Graphics card issues

Yo, found myself with a problem in the IT area yesterday. Since I believe there to be some awesomely-skilled dorks/geeks/techfreaks to be on this forum, I seek your advice/help.

I got really sick of my computer's onboard graphics chip, so I bought a Sparkle SXX4601024D5SNM (a GeForce GTX460-based card) during a trip to Germany almost exactly a year ago. Unfortunately, due to business-related, university studies and volunteer-work reasons, I never got around to install the damn card until two days ago.

First off, my system's specifications.

OS: Windows 7 32-bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.5GHz (4CPUs)
Motherboard: Asus PQ5L-EM
Onboard GPU: Intel G45/G43 Express Chipset
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3
PSU: Xpert ATX Power Supply @ 750W

- I checked the card compatibility with my motherboard. The card is 16x PCI-e 2.0, for which the motherboard has a slot. So no issues there, I think.

Now, I installed the card the other day. Made sure the power is connected and that the card and its fan started up. All check.

Then I booted up the system and installed the Nvida graphics driver (latest one from the Nvidia site) and the Nvidia tools programs that come with it. Done.

Issue is, though, that prior to installing the graphics driver, there were a bunch of horizontal, flickering white lines all over the screen. I didn't think much of them and thought they'd go away once the driver has been installed. Wrong.

They're all over the screen now, I am unable to pick a higher resolution than 1600x1200 (with the monitor's "natural" resolution being 1920x1080), I can't start any 3D games (something about "reduced capacity of the card selected") and the Display tab in dxdiag doesn't show any information of the card.

When I go to Device Manager, it clearly says "GeForce GTX 460", but two points come into play:
1. There is a small Warning icon next to the "GeForce GTX460" entry; and
2. when opening up Properties, it says "The card has been stopped by the system. (Problem code: 0000002B)".

I also went through uninstalling the graphics driver and the associated Nvidia programs, then uninstalled the registry keys in Safe Mode with Driver Sweeper. Then reinstalled the driver. No change.

Researched some more and found that horizontal lines on screen usually mean there's overclocking or heat issues, or the card is failing. I never overclocked my system and there's no heat issues.

I'm hoping it's not the card failing (especially after never having used the bloody thing).

Are there any other checks or methods I can use? Any input welcome.

 

Try and install the drivers from the Sparkle site instead? Yes it's based off of the nvida card but it isn't the same card.

http://sparkletw.com/support/download/

 

Hm... I downloaded a Sparkle driver first, it didn't work so I went for the latest Nvidia driver available.

Not sure if the Sparkle driver I downloaded is the same as this one, but doesn't hurt to try.

Will report back once I've tested it.

Cheers!

 

Could be ESD damage. The amount of static to fry a computer part is literal orders of magnitude less than the smallest zap we're capable of feeling. Or it could be your motherboard, reduced capacity sounds like you're not actually running in x16 mode. Also 1600x1200 is a higher resolution than 1920x1080, notice the 1200 vertical lines vs 1080, so with that you might need to try using nvidia's advanced control panel to force the resolution/refresh combo you want.

And lastly following the almost certainty that your power supply is not remotely close to it's stickered specs there is a possibility that it's not powering your gpu sufficiently. Off-brand power supplies are notorious for being incapable of really handling actual work, and have been known to literally flat out lie about their specs. It is not unheard of for off-brand power supplies to flat out explode.

 

power supply.... I'll put $5 on that if those drivers don't work.

 

I can't find anything on that brand of PSU, which really concerns me. I wasn't being metaphorical when I said that off-brand PSUs are known for doing things like exploding.

 

There could be a conflict between the on board GPU and the new card, have you tried to disable the on board GPU in bios and select PCI as primary video adaptor.

PS: I have a smaller PSU and I'm using GTX 275 that has higher power requirements than the 460. Usually a GPU doesn't need all that power until you are using it for something more challenging than displaying a 9 cell spreadsheet

 

Well, the driver didn't work. The white lines and non-information in dxdiag remain.

I'm not sure about the PSU, but I should try anyway. Does anyone have recommendations for good PSU manufacturers?

Also, is ESD damage undoable? What methods to fix it exist?

Zweiblumen: Yeah, I considered that issue. Apparently Asus motherboards automatically disable onboard GPU when a graphics card is installed. The same happened with mine.

 

ESD damage is about as undoable as taking a hammer to the motherboard. Also it's not a matter of the number on the sticker being high enough, it's a matter of quality. I was not exaggerating when I said that a LOT of power supply companies flat out lie about their products' rated capabilities. Even assuming they manage to actually pull over 300-400 watts out of the poor thing you also have to be able to supply steady amperes as well, which is where most power supplies fall flat on their face. Graphics cards don't take that many watts to run even at full load but modern GPUs require a lot of amperes on the 12 volt rail compared to what they used to, and that's not the sort of thing an off-brand PSU can handle. They tend to do things like the one I linked to. Yknow, explode.

A REAL power supply, as in one that comes from Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or Seasonic (who made Antec branded ones for a short period, giving them an undeserved good reputation) can be a mere 620 watts and handle a quad core gaming rig with a top flight graphics processor EASILY. In fact I'm running a Q9550, overclocked, with an ATI HD5870 right now on a corsair 620 watter.

And then there are the "other" brands which tend to be lots of different names pasted on the same legendarily bad hardware underneath. Some do make their own, like Dell, but that doesn't usually help much. In fact in Dell's case it was worse than mere failure. Dell PSU's were famous for two things: Non-standard wiring that periodically tried to kill you, and a habit of sending out a power spike when they decided it was time for you to buy a new computer.