]

yeah um the card came with a 4 pin power splitter cable which i plugged into a spare splitter cable just hanging off one of the drives. It said that if there was a spare one just to plug it in, or would it have to plug directly into the psu instead of just a spare..?

 

[4745454b]

You got major problems here. It might be wanting more power then your horribly old PSU can provide. Worse, I'm not sure if your computer is new enough to handle any of the new units being sold today. You might need to look around for some older units that still have all the rails (-5v ?) and one that has a large 3.3 and 5V rail. All modern PSUs lack the -5V and have large 12V rails because thats what modern computers use. I'm not sure when the change happened. You'd need someone more knowledgeable then I to tell you.

 

[mainevent13]

*** that sucks yeah i might look around see want i can find..thanks for the help anyway man appreciate it

 

[apache_lives]

computer = crap
video card with lines down screen = typical faulty video card

 

[buzznut]

yeah um the card came with a 4 pin power splitter cable which i plugged into a spare splitter cable just hanging off one of the drives. It said that if there was a spare one just to plug it in, or would it have to plug directly into the psu instead of just a spare..?

Near as I can tell, the 5900XT pulls about 80 watts under full load. I say take it out, put the 5500 back in and save for an upograde. You'll be looking at about $200 for a mobo, ram, cpu and PSU. Then whatever you feel like you should get for a video card..

I (we) can make some recommendations for a budget gamer or general purpose pc if you like.

 

[dalauder]

Bake it