Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT

[Widows]

Hi all, bought a sparkle 9600 GT the other day to use with the dual outputs so I can use my PC monitor for work at my desk and watch movies on my TV in bed.

I installed it on my MSI K9VGM-V mobo and hooked up both screens to the outputs. It ran ok for about an hour then the power just cut out, just leaving the power light flashing, and the machine refused to turn back on again.

I tried an ATX reset+got power back but that didn't seem to make the machine run any longer than before. Thinking it might be a power supply problem I swapped it (450w) for another one I had in the house (550w) and the problem occurred again.

After swapping the power supplies over again I got power so decided to remove the card before it did it again and just went back to using the onboard GPU.
SHortly after, my PC wouldn't boot to windi=ows and I had to reinstall Windows XP for some reason - not sure if they're connected or not,

Just wondering if anyone has any idea as to what's causing this as it's annoying, and I want to watch movies on my big screen ;-)

My system is:
AMD 64x2 4800+ 2.5GHz processor
MSI K9VGM-V mobo
2GB RAM (although 128MB of this is taken up by the onboard GPU)
450W PSU

The card also is PCI 2.0 if that helps

Cheers

[Xlphos]

Hello,

Did you try just one display for a while?

[Widows]

Hello,

Did you try just one display for a while?

I did yes, and the same thing happened.

I was wondering what the difference between the NVidia and the Sparkle versions are, I've found lots of pages saying how the NVidia one comes with a Molex cable that needs to be attached to the Mobo or PSU. My Sparkle card didnt come with one of those cables and I'm wondering if that's the problem

[Widows]

right just set it up to watch something on my bigscreen and about halfway through the film the comp died and I had to ATX reset to get it working again. Cant be a driver issue if its doing this with two different drivers (one of them being the correct one from the install CD)

Could it need its own power supply in addition to whats coming from the PCI slot?

[Xlphos]

Your PSU may have a 6-pin power cable. Try attaching that.

The graphics card should run without the power but when you perform more graphically demanding tasks the card will require more power.

If you need help finding the correct connector try looking at google images for a 6-pin molex. If you don't have one you can get converters.

- Let us know how it goes.

[crunchie]

If there is an option on the card to plug external power in to, then it must be used.

[Widows]

just took my computer down to the local PC store where I bought the card n other parts for my system and they installed it and said it ran fine.

When I got it home and hooked up both screens again, the whole system died after 20mins. I retried twice more and the power dropped out in even less time on both occasions
--- overheating something perhaps?

I unhooked the LCD tv and just used my TFT monitor and it's been fine for over an hour now, so it's looking like there's a problem with one of the ports possibly.

I've swapped the monitor cable to the other output to see if that output port is the culprit so will report back when I have an answer.

If it doesn't give me any trouble it would seem to be that the system is having trouble sending to 2 TV's which would make me think it's either the PSU or something I'm missing in the software settings.

[Xlphos]

just took my computer down to the local PC store where I bought the card n other parts for my system and they installed it and said it ran fine.

When I got it home and hooked up both screens again, the whole system died after 20mins. I retried twice more and the power dropped out in even less time on both occasions
--- overheating something perhaps?

I unhooked the LCD tv and just used my TFT monitor and it's been fine for over an hour now, so it's looking like there's a problem with one of the ports possibly.

I've swapped the monitor cable to the other output to see if that output port is the culprit so will report back when I have an answer.

If it doesn't give me any trouble it would seem to be that the system is having trouble sending to 2 TV's which would make me think it's either the PSU or something I'm missing in the software settings.

Did they test it using the same setup as you do at home?

[Widows]

Did they test it using the same setup as you do at home?

nope, only tested it using one screen

i took it home and tested it using one screen with one of the DVI to DSUB adapters and it worked fine on both ports, I then repeated the process with the exact same setup but with a different DVI to DSUB adapter and the machine lost power after about 30mins.

It would seem to me that its either a problem with that port or the adapter.

but in answer to ur question, no they only tested it using one scren hooked up

[Xlphos]

nope, only tested it using one screen

i took it home and tested it using one screen with one of the DVI to DSUB adapters and it worked fine on both ports, I then repeated the process with the exact same setup but with a different DVI to DSUB adapter and the machine lost power after about 30mins.

It would seem to me that its either a problem with that port or the adapter.

but in answer to ur question, no they only tested it using one scren hooked up

So you tried one monitor and both adapters to the same port?

If thats the case maybe something is wrong with one of the adapters but I don't know why it would shut the PC down.

Do these monitors have a DVI connection it maybe worthwhile investing in one and trying that.

Did you connect the power to the graphics card?

[Widows]

So you tried one monitor and both adapters to the same port?

