nVidia GPU Problems

[Nemo]

I received an email from a gentleman who purchased a graphics card from me and this is a problem he is having.

"Thank you for your offer to assist. It generates a warning message from Nvidia system sentinel that it's not getting enough power, and is being throttled back. I've gone through the entire range of diagnostics, so I won't bore you with the details, except to say that my new 750W power supply didn't stop the error message from appearing.

From all the postings I've read, it seems to be a communication issue between the card and the PS, obviously, not a problem with the PS. In some cases a bios update on the card fixes it, but evga tells me that there isn't a new bios for that card."

Any thoughts?

 

[Thatguy]

What card is it, what mobo is he running it on, and does he have it hooked up to the 12V rail? Also, have him uninstall drivers on it, use DriverCleaner while in safe mode, and restart the computer back to normal mode and install the newest drivers.

 

[Lafinass]

Indeed, as Thatguy said, we need specifics on the make and model for both motherboard and video card.

 

[Nemo]

It's an EVGA 7900 GTX and he has a 750W PSU. I'll see what I can get from him.

 

[Ephyu]

I've seen this problem very recently, and it's not really a "miscommunication." Even with a high-capacity PSU, the card may not get the power it needs. The PSU splits its output between multiple rails, and many cables will "share" their portion of the power between each other. This problem can occur when all the devices in a system are drawing power from the same rail on a PSU and the other rails are being neglected. In the case of a modular power supply installed in a computer built for a friend of mine, it had six rails, and two were dedicated to video card use, with a single cable on each rail. The video card was originally installed in such a way that its cords were plugged into another slot on the PSU where it was sharing power with the rest of the system, and it would frequently give such a warning. When switched so that it had its wiring running to the dedicated video card rails, it ran just fine. Be sure to see which cords go where, and try to make sure that the cords running to the video card have as little on them as possible, even further up the tree. Maybe check the PSU's manual and see what cords go to what rail, especially in the case of a high-end modular power supply that may have 6+ smaller rails, rather than the normal two large ones.

Also, ensure that all the plugs on both the motherboard and the graphics card are plugged in very tight. Many PCI-E compatible motherboards lately REQUIRE that a 4 pin molex connector from the PSU goes straight into a dedicated space on the motherboard to power the PCI-E slot, even if power will also be going straight into the card. This socket is usually on the top, right side of the motherboard (assuming normal orientation).

Hope that helps, when you get specifics I can try to do more research.

 

[Hidden_Question]

ya a 7900 GTX definitely requires a extra 4 pin.

 

[MrQ]

[quote1209435546=Hidden_Question]
ya a 7900 GTX definitely requires a extra 4 pin.
[/quote1209435546]

Its a six pin and is usually run off a 12 volt rail. The 4-pin is power for the mobo. If he has got it booted up fully then it is not an issue with the 4/8pin connector or the 24pin. The best deal is is to remove everything off the psu minus the gpu 6pin, 4 pin, 24 pin, hd 5volt and cd drive 5volt. You gotta strip it down to find the problem. If it works then start adding fans, extra hds, cd drives and such back on until you encounter the problem.

Nobody ever said troubleshooting was easy .

(Generally the plugs closest to the PSU provide more amperage than the ones farther down the line.)