No picture from my GTX 260?

[Joerassic]

The GTX 260 I just purchased will not provide any picture. When I boot the system, the card's fan runs fine (actually seems like it's running slower than it should be) and I can hear Windows 7 boot correctly, from my speakers. My power supply is an Ultra LS 600 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3255393&CatId=1483) and here is the link for the GTX 260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433).

I have one 6 pin PCI connector running directly from my PSU and the other is a x2 molex to PCI (6 pin) adapter. The unusual thing about my molex adapter (came with my 9800 GT) is that it has 3 male prongs on each molex end, instead of 4 male prongs and I am wondering if that is the reason why the card is acting up.

I am also using a DVI to VGA adapter on the back of the card.

I messed around with the BIOS to no avail and since my current GPU (9800 GT) uses the same drivers as the GTX 260 does, I ruled out the drivers being the problem.

Here are some of my other system specifications:

MOBO - Biostar 880G+
CPU - AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor
RAM - 4GB of G.Skill DDR3 PC3-10700
Display - 20" 1440 x 900

This is driving me crazy! Help?

Also I provided some pictures (attachments) to show the community what I meant by 3 male prongs. You can see that the 4th one is missing and there is just a hole there.

On the PCI end there are 5 holes with metal in them and one that is missing metal.

 

[beenthere]

I think the problem may be your 4 to 6 pin adapter but not because of the missing male terminal, which is typically just a extra ground wire. You need to have BOTH of the 4 pin male molex connectors plugged in to power both sets of +12V terminals on the 6-pin Video card connector. Try plugging BOTH 4-pin molex connectors into your 12V PSU cables.

 

[Joerassic]

I think the problem may be your 4 to 6 pin adapter but not because of the missing male terminal, which is typically just a extra ground wire. You need to have BOTH of the 4 pin male molex connectors plugged in to power both sets of +12V terminals on the 6-pin Video card connector. Try plugging BOTH 4-pin molex connectors into your 12V PSU cables.

I don't if I'm just retarded or if it's way too late but I didn't really understand that. Is there a specific set of cables coming from my PSU that the adapter should be plugged into? I believe I've switched to every possible combination to no avail.

 

[jsc]

That is a pretty much standard adapter. The yellow wires are the 12 volt leads, the brown and black wires are both ground wires. The missing wire on the molex end is supposed to go to the PSU 5 volt output which is not used here.

If you look closely, both brown wires go to the center pin of the PCI end. The molex ends are supposed to be plugged into different cables from the PSU although it usually does not make much difference.

The card could be defective. You need to try it in another working system to make sure it does work.

If the card works in another computer, the next possibility is the PSU. Ultra's are about one step above generic junk. It's an old design - relatively heavy 5 volt rail (32 amps instead of the more common 20 - 24 amps) and a relatively light 12 volt rail (32 amps). A modern 600 watt PSU should be able to produce 40 - 45 amps. And any modern 600 watt PSU will have 2 PCIe power cables.

This is basically a 450 watt PSU. Now, there is nothing wrong with a 450 watt power supply as long as you are aware that that is what you are getting.

Even so, under full load, your system will not pull more than 270 watts from the PSU. The Ultra should be able to support that.

 

[Joerassic]

I wonder if GeekSquad would charge me if I asked them to pop it into one of their machines. Knowing how greedy BestBuy is, I'd assume they would.

 

[Joerassic]

To be honest, I really think if the GTX 260 had a VGA slot on it, it would be displaying on my monitor right now. Either my BIOS isn't letting my monitor pick up DVI, my DVI to VGA adapter is faulty or my monitor just doesn't like DVI (despite it having a f**king DVI port). I tried using an actual DVI cable to connect the GTX 260 to my monitor via DVI connection and I didn't get s**t. I feel like if the card was broken, it wouldn't even power on. I don't think it's a PSU issue, to be honest. I don't know. I'm going to try and find someone with a powerful system to see if the card actually works. Maybe GeekSquad will do it for free (not holding my breath on that one, lol). I just think the fault lies within the signal... somewhere.

 

[beenthere]

Maybe you don't understand what I am saying. You need to plug BOTH molex connectors into +12v PSU cables because one molex powers one +12V pin on the Vid card and the other molex connector powers a second +12V pin in the 6-pin Vid card connector. BOTH molex connectors need to be powering the 6-pin Vid card connector, not just one.

 

[Joerassic]

Maybe you don't understand what I am saying. You need to plug BOTH molex connectors into +12v PSU cables because one molex powers one +12V pin on the Vid card and the other molex connector powers a second +12V pin in the 6-pin Vid card connector. BOTH molex connectors need to be powering the 6-pin Vid card connector, not just one.

Oh yeah dude, I know. I have both of them attached. I really don't think the problem lies within the PSU because the GTX boots and the fan runs and I can hear it working I just cannot see anything on the monitor. Grrrr. I feel like installing a GPU should NOT be this hard. FFS. I should have just bought a GTS 450 or a 6770. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU WORLD.