Unusual Power issue with graphics card

Hi, I've recently been getting quite a strange problem with my computer. After it's been turned off through windows and I turn it on, I get a continuous high pitch beep from the graphics card which indicates that it isn't getting enough power. But, the system has been running fine for nearly a year and a half.

Where it gets quite strange is that if I flip the switch and unplug the cable for the power supply at the back and then plug and turn it back on again, the computer will turn on fine with absolutely no issues; I can play games etc and it runs perfectly. But when I turn it off and go to turn it on again I will get the same beeping which can only by fixed by the same method with the power supply again.

Personally, I think (and hope) that it's the power supply, maybe a dodgy capacitor is causing the issue and by unplugging the power supply it discharges and this somehow allows it to work fine the next time. But, I don't really have any way to test this short of trying to find someone with a suitable power supply to test with my system or another system that can take my hard drive.

I gladly welcome any suggestions on what the problem could be or how I could test it.

Thanks in advance.

System Specs:

Asus P5N32-E Sli Plus Mobo
Intel Q6600
OCZ Gold PC6400 2x2GB
nVidia 8800GTX 768mb
Asus Xonar DX Sound Card
1TB Samsung Spinpoint (Secondary HDD)
250GB WD (Primary HDD)
750W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU
Pinnacle Tv Tuner

(No overclocking)

 

How old are the parts?

I've just put your specs through a power supply calculator, and even with 50% capacitor wear, you only need 561W to run your system, so either you have a faulty graphics card or a faulty power supply.

Do you have a replacement for either component?

 

I bought the main parts (PSU, Gfx, Mobo, RAM, CPU, main hdd) at the start of November '07 so they're about a year and a half old.

My brother has an almost identical system to me, so might be able to try the graphics card in his system to test it but can't really go changing his power supply over to mine at the moment because he's not around right now to say yes/no.

I'll try the graphics card later today and let you know how it goes.

Thanks

 

Just swapped my graphics card into my brothers system. It booted up fine.

Put his graphics card, also an 8800 GTX, and it booted it up fine.

Really, don't understand what's going on. Gonna try running both for a little while, turn them off and see if they turn back on without the beeping...

 

If you've both got the same card, and it's all working okay, then why not leave swapping them back? it shouldn't make any difference to anyone.

 

I don't think my brother would be too happy about leaving them swapped for whatever reason.

I'm not convinced that it's actually going to stay working. I've just turned them both off after an hour and turned them back on and still no beep but I got the same thing yesterday by luck where it appeared to be fixed and then the next day it started beeping again.

Do you think it could still be the power supply considering there's no problem with the change of card? I don't want to RMA the PSU without knowing for sure; I'm sure it'll take a while.

 

Can you try running SpeedFan to see what voltages you are getting from each PSU rail?

SpeedFan is available here: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

 

Just tried Speedfan and got some interesting readings (i think?)

Vcore1: 1.10v
Vcore2: 3.25v
+3.3v: 0v
+12V: 11.71V
-12V: -16.97V
-5V: -5.41v
+5v: +4.97v
Vbat: 2.94v
Vcore: 0v

Could this be a problem with the program or is the 12v rail really that high? Surely that must be doing some damage. I'm going to try testing it with a multimeter, just need to figure out which one I need to test.

 

UPDATE:

Ok, used the multimeter and checked the voltages on everything and they were all as they should be. :S Speedfan is still showing the voltage as nearly 17v. Do you know of another program I can use to check the voltages? I tried Everest but it doesnt show the '-12v' rail.

Also, my power supply has an over-voltage protection that trips if its over 15.6v, for the 12v rail, so I'd assume that it couldn't really be the problem.

Got the graphics card in the second PCI-E slot now and it's working fine, at the moment. I would suspect the first PCI-E slot but the other graphics card worked fine in there. Unfortunately, this isn't really a permanent fix, there's almost no room between the fan and the bottom of the case now, I'd guess about 5mm.



(Also, how do you edit posts? I don't mean to keep double posting)

 

UPDATED UPDATE:

Decided to turn off so I could put some cards back in. Tilted the case and it turned itself on and started beeping. Turned it off and it carried on beeping until I turned it off at the back.

