[darkarius]

I have been having problems with the video on my 4870x2 card showing a display for more then 30 minutes. So I rigged the power supply in a way that I have 3 lines feeding the card. When I turned it on the screen remained black with a occational blink at the bottom of white and green.

I have four video card slots on my board so I tried to switch the card to another slot, same thing. I then took the video card from my sons computer and tried it in mine, still the same result.

From the tests I have done I think that my Video card is good but could I have fried the PCI express lanes in my board? or is this a software issue?
I can't even look at the bios and I have tried a CMOS reset already and no change.

Also I can hear the sound of Windows booting up on my comp just fine so the sound card, Cpu and other things are working just no video in any of the PCI express slots with any video card.

Any help would be appreciated-thanks in advance.

[Fozzik]

You don't, by any chance, have onboard video on that motherboard? If you do, try hooking up to that so you can get in the BIOS and check settings.

Have you tried a different monitor, or different video cable?

Are you using VGA or DVI? Try the opposite of whatever you're using.

I've never heard of that power supply brand (not necessarily a bad thing), are they typically considered reliable and solid?

It's hard to imagine it being a software problem when you're getting the same result with two different graphics cards, and getting no display even on boot. If resetting the BIOS doesn't get you any display, it's hard to check BIOS settings to see if the software PCIe switch is fouled up.

If none of the above things make a difference...sounds like motherboard is the only other place to go. The fact that you're doing some overclocking along with the symptoms make me think a motherboard issue is fairly likely.

[darkarius]

I wiped and reinstalled all my programs. At first everything seemed to work fine but then when I installed Supreme Commander 2 and put 2xAA on in the game it played two long games online and on the second it cut off. I started it back up and played a another game and five minutes into that game it cut off. I cut AA off and it still cut off.

So I removed the game and the steam client and things worked ok for a while but after some time when I let my computer idle after about 5 hours it would cut off. Now it doesn't last longer then 20 minutes if I am watching Hulu or playing a Blu Ray movie.

Do you think any of my parts are damaged? How can I get to the bottom of this?

[Fozzik]

Sounds a little like something may be overheating... My first guess would be the video card.

Do you have another card you could swap in and test with?

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by darkarius

I then took the video card from my sons computer and tried it in mine, still the same result.

If you did the reverse you could rule out the card.

Same with the monitor, use it on his computer with his card. If it's fine it's also not the monitor.

That would rule out both your card and your monitor. After that then it very likely could be the motherboard.

I suppose there is also a chance it could be the power supply, which testing his card and his monitor on your board / PSU could help track down.

[darkarius]

OK, here is the latest update: I bought a 1000wt Kingwin Lazer 80 Bronze certified( after I looked over the 14 reviews on Newegg all rating it five stars )and it has indeed solved the auto cutoff problem my computer was having( I think it was cutting off when I ran games and the wattage became to demanding from my gpu ).

However I am now having blue screens after I play for more then ten minutes in a game like Supreme Commander or Supreme Commander 2 the cpu temps get as high as 52 degrees Celcius. When it restarts in the screens before windows it says that the checksum does not match. After I let the comp cool for twenty minutes then everything is fine as long as I do everything except games.

This feels like a curse I can now watch Blu Ray, stream Hulu, and Download whatever with no problems but what I like to do most is forbidden .

I bought a Coolit Domino and hooked it up this last January, When I first hooked it up the idle ran at 33 while the load was 37 degrees celcius. Now I run idle 40 and the Coolit readout is at 45 before it cuts off( the Asus program temp shows 52 degrees Celcius ). The only thing I can think of is the times it has reached 52 Celcius( 120 Degrees which is boiling )it vaporized the fluid and now I somehow need to get more cooling fluid in the radiator. Tell me if you think that I am right and help would be appreciated.

[rabb1t]

If you are running liquid shouldn't there be a resivoir you can check?

