Computer Tech. Input

[DubiousMonkey]

I have the following setup that i am putting together for my little brother's college roommate:

Athlon 3400+ socket 939 CPU
Abit AN8 Ultra Mother Board
BFG Tech GForce 9800GT OC 512 MB Ed, PCI-E
1GB Corsair DDR 400 matched 512MB Dimms
160GB Maxtor SATAII HDD
Cooler Master 430 Watt max / 400 watt continuous PSU w/ overload protection - 18 amp +12V rail
Generic 52X cd burner

This system will not post with the Video card installed. I get one long beep and one short beep, then nothing. I have RMAd the vid card twice at the BFG Tech support guys request with the same result. I have also gone through the troubleshooting process with Abit and RMAd the MB and CPU at Abit's recommendation. Today, I bought a 12 dollar PCI vid card from a second hand store and the computer works perfectly with it installed. Because I cannot fathom receiving 3 bad video cards and 2 bad motherboards, I am at a loss for what to do to make the video card work with the motherboard. Is this possibly a frequency problem due to the vid card being factory OC'd? Is an 18 amp +12V power supply strong enough? I'm at wits end and ready to throw the whole damn thing in the garbage.

I tried this out on a static bag and in the case with the exact same results.

[B8]

I had roughly the same problem with my computer. What it turned out to be was an overload on one buss out of the power supply that is doing the video card. Unload the video card bus of all other loads and try it again. If it works the problem is a single buss overload and a fold back by the power supply.

Oh by the way the video card that did this was dead and that card was sucking the juice out to cause the fold back (power supply protecting itself from an overload.) Backwards I talk always.

[Amy]

you've powered the vid card from the power supply right?

sounds like you're tripping the mobo alarm, which I did to my dads computer.

[DubiousMonkey]

Yeah, I'm powering the vid card off of the power supply. I was careful to use two molex connectors that are on different drops from the PSU as well to avoid any problems there. I even turned off all the onboard features such as firewire, usb, and AC'97 sound. I talked to the BFG techs again and they are sending yet another vid card... If the 4th card doesn't work, I'm going to send it back to NewEgg and eat the restocking fee just to get this thing out of my hands.This will be the last factory OC'd part I buy. My only condolence is that I don't have to pay for shipping. The friggin UPS guy knows me by name now.

[Kami]

go for the foot-to-face style!

[Chim]

i just noticed you put 9800gt oc... i'm assuming you meant 6800gt oc. if not, i'd say you got ripped off on your video card =oP hehe

anyway, my guess would be for some reason there's a compatibility issue between the mobo and video card. i'd suggest trying a different vidcard or mobo (i know that's usually hard to do with some company's return policies tho).

[TheSeraphim]

Dunno if this is still a problem, but the factory OCed gpu may be a problem for your power supply.