Video/display errors, static bursts through speakers

[jnelsoninjax]

OK, I just had to reinstall Win 7 X64, and now suddenly while in the middle of a game, I get really odd color spots(blocks) and then a loud burst of static through the speakers, and the game suddenly crashes.Also whenever there is a system sound (i.e. a ding or beep) there is a loud static burst in its place, I have downloaded the most current Realtek drivers from my motherboad manufacterors website, and that did not resolve the issue. My system specs: AMD Phenom II @ 3.5GHZ, DFI Lanparty DK-790 GX-MMS motherboad, 4 GB Crucial Balistix DDR2-1066, XFX Geforce 260. I will also state that the CPU and Dimms are brand new via RMA's, and therefore I have not run memtest on the dimms. My question is what could be causing all this trouble? I ran a full virus scan on the Windows drive and nothing was detected. I also am now unalbe to load Firefox to access the internet, whenever I click on it, it loads into the processes, but never loads the GUI, I have tried restoring the proflie from a backup that I have, but nothing works.

[Dance.]

When the game crashes does the system crash too?

Are you using onboard sound?

Where do the colored blocks usually appear and what color are they?

Have you tried without the overclock?

Also, what PSU are you using?

[jnelsoninjax]

No, the system doesn't crash.

Yes, on board sound.

Black, wherever the cursor is, and also, I just noticed that certain icons are showing up with a bunch of purple and green spots.

I have not tried without the OC.

The PSU is a 700 Watt OCZ, and I have a 250 Watt suplimental PSU just for the GPU

[Madoshi]

try undoing the overclock and see if that helps

[Dance.]

Try connecting the GFX card with the 700 Watt PSU.

[bryonhowley]

Try connecting the GFX card with the 700 Watt PSU.

+1 on that I would try to rule the GPU PSU out first.

[jnelsoninjax]

The video card is powered by both the 700 Watt OCZ and the 250 Watt supplemental PSU, if either one was bad, I would have no display at all, and I did reset the clock speed on the CPU, but as I expected it did nothing to solve the issue that I am having.

[Dance.]

Two things I missed out from the OPs post. I quickly assumed it was a hardware error cause of the blocks but now it seems otherwise.

OK, I just had to reinstall Win 7 X64

Why did you have to reinstall ??

I also am now unalbe to load Firefox to access the internet, whenever I click on it, it loads into the processes, but never loads the GUI, I have tried restoring the proflie from a backup that I have, but nothing works.

If you have a linux live CD around could you boot into that and just mess around for a while?

The video card is powered by both the 700 Watt OCZ and the 250 Watt supplemental PSU, if either one was bad, I would have no display at all, and I did reset the clock speed on the CPU, but as I expected it did nothing to solve the issue that I am having.

If either one was faulty under stress. It's still worth a shot.

I'm starting to think there's an issue with your motherboard. Possibly a broken capacitor. Although still do reply to the questions, they'll help verify if its a software or hardware issue.

[jnelsoninjax]

Two things I missed out from the OPs post. I quickly assumed it was a hardware error cause of the blocks but now it seems otherwise.

Why did you have to reinstall ??

I was having issues with programs refusing to load properly, and FF was taking over a min to load.

If you have a linux live CD around could you boot into that and just mess around for a while?

I do have one, what will this show? Also, I got FF to work, it just took a reset of the system

If either one was faulty under stress. It's still worth a shot.

Possible but I will run OCCT to make sure.

I'm starting to think there's an issue with your motherboard. Possibly a broken capacitor. Although still do reply to the questions, they'll help verify if its a software or hardware issue.

I have visually inspected the motherboard and nothing is broken, bent, or whatever.

[jnelsoninjax]

Here is the OCCT result, note that there is nothing wrong with the PSU's

[Mannlich]

Why do you have a secondary PSU for the GPU?

[jnelsoninjax]

Why do you have a secondary PSU for the GPU?

because the standard PSU does not have enough power output on the combined 12v rail(s), and at the time that I build this system, the supplemental PSU was a better option then upgrading the PSU again.

[Mannlich]

because the standard PSU does not have enough power output on the combined 12v rail(s), and at the time that I build this system, the supplemental PSU was a better option then upgrading the PSU again.

What OCZ PSU model is it? At a glance, any of the OCZ 700w PSUs on newegg have more than enough power to run a gtx260.

[jnelsoninjax]

Lets drop the whole issue with the PSU's, they are not the problem. I am still having the strange issues with the sound and display, anyone who has any more advice about where to look/what to do next, besides checking the PSU or DIMM's, please reply! Thank you.

[Mannlich]

You are blatantly ignoring the help of the users that posted so far. I don't understand why you are so reluctant to try just powering the entire system on the OCZ 700w PSU, or even posting the specs and model number of your PSU. You say that the GPU is powered by both the 700w and the 250w? That seems like an extremely odd solution to address your power concerns. For the sake of troubleshooting, don't you think it is worth a shot if multiple users have suggested it? Does your supplemental PSU have a PCI express connector on it, or are you running an adapter through the molex connectors?

[jnelsoninjax]

First of all, I never said I would/haven't tried what was suggested, as a matter of fact, I did attempt to power the whole system via the single PSU, and the display will not turn on without the addition of the secondary PSU, secondly, my entire system minus 3 HDD's and 1 DVD-RW is listed below, you will notice that the power requirements for the motherboard is higher then the standard boards on the market, as is the case, so that is why I have the supplemental PSU, because when I first build this system, I was running a pair of 8600's in SLI, and when I bought the 260 the power supply was barely able to power the whole system, I got lots of video and other random errors that was related directly to not enough power on the 12v rail.

