Odd FireGL problem.

I have a Dell Precision 690 workstation, and I am upgrading the video card from a FireGL 5700 to a FireGL 7200. (i think)

Anywho, i plug the 7200 in and its showing signs of video card problems. So, thinking that i got a bad card, i took it back to where i got it, where it was tested and shown it works perfectly on other systems. I did some searches online, but to no avail.

Is the port dirty? or is it a bad connection? The power supply works fine and everything (750 watt) Or something else?

Yes, i plugged in the power. Yes, i turned on the monitor.

If you knew enough to install your own vid card then why did you not describe what kind of problem you are having? What OS you are using? System specs??

Is this the first time you have tried to install a vid card?

reply to post by shiman


I will help you if I can but I need a lot more than a Video problem and it might just be this card but i'm not really sure.

Im sorry about that. Was too vague for some reason. I noticed the problem during POST, on my 690, some of the letters were different, the dell logo had some odd pixels in it because it was an image, while it was showing some of the POST after the logo, some letters were different inconsistently, For example: there would be some B's on the screen that were changed to a french symbol, and some that were completely fine. The OS is Ubuntu Studio 11.04. When running the generic display driver, there are some funny pixels on both of my screens, in the same place (doing a dual display) so i figured its not the screens having issues. When i try the proprietary ATI driver, the system crashes. Everything is completely fine with the FireGL 5700.

This is not the first time i have installed a video card, although its the first workstation i have ever used.

Specs:
Intel Core Duo Xeon 3.2 GHz, 2 CPU, 4 logical cores per cpu
14 GB DDR2 ECC ram
120 GB Hard drive (Ubuntu system)
200 GB Hard drive
400 GB Hard drive

Anything else that I left out?

reply to post by shiman


I haven't had time to do much research on it so this is just a quick guess but it I would check to see if you need a legacy driver for that, looks like that vid card is a 2007 release. If you are using a live cd version they may have started dropping older drivers for space.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


Another thought I just had. If you partitioned the HD and are running both windows and Ubuntu check to see if Ubuntu has WINE and just port the vid driver from windows.

Originally posted by EndGovtCorruption
reply to post by shiman

 

I haven't had time to do much research on it so this is just a quick guess but it I would check to see if you need a legacy driver for that, looks like that vid card is a 2007 release. If you are using a live cd version they may have started dropping older drivers for space.

Key words: It happens during POST. You know, what you see when you first turn on the computer? I know for a fact it is not a driver issue.

Besides, i have the feeling its the power supply. It takes an additional 6 pin power input straight from the power supply, and it might not be supplying enough volts.

reply to post by shiman


You may be right about it not being a driver but I doubt it is a power source problem, especially with the NIX system showing the problem. I would be curious to see what the other 2 hdds have on them and if they are booting. It's deff a boot issue but a work station power source should be able to handle it unless it is ancient. Are you using LILO?

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


Not to insult you, do you know what POST is?

reply to post by shiman


Sooo, let me get this straight, shes running 3 different HDDs one of which you know shes running a NIX system, the only system she has indicated she had a problem with, the other 2 you have no clue what OS she is running, or the boot order yet you know this is a power source problem??

I have no clue what post is lol!! I would think the logical response would be what boot order is taking place first? Are the other HDD's booting? That is why I asked her what partition/HDD she was booting, or if she had LILO. In fact until I have that you could be talking about nothing more than a corrupted HDD. Geeze

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


You're WAY overthinking this dude. I know exactly what the OS is. Theres an ubuntu studio 11.04 system on the first, the second and third have no OS, and are empty. My bootloader is GRUB 2.

Wait, what are you talking about? I'm having video HARDWARE issues on only one computer, even though the video device works perfectly on other systems.

The video problem starts to occur during POST. POST stands for Power On Self Test. It is the thing you see about one second after you press the power button on your computer. POST starts right after BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) Initialization.

What leads me to believe its a power problem is this card requires additional power, and the problems happening on the screen lead me to believe an underpowered GPU, based upon the fact the images on the screen are created through calculating the input from the system itsself, and some of it is being mis-calculated, by either a defective or underpowered video device. I have deduced that it isnt defective, as it works perfectly on other systems.

I was hoping to get an opinion from someone else on here.

There is more to a computer than just the OS

reply to post by shiman


If you were having hardware issues during post you would be getting BIOS beep codes, you have not mentioned that once, if you are not getting them it is not a POST issue but a software issue. Explain more please, I would love to help you out but it is not making sense.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


You say the card needs more power? How exactly do you know it needs more power other than your opinion. Not being an ahole, just curious as to how you know it needs more power yet you can't supply it with it?

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


So, I'm not getting any beep codes because the BIOS doesnt check for any problems with the card, it just checks to see if its there or not. I did not mention any beep codes, because i didnt get any beep codes. However, i have mentioned multiple times that i notice this video problem during POST. Please explain how drivers can run without their respective OS's?

Is there anybody else watching this thread?

Click here for more information.

People, people. It's a sad day in ATS history when we have fisticuffs in the computer help forum.

Let's respect each other and don't make it personal. We're not here to compare brain pans. Either try and help to resolve the issue in the OP or move on to the next thread.

reply to post by shiman


From what your describing it does sound like it could be a power supply issue. You said you have a 750watt power supply. However in my experience alot of the cheaper low end brands have low amperage ratings for the 12v rail. Something you may want to check into is how many amps in can provide on the 12v rail (PCI-E 6 Pin or 6+2 Pin Connection). I myself have a MSI Geforce GTX 560TI Twin Frozr II that requires a minimum of a 500watt PSU, capable of at least 40 amps on the 12v rail. This card hits around 350 watts under full load by itself.


Looking up the card your using I found the following for requirements:

"PCI Express based workstation with available x16 lane graphics slot
Connection to the system power supply (adapter included)
450-Watt power supply or greater (assumes fully loaded system)"

I have in the past with both Nvidia and ATI cards seen artifacting or incorrect characters displayed during post. Some were caused due to cheap and inefficient power supplies that claimed high wattage but when load tested are actually much much less. Others were due to dirty pci-e slots or overheating, and in one case of a 6870 radeon recently, it was discovered that the PCI-e interconnect was actually missing an entire contact, which caused some weird effects on the screen during boot clear through OS load.

What brand/model of power supply are you using, and do you know what the 12v rail amperage rating is? Granted as I stated before my personal video card is a gaming card and as such requires a hefty power supply, but even these workstation type cards can draw alot. You stated it worked fine in another system. What were the PSU specs on it, do you know?

I build custom gaming and 3D gaming design/programming systems for people all the time. Been doing it for about 12 years now. I've seen this sort of thing happen many times. Just really sounds like a PSU issue to me. And even if you do have a nice psu with good amperage on the 12v rail, its still possible it may have some type of problem on the 12v PCI-E power connector rail itself. If you have another PSU you could test with, I would recommend trying that first.

Will continue to follow this post.