A friend is having an odd problem.

[charles_watson]

Hello all,

 

A friend of mine is using a 7950GT graphics card in a computer they built themselves. When they unplug the power

cord from the video card, and run it solely off the power delivered through the PCI-E x16 port, the video card

will put an image through to the monitor, but it doesn't have enough power to properly load the operating system,

or something like that - while the image will show up, he cannot get into the operating system [using Vista, I

assume becuase it is more graphically demanding?]. However, when he plugs the cable in, nothing shows up on screen.

 

Odd. I'm wondering if it's a problem with the power supply, or the video card.

 

Charles

[Matt Laur]

So, was this working at one point, and isn't now, or is this the first time it's been tried? It sounds more like a driver issue... Vista doesn't know how to use the card properly once it's fully awake withe extra 12v rail (which probably powers the onboard acceleration hardware, etc).

 

Have him try brining up Vista in SAFE MODE first, and installing the card's Vista drivers, and then trying to run the OS in its more demanding normal way.

[richterjw]

I remember starting some sentences in junior high with that same statement as your title. JR