[Fozzik]

Since when is 120 degrees boiling? 212 degrees F is boiling for water. If the reservoir is low, it's more likely there's a leak somewhere than that the liquid is boiling off.

120 is warm for a CPU, but most CPUs I know about would run just fine at that temperature. It doesn't sound like CPU temp is your problem. Water cooling sounds like a lot of overkill when you haven't really found the problem yet. What about motherboard and GPU temps?

Unless something has changed, Kingwin is not a good brand of power supplies. Just getting one that claims a high wattage isn't the best idea...you need a well-built one that provides not only consistent power at high temps, but also good fault tolerance so if there's a surge or short it won't take a bunch of your other components with it.

It's possible that if the computer was running for a time on a badly built power supply that you were drawing too much power from, that it may have damaged your motherboard or CPU during one of the times it shut down. Sometimes if a CPU gets internal damage due to a power spike, ESD, or a very high temperature, it then becomes more susceptible to heat. So a CPU that could normally handle 150 or 160 degrees F, once it's damaged might only be able to handle 110 F before shutting down. It's at least possible this is what you are seeing.

I just looked it up. The max temperature that the Phenom II X4 is rated for is 62 degrees C (144 degrees F). This means it should run fine up to that temp, and become unstable above that temp. It shouldn't actually get physically damaged until much higher, like probably 85 or 90 C. Like I said, it's possible that would change if it's been damaged.

[darkarius]

Originally Posted by Fozzik

Since when is 120 degrees boiling? 212 degrees F is boiling for water. If the reservoir is low, it's more likely there's a leak somewhere than that the liquid is boiling off.

120 is warm for a CPU, but most CPUs I know about would run just fine at that temperature. It doesn't sound like CPU temp is your problem. Water cooling sounds like a lot of overkill when you haven't really found the problem yet. What about motherboard and GPU temps?

Unless something has changed, Kingwin is not a good brand of power supplies. Just getting one that claims a high wattage isn't the best idea...you need a well-built one that provides not only consistent power at high temps, but also good fault tolerance so if there's a surge or short it won't take a bunch of your other components with it.

It's possible that if the computer was running for a time on a badly built power supply that you were drawing too much power from, that it may have damaged your motherboard or CPU during one of the times it shut down. Sometimes if a CPU gets internal damage due to a power spike, ESD, or a very high temperature, it then becomes more susceptible to heat. So a CPU that could normally handle 150 or 160 degrees F, once it's damaged might only be able to handle 110 F before shutting down. It's at least possible this is what you are seeing.

I just looked it up. The max temperature that the Phenom II X4 is rated for is 62 degrees C (144 degrees F). This means it should run fine up to that temp, and become unstable above that temp. It shouldn't actually get physically damaged until much higher, like probably 85 or 90 C. Like I said, it's possible that would change if it's been damaged.

You are right, I got the same answer from a coolit rep as far as going well beyond the 52C that I reached.

As far as the 120 degrees F I was told that in either middle or high school( might have been 120C though ), anyway where I stand today is I went to Asus directly since some of the time my screen cut off I could hear sound of what ever I was playing I figured it might be the card. I thought it was damaged and was dreading replacing it.

I downloaded the Asus drivers and so far everything is working fine( accept when I try to play a LAN game with my step son we get desynct detected as soon as the game starts ), I am afraid to turn on the AA as that seemed to be when my problems materialized the first time.

I thank you for the help, and keep a lookout for me as this might not be the end of my troubles

Thanks again Rabb1t and Foz.

Oh and I bought the Kingwin 1000wt Lazer only after reading some sight reviews HardOCer's being the one that convinced me with what seemed to be thorough testing and the all 14 buyers giving it 5 stars( I know 14 is not alot but it's quite a few for not having one review giving it one to four stars. The way I see it is the best person to tell you if a product is worth while is someone who bought it. I may be wrong as I was twice before when I bought the Ultra 550wt PSU and the Xigmatek 850WT PSU. So far though this PSU is working very well.