Hey everyone this is my first post and I sure could use your help. I hate to be so needy right off the bat, but after reading through the posts on this board it seems there are some very knowledgable folks that maybe could help me out. 1st thing I have never installed a video card before and it's not going the way that I had hoped. Just purchased an EVGA 6800GS and tried to install it. My computer won't even turn on once I put the new card in. I have a Sony RA 820G, here's the specs that I know- Pentium 4 3.2gHz, Intel 915P Motherboard, 1gb of pc3200 ram, pci-express. Let me know if there are any more specs that would be helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have left a message with EVGA's customer support, but figured someone on here might be able to help. No telling when they will call back. Thanks, Wes
Have you connected to card to the power supply? every high end graphics card has a molex socket on it (molex plugs are used for hdd, dvd drives etc etc) + sorry, thats not meant to be insulting if you have
No offense taken, I did hook it up (had to use a y adapter to get 2 molex's). I talked to EVGA tech support the only suggestion they had was to clear the cmos memory(whatever that is- he told me how to do it). Said if that didn't work that the card must be defective and to send it back to the retailer. Just tried something. Put the card in and didn't hook up the power cables and the computer turned on and the fan on the graphics card started spinning. Is there some sort of switch on the power supply to make the spare molex work? I have a 365 watt power supply(Delta brand) Thanks Wes
update With the card in and no power hooked up(just pci-express) the card works, but a message comes up showing that it has a low voltage and has to reduce settings. I spoke to EVGA again and they seem to think with this being the case that the card is not defective, but that I have an inadequate power supply. Is there some way to get a power supply to just power the card or do I need to replace the psu in my pc? Or can you think of a possible fix for my psu(EVGA says this card needs a minimum psu of 350 and mine is 365- I assume the size is all relative to how much juice the other components are eating up, though)? Wes
yeah, read the post which said i have a 365 watt psu, bingo! You can change the power supply, just make sure you get a good one. http://www.hardwareforums.com/power-supplies-you-why-you-dont-want-cheap-psu-updated-9-2-05-a-5218/ i see your still online, im off to bed tho! (as its nearly 3am and ive been up since 7:30am yesterday! + i have to get up @ 10) if you have any more questions i will be back around 10:30 tonight, but im sure one of the other regulars here will answer your questions [when they see it in recent posts anyway ] ps a tempory solution untill you can gate a better psu is to run your computer off 2 psu's (one for the computer, one for the grap card) i had to do this for awile as my new sata hd used a power connector that my psu diddnt have! if youve got an old one lying around / can get one say so and i will dig out + post a nice picture showing you how to start the second psu (as it wont have a power switch, cos it dont have a case!)
Hey wesg, Welcome to Hardware Forums :hi2: :hi2: It is definetly your PSU, 350w just is not enough power for a PC, let alone one with a high end GPU. I dont know if you have a price range in mind, but i would recommend a Hiper 580w (650w peak) PSU, the are really really good, and also look excellent! You will have 230w more power than you currently have, and the PSU has 2x pci e connectors , so if in the future you decide to buy antother 6800 you will be able to run them in SLI mode, so the PSU is also future proof. I bought my HIPER PSU from overclocker at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hiper.html its £65 so its not really cheap, but i think its worth it. Let me know what you think :sniper: :sniper:
Thanks for the replies. I'm learning the hard way why you don't buy a box computer! After doing some research on Sony and their psu's it appears that they use a proprietary psu and people seem to have lots of problems replacing them due to the Sony psu being a different size. I found quite a few sony owners that had to take everything out of their tower and put it in a new one in order to ugrade the psu(of course Sony says something to the effect that you might blow yourself up and that you will void your warranty if you mess with the psu). Wow, this easy $200 upgrade is getting pretty expensive. I plan to go to my local computer shop today(custom built shop,not major box retailer) and see if they think that switching everything to a new case would be the best bet. What do you guys think? If yes, I will see what they would charge for everything, as I'm not too comfortable with the idea of gutting it myself. Do you think that 400 watts is a waste of time, what would be your minimum recommendation. I want to do it as cheaply as possible because all of this is an unforseen(at least by me) expense. I have seen a 480watt Antec locally, would this be enough? I noticed their name wasn't on the list of recommended psu's, so I'm a little leary of them. I don't want the best right now just something that will get me up and running until I can afford major upgrades. Bottom line seems to be "Do not buy a computer from an electronics store or major retailer if you ever want to upgrade"! Hind sight is 20/20, but in the future I will buy from a custom shop. I'll bet you all have never heard that one before, lol. Thanks, Wes
Jim,thanks for the input. As far as size goes(wattage), what do you think? I guess size does matter, lol.
If your order online you will have a much larger selection and you wil be able to get a nive powerfull psu, get as many watts as u can man! as long as its on the recomended list you will (should ) be fine. buying online in the uk saves you £10-15 on average (about $20-30) and hardware seems to be more expensive here than it is in america, its the same with dvds :crying:
Update- When it rains it pours! Just got word back from pc shop. They can switch everything over to another case with a new psu, but another problem came up. The motherboard in my computer is apparently another Sony proprietary part. It won't switch out to another case. So now I'm looking at getting a new motherboard, new psu, and new tower. All just to get upgraded graphics in a Sony pc. The prices that I was given seemed pretty high compared to the net. How hard would it be for me to take on the job myself? Am I crazy to even consider it? Wes
Just saw your post. I'm in America and will probably be ordering from a place called New Egg(that's where I got the card) if you think it is something that I can handle. They seem to have pretty good prices. Any suggestions for a motherboard? Wes
update Well I'm going ahead and letting local shop switch it all out for me. It's going to be $488 US total, with tax. I could have gotten the same parts online for around $300, so, essentially, I'm paying $188 for installation and support(at their prices they aren't charging me for the install). They have been in business in the same location since 1991 and some people that I know have recommended them to me. So they're not a fly by night company. I thought it would be benificial to let them do it in case something else comes up(plus I'm going out of town next week and they can have it ready for me today). They're using an Antec neoHE 500w psu, so I should be good to go on the new graphics card, hopefully. Thanks for helping me narrow it down to the psu. Wes
Just got my computer back and ended up costing $500. They put an Intel 925xcv motherboard in which uses a different kind of memory and switched out my old memory for a 1gb strip(new is ddr2 533- old was ddr 400-pc3200). I'm about to insall the operating system and see what happens. Wes
Here's a shocker. The Sony recover disks won't work now. LOoks like I might have to buy an operating system. Did I already say Sony Sux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the problem with trying to upgrade factory built computers *cough*dell*cough* the parts are specialist and the company that built it expect you to pay them to upgrade it etc etc, then they charge rip-off prices... Sorry to hear things going so badly for you...
Hey Matt, what do I need now? If I get the full version of windows xp, will I be good to go? Or are there other things that I need? It came with windows media center, but I don't care if I have that or not. Will it be ok to switch to windows xp home edition? Thanks, Wes
Yeah it should be oaky, if you do a re-format and re-install to completely wipe and start again. The sony recover disks won't work because you're not using the hardware that sony sent out with the machine and the recover disks are usually configured to work with certain hardware that's installed on the pre-built computer.
