Faulty Gfx card? - Random "noise" lines on screen

[Hodgkinson]

Hi all,
I've just bought a new graphics card (Ok, its an AGP board for my PC, but Amiga's can also use graphics cards?) and every now and then I get what appears to be a line of noise across the screen, the same kinda thing as if you have a analogue TV and a noisy thermostat kicks in somewhere in the house - I've only ever noticed it at the same point about 1/4 the way down the screen. The old graphics card never did this, and the PSU (550W) should be more than enough to run the system.
The hardware GPU core temperature monitor never exceeds ~40C, and that’s with an additional "bay cooler" fan positioned beneath the heatsink on the card (No fan when supplied, but I thought it might be worthwhile to do anyway).
I’m using the latest drivers for the card, and the BIOS settings are set as close as I can get them to match the cards specification (It’s a fairly old system, so I can only get close to the popper settings)

Could this be a sign of an error or hardware fault within the Gfx cards GPU?

Advice appreciated,
Hodgkinson.

@Moderators - Please feel free to move this thread if necessary - I felt that if it is a hardware issue that it may be of benefit to any computer system; PC or Amiga (Besides, the warranty on the card won’t last that long).

[Damion]

Assuming everything else is OK, faulty RAM on the card can cause problems like you describe. These things can be a little difficult to pin down, but under-clocking the GPU and/or RAM is one way to check.

[Hodgkinson]

Underclock? I can't say that I've seen settings for that anywhere yet. Ideas? The board is this one (And from this company):
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-GF6225

It should be capable of AGP 8x, but the BIOS AGP speed only goes up to 4x and the driver is reporting the card running at only 2x.

The problem certainly is hard to pin down, even to just notice. I've only seen it when pottering around in XP's desktop, but Im guessing* that it might still be occurring in games etc. Mind you, it's hard to notice when you're trying to land a 747 at Heathrow :-D

I presume that this is probably a hardware fault, though? If it is, im getting a replacement (Shame, it's a nice little card).

[AJCopland]

Sounds like the memory might be overheating as I've had similar display corruption issues when overclocking the memory on nVidia gfx cards.

It looks like it's passively cooled so one thing you could do is screw a little fan onto the heatsink. Or just make sure that you've got plenty of air flowing through the case.

Either way I'd RMA it and see if another one is any better. If not then try one of my suggestions.

Andy

[Hodgkinson]

There's plenty of airflow in the case...
-PSU + Rear case fan + Bay fan blow out at the back
-Front case fan + 2 small fans in HDD caddy blow in at the front.

I don't remember seeing any IC's on the opposite side of the board, so I assume that the RAM is somewhere under the heatsink, even if its bonded to the heatsink or not there's the additional bay fan (Can't think of a better way to describe it) right next to the Gfx card, sucking air over and past the heatsink area. The GPU core is struggling to reach 40C, so im guessing maybe a manufacturing fault somewhere?

EDIT: Ah, Rkauer had the same idea re the "slot" fan with this A3000T.

[Damion]

ATITool should work fine. (I'm not too familiar with NVidia cards, if someone wants to suggest a better tool.)

[MozzerFan]

If you connect it to your monitor via the VGA connector,
it might be worth checking if it does the same when you
connect it via DVI.
Edit: Or try another (better shielded) vga cable.

Regards,
Lloyd

[Hodgkinson]

Ah, it’s DVI->Adaptor->VGA Monitor at the moment. I'll give the other connector a test run. Oh, a trial showed that the outputs are separate to one another, e.g., extended desktop can be implemented with this card... (/Me wonders if this is standard these days...)

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

Right then.

Just the other day I saw the GFX problem again, although this time accompanied by audible clicks from the speakers.
Hence, I’m wondering if the Q-Tec 550W PSU is suffering (CD-Reader, DVD Burner, 2x 80Gb HDD's, 7 fans total (!), PCI modem, PCI sound, PCI USB2.0, 2x 3.5" floppy, and the below Gfx card).

I've got a £40 Amazon voucher to use up. I'd like an extra 100W, and there is some "Atrix" 650W/720W PSU's that look interesting.
Now, we’ve always bought cheap PSU’s (~£20) over the years, and as a result we don’t really know what brand would be considered for decent, reliable PSUs.

Suggestions, folks?  :-D

[alexh]

Sounds unlikely.

I've got a DVDRW, 6xHD, Geforce gfx card, 1394b card, sound card, 2x Gig E cards, TV card, SATA RAID card, old power hungry Pentium IV Northwood and I only have a £20 350W PSU.

It is a common mistake to evaluate different PSUs by comparing their maximum total power output. This is not a very accurate way of comparison. It’s a bit like comparing different cars by how high their speedometer has been marked. For a modern system the 12V will be the most important load. PSUs are labelled with max power output for the different lines. Comparison of ATX 2.01/2.2 PSUs can be a bit more complicated. The problem is to find out the maximum 12V output when having more than one 12V line. Unfortunately it is not always correct to just add up the maximum output of the different 12V lines.

Invest in a £10 antisurge extension cord? Add a ferrite ring to the Kettle lead going into the PSU?

Names to look for? Enermax, ThermalTake, Qtec, Nexus, Seasonic, Corsair.

[Piru]

The PSU has more than enough juice (but in theory it still can be the PSU if it's failing). I ran ASUS P5B-E, E6320 @2.8GHz, 2GB DDR2-800, DVD-RW, HDD and 8800GT with noname 350W and it was just fine.

Remember that even the most efficient PSUs have only around 80% efficiency, meaning that with 550W PSU you will be losing minimum 110W, even when totally idle.

With that 650W/720W it would be 130W/144W lossage... Ouch.

[Hodgkinson]

True, efficiency is an issue, but I assumed that the efficiency figure was based on the power being drawn from the PSU as opposed to that which the PSU is rated at?

Qtec as a good brand? I wouldn't of guessed judging by their prices alone...(The one in there at the minute is a Qtec)

One other one that im looking at is a Ezcool 650W...

[Hodgkinson]

Would it be worth while downrating and going for, say, a Thermaltake 420W?
EDIT: How about this one?

On a similar note, would anyone trust this PSU? (New seller in particular)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pimp-My-Player-1124-Micro/dp/B001B1X3Q0/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214133696&sr=1-41
(Eg, say to run a 2GB SCSI HDD, SCSI DAT Tape and SCSI HP CD Burner?)

[Hodgkinson]

The 500W (Actually 450W rebadged) ThermalTake PSU arrived the other day and I've swapped out the old one. Surprisingly, the old PSU looked in good shape inside. I was under the impression it was a Q-Tec, but it was actually a ColoursIT PSU.

Let's hope this new PSU fixes the problem.

PS. I’m kinka pleased how well the wiring has tidied up inside. Might upload one or two photos (On my own site) ;-)

EDIT (Large-ish images):
http://www.booni.info/downloads/PC_Wiring.jpg
http://www.booni.info/downloads/PC_Wiring_Close.jpg

[jj]

Just beacuse the Wattage is adequate does not mean that the power supply is keeping steady volts or amps on the rails.

From past experience of a lot os psu's, you defo get what you pay for.

Cheap £20 - £40 650w psus generally are not up to the task.

The PSU is the only part of a pc i would defo suggest that you spend decent money on, you will not regret it