Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4890 - Red lights and random problems

[pris0n]

Hello,

I recently put together a new computer and sometimes it doesn't start. When it doesn't start, the video card has these red lights that will flash. I press the power button and the computer starts for 1/10th of a second, the red lights flash on the video card, and then it shuts down.

Here's the build:

Video: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4890
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3
Memory: CORSAIR 4GB
Hard Drive: WD SATA 250 gig

Is anybody familiar with this problem? Could it be another malfunction part, like the motherboard?

Thanks

 

[techjunkie]

I had a similar problem. For me it turned out that the motherboard was touching the case( i was stupid with my first build as i didn't use the spacers ! ) I had the same issue as mine would also turn on for a fraction of a second and turn off.

Try assembling the pc on a piece of cardboard outside the case and see what happens

 

[erocker]

What is the brand and specifications of your power supply?

 

[pris0n]

I had a similar problem. For me it turned out that the motherboard was touching the case( i was stupid with my first build as i didn't use the spacers ! ) I had the same issue as mine would also turn on for a fraction of a second and turn off.

Try assembling the pc on a piece of cardboard outside the case and see what happens

I just checked and made sure all the screw pins were lined up correctly. Everything went in smoothly. Though the PC did just start up after I moved it around a bit, so I would suspect that something is being shorted out.

 

[pris0n]

What is the brand and specifications of your power supply?

It's an Earthwatts 500 PSU. It came with the Antec Designer case I purchased.

 

[erocker]

Not enough power for that card. 4890's require more amps on the 12v rail than that PSU offers.

 

[pris0n]

Not enough power for that card. 4890's require more amps on the 12v rail than that PSU offers.

The card requires more than 34 amps?

http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/ant_ea500w/ant_ea6.jpg

 

[erocker]

The CPU also runs off of the 12V line. Strange though, I was just looking at Antec's website and they are saying that there's 22 amps per rail... Is your CPU overclocked? The reason I'm thinking it's the psu is because the led's on the 4890 generally indicate either a temperature or power malfunction.

 

[pris0n]

The CPU also runs off of the 12V line. Strange though, I was just looking at Antec's website and they are saying that there's 22 amps per rail... Is your CPU overclocked? The reason I'm thinking it's the psu is because the led's on the 4890 generally indicate either a temperature or power malfunction.

Everything is stock and brand new.

 

[W1zzard]

setup your system outside of the case to eliminate any possible shorts. start with the minimal system mobo, cpu, ram, gfx (it will show the post screen without hdd) then add more stuff

if i remember correctly it is normal for a hd 48xx card to flash the lights on power up

 

[techjunkie]

yes its normal for them to flash when the pc boots up

 

[pris0n]

Well it seems to be booting fine. Now I'm faced with another problem:

Windows Vista does not recognize my SATA hard drive and doesn't give me an option to install Vista anywhere. I have a 250 gig WD that I pulled from my old computer. I'm new with Vista, so this could possibly be a stupid error, but I have yet to discover it.

I have tried installing the drivers from the CD that came bundled with the motherboard, but that did not work. I manually searched each folder and that didn't work either. I went to download the drivers from Gigabyte's website, but they are the exact same from the bundled disc. I tried all every part of the preinstall driver from the website anyway, and I couldn't get it to recognize the drive.

I tried installing XP, and while the drive was recognized in setup, after the initial installation, it won't boot into the second part of the installation. Instead, it just restarts.

I'll try another hard drive tomorrow.

 

[Cheeseball]

In the BIOS, is it set to SATA-IDE mode or AHCI?

 

[pris0n]

In the BIOS, is it set to SATA-IDE mode or AHCI?

SATA-IDE

 

[pris0n]

I could only find an old IDE HD (man old hard drives are LOUD), so I can't really test to see if the motherboard's SATA controller is bad or if it was the SATA HD.

So far, the old IDE HD got further than the SATA HD, as it's at the second XP installation screen (the SATA HD would cycle through restarts).

I don't have any other SATA hard drives, so I guess I'm going to order a WD Caviar Black from Amazon and have it Saturday shipped to me (Amazon Prime is the best).

 

[pris0n]

Well, folks, turns out the SATA HD I started with died on me, so I'm RMAing that and I have a brand new 1TB WD Caviar Black installed. Everything runs great and it's lightning fast. It's a major improvement coming from an AMD AthlonXP 1800+ and a Ti 4200.

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[erocker]

Good to hear! Yeah, that is one heck of an upgrade, like night and day.