Power Supply

Suplemental Power Supply

Motheboard

Case

CPU Cooler

CPU

RAM

Edited November 7, 2009 by jnelsoninjax

[Mannlich]

First of all, I never said I would/haven't tried what was suggested, as a matter of fact, I did attempt to power the whole system via the single PSU, and the display will not turn on without the addition of the secondary PSU, secondly, my entire system minus 3 HDD's and 1 DVD-RW is listed below, you will notice that the power requirements for the motherboard is higher then the standard boards on the market, as is the case, so that is why I have the supplemental PSU, because when I first build this system, I was running a pair of 8600's in SLI, and when I bought the 260 the power supply was barely able to power the whole system, I got lots of video and other random errors that was related directly to not enough power on the 12v rail.

The motherboard in the link you provided shows up only as a deactivated item with no additional information. Here are some of the specifications on your PSU:

+5V @ 25A

+12V1 @ 25A

+12V1 @ 25A

-12V @ 0.3A

+3.3V @ 25A

+5VSB @ 2.5A

From here.

So you have a total of 50A across your 12v rails. That comes out to a total of 600w. The GTX260 comes in at a TDP of 182w. You CPU at 125w with stock voltage. How is it that you are running short of power? Based on these numbers and your descriptions, I would start looking at a problem with your PSU. I run an i7 920 overclocked with 6gb memory, 2x1TB hard drives, an optical drive, and a GTX280 on an OCZ ModXStream 600w PSU. Your 700w OCZ PSU has plenty of juice to power that entire system. If it is giving you difficulties, it would seem to suggest that the PSU has a problem.

If that system is not even powering up on the 700w PSU, that should be an immediate red flag that the PSU has a problem. The GTX260 only pulls down about 25w in idle mode.

Edited November 7, 2009 by B.Wolken

[jnelsoninjax]

I fixed the links, the deactivated item would be the supplemental PSU, this is an equivalent one (except mine is 300 watts)

If I understand what you are saying, I would still need 907 Watts of power to run my system. So the 700 Watt would not be enough to handle the entire system. Also the 260 needs 36 amps from 1 12v rail, even if I plug the 12v PCI-E connection to the video card from the PSU, it is still only one rail (20A)a not the 50A as you are trying to say, the motherboard receives 25A from one of the two 12v rails, the remaining 12v rail (25A) is then the only remaining power available to power the GPU, which is not enough power to run the card.

[Mannlich]

I fixed the links, the deactivated item would be the supplemental PSU, this is an equivalent one (except mine is 300 watts)

If I understand what you are saying, I would still need 907 Watts of power to run my system. So the 700 Watt would not be enough to handle the entire system. Also the 260 needs 36 amps from 1 12v rail, even if I plug the 12v PCI-E connection to the video card from the PSU, it is still only one rail (20A)a not the 50A as you are trying to say, the motherboard receives 25A from one of the two 12v rails, the remaining 12v rail (25A) is then the only remaining power available to power the GPU, which is not enough power to run the card.

You don't understand me correctly. Nor do you seem to understand 12v rails on a PSU correctly. How on earth did you come up with 907w on your system?

182w under load / 12v = about 15A for the GTX260.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-260-review/4

A GeForce GTX 260 requires you to have a 500 Watt power supply unit at minimum if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 38 Amps available on the 12 volts rails.

The 38A is not in reference to the GPU alone.

Edited November 7, 2009 by B.Wolken

[jnelsoninjax]

No, I understand everything you said, and I'm fairly sure that I know my system. BTW, I got the 907w from your previous post.

So you have a total of 50A across your 12v rails. That comes out to a total of 600w. The GTX260 comes in at a TDP of 182w. You CPU at 125w with stock voltage.

Now I am fairly sure that you did not intend to say that I need this much power or I did not totally understand what you were implying, however, just as a point of fact, I removed my 260 and placed a 8600 in it's place, and problems are all gone, I can play games without any errors, so again as I stated before, the PSU is not the issue and never was, it was the GPU the entire time.

[Mannlich]

No, I understand everything you said, and I'm fairly sure that I know my system. BTW, I got the 907w from your previous post.

Now I am fairly sure that you did not intend to say that I need this much power or I did not totally understand what you were implying, however, just as a point of fact, I removed my 260 and placed a 8600 in it's place, and problems are all gone, I can play games without any errors, so again as I stated before, the PSU is not the issue and never was, it was the GPU the entire time.

You just demonstrated your lack of understanding. If you knew what I was talking about, then you never would have thrown 907w out there or made a statement like this:

Also the 260 needs 36 amps from 1 12v rail, even if I plug the 12v PCI-E connection to the video card from the PSU, it is still only one rail (20A)a not the 50A as you are trying to say, the motherboard receives 25A from one of the two 12v rails, the remaining 12v rail (25A) is then the only remaining power available to power the GPU, which is not enough power to run the card.

50A across your 12v rails for a total of 600w of available power over the 12v rails -- not 600w of power that your system is consuming. The power being consumed was the 182w max TDP for the GTX260, and 125w max TDP for the CPU for a grand total of 307w between your most power-hungy components.

When you are putting the 8600 back in, are you powering it off of just the OCZ 700w PSU? If so, that is important information to mention. Even still, when you installed the GTX260 when you upgraded, simple math would tell you that your OCZ 700w has all the power you would ever need and should have prevented you from buying a second PSU for the GPU and dealing with the problem then. I would like to remind you that it was you who stated that you knew your OCZ PSU didn't have enough juice for the GPU. The point I was trying to prove is that it most certainly does.

because the standard PSU does not have enough power output on the combined 12v rail(s), and at the time that I build this system, the supplemental PSU was a better option then upgrading the PSU again