If thats the case maybe something is wrong with one of the adapters but I don't know why it would shut the PC down.

Do these monitors have a DVI connection it maybe worthwhile investing in one and trying that.

Did you connect the power to the graphics card?

The monitor doesnt have DVI but the TV does.

There's no power connector on the card, it gets all it's juice from the PCI slot (I double checked with the guy in the shop and he said it didn't need/have a power connector.

Thing with the adapters is that one of them works perfectly fine with both ports, and the other adapter seems to work fine on one port but the other port seems to be where i've narrowed it down to it losing power on just one screen.

however, it still flat out refuses to run 2 screens at once for much more than an hour at best

[crunchie]

There's no power connector on the card, it gets all it's juice from the PCI slot (I double checked with the guy in the shop and he said it didn't need/have a power connector.

I have just Had a look around and every card I looked at had a power connector on it. Maybe you should take a closer look? Take a photo even and post it here. I have attached photo's of three different Sparkle 9600 cards, each showing the connector.

[Widows]

hey, thanks for the photos

had a look at the pics, the 3rd one looks nothing like my card (doesnt have the pipes on the side)

the other 2 however look similar. if you look at the pics of the first 2 they both have a little white box in the top left of the card, this is the only thing that looks like it could be a power connector but the pins are tiny and there's only 2 of em. I'll try n get a phot up as soon as poss but am at work now so cant do it at the mo

[Widows]

I've checked and double checked and there's no power connector on this card, the only connector on the whole card is the one to link it to a second device. I'm guessing it must be a faulty card

[Widows]

just checked the system requirements on the box and my PSU is way above the minimum spec, but it mentions that a supplementary 6 pin power connector is required, but there's no obvious place to connect any power to. The only thing that looks vaguely like a port has a totally different connector to any of the ones coming off my power supply

[crunchie]

You have already stated that there is no-where on the graphics card to actually plug in a connector. Now you are saying that "it" mentions a 6 pin connector being required.
What is "it" in this instance? Does it say that on the graphics card box?
Some of the older psu's do not have the 6 pin connectors and you will need to get an adapter that plugs into one of the molex connectors.

[Widows]

You have already stated that there is no-where on the graphics card to actually plug in a connector. Now you are saying that "it" mentions a 6 pin connector being required.
What is "it" in this instance? Does it say that on the graphics card box?
Some of the older psu's do not have the 6 pin connectors and you will need to get an adapter that plugs into one of the molex connectors.

yup on the box it mentions the 6pin connector required.
my PSU isnt very old

I've taken it back for more testing as last time i took it in they only tested with one display, so it's now being tested with two displays in the shop

[crunchie]

One would think that if the box the graphics card came in says that a 6 pin connector is required, that there would actually be a 6 pin connector on the card.
Make sure you mention that at the shop.

[Widows]

Im with you on that one Crunchie, but theres no lead in the box and no conncetor on the card, I had it out with the guy in the shop+he said there'es def no connector on there. I took it back in for testing again and the guy ran it for 3 hours with both screens running and didnt have a single problem so I can only surmise that the problem lies with the environment Im using it. It's possibe that its not getting enough air circulation as the PSU was very hot when I pulled the tower out to check it over and i nearly burned my fingers on the case. Will try running it with the tower in the normal place in my room with both screens, if the problem happens again, I'll try taking the side off or relocating the tower n see how that works.
Otherwise it's gonna meet the business end of my 12 gauge ;-)

[Widows]

here's a pic of the card, it's not the actual one in my case but a picture of the same model from sparkle's website. I've labelled the only thing that looks like a connector.

The full name of this model is: Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT 1024GB DDR3, and the model number is: SX96GT1024D3G-VM

I know the pic's a bit small, you might need to save it and zoom in a bit to get a better view

[Widows]

here's another I found

[crunchie]

Try running it with the case side cover off and place a small pedestal fan to blow into the case. If it's a temp issue, that should do something.

[Widows]

yup, been running it with the side off since I got it back and there's not been any trouble at all. Sounds like it's probs a temp issue, it looks like there is space to add another fan in my case, reckon I should put one in there? I mean everything that needs cooling has a fan of its own but I guess another couldn't hurt eh?

[crunchie]

You need some case fans. One on th front or side blowing in and one at the back blowing out.
Differing opinions on this, but I reckon you should have more air blowing out than what is coming in. That ensures a slight negative pressure in the case, allowing for maximum cool air to be drawn in.

[Widows]

cool beans, yeah i can see ur point about the negative pressure in the case there. Running with the side off is working ok for the moment but it's obviously not an ideal solution so will check out some fans for the case this week. Cheers for all your help guys

[crunchie]

No worries :)

[Ponomous]

woopse, this was solved lol