PNY Nvidia Nightmare

I purchased a new system in November '06 (ASUS Core 2 Duo P5B Deluxe
Motherboard, 2GB Ram, PNY Nvidia Quadro FX 1500 Graphics Card), and
have had nothing but problems due to the graphics card. The problems
as of the end of January '07 have yet to be resolved.

Problems started presenting themselves right away. The monitor had a
red overlay over the whole thing. I tried several different DVI
cables, and tried the monitor with different systems - result:
definitely a graphics card issue. I had the card replaced.

Shortly after resolving this problem, the monitor would randomly flash
off, then come back on again . After quite a bit of troubleshooting
(including replacing the graphics card again, and all the other parts
on the system to make sure that it wasn't those parts, and
reinitializing the drive to make sure it wasn't software
incompatibilities), we finally isolated it to the graphics card.

I had called the graphics card manufacturer several times during the
course of this process, and they were completely unhelpful. They in
an unconcerned, west-coast way, tried to imply that I hadn't done
enough trouble shooting. No other 'support'.

Since the machine is new, and completely under waranty, I brought it
back to my reseller, who is now trying to deal with Nvidia. First,
they agreed to replace the card, but when it arrived at the shop, they
were surprised to find that Nvidia wanted them to pay $150 for the
card (which was a warranty replacement item to begin with, and should
not have bee charged for). The shop returned the card, and last I was
at the shop, the owner was on the phone yelling at Nvidia trying to
understand what had happened and when the replacement card would come
through. That was over a week ago.

So, this is the 3rd attempt at the card (I must be NUTS). If it
doesn't pan out, I'm going over to an ATI FireGL....

Thought I'd post this in case any of you had the same problem or were
considering Nvidia. I used to be a big fan of their products, but it
seems that since the last time I bought product from them over two
years ago, that their product quality, service and support have all
dramatically declined.

 

unfortunately, it appears that all great organizations suffer as a
result of their sucess

 

There are several things that are not clear in your description of the
problem. Did you put the system together or are you just describing
the specs for a system you bought? How did you determine that the
graphics card was the problem? You see I have also had problems
similar to this and it was not the graphics card.

TOP

 

The system was put together in November '06 by a very reputable local
computer shop. I have been using it since then. The computer shop
and I have completed exhaustive troubleshooting over the course of two
months, and isolated the graphics card as the source of the problem.

Right now, I have a very low-end Nvidia "loaner" card in my system
while I wait for the proper card (so the same drivers are being used),
and the issue is not presenting itself.

What problems did you have, and what did you do to fix it?

 

In the past I've seen systems put together by Tristar that had bios
conflicts between nic cards and the video. That video card works for the
vast majority of users. I would be willing to bet that the real root
cause of the problem is somewhere on the motherboard.

 

Skymonkey,

I can't really help nor can anyone else here without more details.
Your builder may be reputable, but until the facts are posted here
this is more of a rant than a plea for help in understanding what
happened.

We need to know specifics for the system.
Motherboard
Model of graphics card and drivers used
Make model and number of memory sticks
Operating system including service packs
Release and service packs of SolidWorks
Case/Power supply make and model
Hard drives/ make and model

Methods used to trouble shoot the problem.

And finally, to answer your question, it turned out that the power
supply was the problem.

 

I've been in contact with PNY a few times over the years, having
standardized on their Nvida Quadro boards in my workstations quite some time
ago. They have always been patient and accomodating to my tech questions.
I seem to remember their engineer being on the East coast rather than the
West coast but that's irrerelevant to your problem. So on to the topic of
Nvidia being a categorical problem? No. In fact I won't touch an ATI chip
with a ten foot pole. (please everyone, ymmv, but Nvidia Quadro for a long
while has, imho, been the most stable and best performing cad gpu). As a
side note, AMD acquiring ATI may be the reason I start giving Intel a try on
the desktop again. Well, that and the fact that my new Core2 Duo notebook
with Quadro FX2500M absolutely rocks.

These guys are giving you good advice. If you've had card after card giving
you trouble you need to look deeper into motherboard and psu. If you stuck
in a lower end card and it works you may find that the power supply is too
weak to power the higher level card, or to Matt's point, you may have an IRQ
conflict that doesn't exist with the loaner card. Either scenerio is highly
possible. First I would disable most of the integrated devices on the mobo
and run the tests with only the FX1500 card and a hard drive running. Is
your "reputable shop" familiar with cad boards or is this a first for them?
Granted the FX1500 is not a barn burner but it does take more juice than an
"average" 250W power supply can muster. Even a cheap 350W power supply
could be overcome by that level of card. Unless I missed it you don't
mention how many cd/dvd drives, hard drives, usb hubs, etc. you're powering
so we can't tell how much juice you've consumed. Search google for a power
supply calculator (sizer) for an idea of what you need based on what you've
got in this box. And if the shop has been hammering on this with you
suggest to them that they let you try a good large (>430W) psu for a week or
so and let it run. They should have access to post cards and diagnostic
software to help them through this. This shouldn't be a completely blind
task for them.

Good luck.

- Eddy

 

Just as a sub note, I had the same problem with my Nvidia pcie 3400 card,
guess what? Antec 550W power supplies on two machines were naff. caused all
kinds of weird problems, but worked fine with a cheap card.

 

i've bought recently a workstation with the same GC as you bought - it works
perfectly with solidworks. the only difference is that mine is an AMD system
with ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe mobo. my power supply unit is 450W.

 

That actually could be the issue. What size power supply in the problem
box?

--Scott

 

thanks for the feedback everyone.

The power supply is fine. It's a 650W unit (Freedom as I recall... too
lazy to go find the box). They tried other power supplies during the
course of the troubleshooting, just to 100% rule that out as well.

The shop definitely is used to building high-end machines. They build
boxes that are one step below large rack-mount ones for processing
extremely complicated mathematical problems. They also have built
high-end CAD machines.

The thing that puzzles me, is that I've seen my mobo and graphics card
combo for sale at places in the US, Australia, etc., and have
confirmation that the combination has been problem-free. Am I just
the lucky one that gets all the bad cards?

The IRQ is a new suggestion - I'm going to get the new card hopefully
tomorrow, and if it is still posing a problem, I'll have them check
that as well. I'm pretty confident that these guys know what they're
doing though!

 

I looked at the spec for your mobo. It is set up for the Crossfire ATI
gaming cards. Could that have something to do with it?

CrossFire

Supports ATI CrossFire graphics cards (blue @ x16 mode and black @ x4
mode)


Certified Crossfire
Get the right components for your gaming PC

 

I had been wondering about that as well, but it does indicate that it
is a cross-platform controller.....

 

Okay, 3rd card now, new drivers, new bios. The thing is still
flashing - worse than before. I think I will return the system to the
shop, and start fresh. Any suggestions of mobo/chip/graphics card
combos?

 

Have you tried a new MOBO with AMD?

 

no - any suggestions?