It's back in the 1st PCI-E slot now, will probably start beeping next time I turn it off after I turn it off.

 

Hi,
You can only edit posts that are:
1. Less than an hour old (I think)
2. The last post in the thread
3. A post posted by you.

EDIT: Tyr this program: http://www.majorgeeks.com/HWMonitor_d5842.html

 

Just tried that program, doesn't give readings for the '-12v' rail.

Any other suggestions for how I could narrow down what exactly is causing the problem?

 

You motherboard is ultimately supplying all these readings to any software programs, so I assume that your motherboard is not supplying readings for:

-12V rail (SpeedFan appears to have made one up)
+3.3V
Vcore

Therefore no software program is going to help, as it can't get any readings.

Can you swap out the PSU yet?

 

If the motherboard is giving wrong readings then do you think that could mean it's damaged or is it just something that can happen and not cause any real problem?

No, still haven't found someone willing to test my supply in there system.

Thermaltake have said they can't think of any tests I could do other than test it in another system so they've said to RMA it with the retailer since it's still in warranty.

Problem I'm having is that now the retailer is saying Thermaltake should handle returns after 1 year and Thermaltake are saying the retailer should do it...


I don't know, maybe I'll get lucky and the power supply will be broken.

 

Hi,

Think I've finally narrowed down the problem to the motherboard. Finally got another power supply to test in my computer and I still got the beeping. Tried with that power supply and the other 8800GTX and got beeping but only when it was turning off and it was much more faint.

So, I'm assuming its the motherboard; don't know for certain but I'm going to try returning it and seeing what happens. Hope they don't find it not faulty though otherwise I'm going to be paying a lot in postage costs.

Anyway, thanks for your help and hopefully this will fix the problem.

 

Hope this works for you!

 

It sounds to me that one of your inductors is bursting into oscillation, these are normally easy to find start the system up so its making the noise then touch/tap each inductor in turn when you touch the one that's doing it the pitch of the whine/beep/hiss/buzz should change or stop altogether.
The way to rectify this is either change the inductor or soak it in transformer varnish overnight.

My router had a very noisy inductor in it, this went on for about two years but then the line isolation transformer broke down and I replaced the router.

 

Hi,

Early on I checked using a piece of rubber tubing to find the location of the beeping and its actually a little speaker on the graphics card, same as the ones that do the POST beep. As far as I know it indicates a problem with power supply to the card.

My thinking now is that the motherboard isn't getting the power to the card properly but I won't really be certain until I can get it replaced/repaired.

 

Is there supposed to be a 6- or 8-pin PCI-Express power connector plugged in to the back of the card?

 

Yeh, two 6 pin connectors but they're both plugged in.

One of them is actually an 8-pin, but theres an adaptor which came with the power supply which is converting it to a 6-pin.

 

Does your motherboard have a molex connector to supply power to the PCI-E slots?

 

I don't think so, if there is then it's never been plugged in for the year and a half that I've been running the system.

You can see a picture of the motherboard here (aswell as a review) http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2104

But I can't see anywhere that a molex connector would plug into the motherboard. It's just the 24 pin ATX and the 4 pin connector for the CPU at the top left. (top right in the pic on that page.)

 

I've just been having a read of that site and it says that the heatsinks around the CPU require active cooling from the fan on CPU w but I'm using a Zalman 9500 cooler which sits sideways so the airflow is going from front to back of case whereas usually the airflow would be going in the other direction.

The heatsinks are covering an MOSFET, which is a transistor of some sort, and from what I've read in the last few minutes it regulates voltage. So, it would seem to make sense that this could be the problem. Although, I don't know if it regulates power to all of the components?

 

It would probably regulate the power going to the graphics card, yes, but is it in metal to metal contact with the heatsink?

 

Can't really see much with the heatsink on and I'm not sure if removing it would void the warranty. I felt them and they didn't seem too hot but my computer hadn't really been doing anything demanding. The northbridge core was very hot though...