Graphics card or Power Supply??

[paulus22]

My son bought an AMD A10 based desktop 5 months ago and has been using the on-board graphics driving two monitors since then - no problems. To increase his gaming he got a Corsair 600W power supply and an MSI R9 280 for Christmas. He was very impressed with performance - for a few days - but problems now arising.

Firsly, one of the monitors inexplicably goes monochrome. I cannot find out why, CCC appears to be all defaults, so no switch to put it back. I have found that only doing a system restore gets colour back - for a time. We have changed cables, monitors, and display ports without eliminating the problem.

The second issue is that the main display (usually with the second, monochrome, monitor turned off) starts to jitter, with the task bar dancing up and down.

I suspect that one of the new elements either power supply or the GPU is the problem and should be returned - but which? Or is there something I can do without returning anything?

 

[i7Baby]

Try just one monitor. Try another monitor entirely. Corsair CX and CS 600 PSUs are low end. Could be the problem.

Post your complete and detailed build.

What make and model monitors?

 

[paulus22]

The monitors are Hanns-G, one using the display port the other the DVI port, but I have also tried a MEDION monitor using the HDMI port - same results. The power supply is the Corsair "Builder Series CXM 600W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU". The basic system was a Zoostorm using a Gibabyte mother board, AMD A10-6800 processor/gpu, 2TB HDD and 2x8GB DDR3 RAM.

 

[i7Baby]

Try the graphics card in another PC.

Can you still run integrated graphics from the A10? If so, can you get the readings for the power supply 12v, 5v and 3.3v rails from HWInfo - Sensors (download HWInfo). Just to see how your PSU is faring.

Got both the power supply connectors plugged into the graphics card?

 

[paulus22]

Thanks for quick responses. I will download HWInfo and run it on the system as is and report the findings. Then I will revert the system to the on-board graphics and re-run. Will take some time (son still in bed!).

Yes I have both power connectors plugged in. The PS being semi-modular, I have used one cable plugged into the PS which had both a 6 and an 8 pin plug - which are both into the graphics card. I assumed that was how it was intended and that I should not have used two different cables plugged into the PS using the 6 pin on one and the 8 pin on the other??

 

[i7Baby]

Its a single 12v rail PSU. So connectors from anywhere are fine.

 

[paulus22]

Have installed HWInfo - but cannot find where PS voltages are reported. Help.

 

[i7Baby]

Sensors

 

[paulus22]

Unfortunately, nothing similar to the main voltages are reported in "sensors", just system, cpu, nuvoton, smart, drive, gpu, and network. Maybe the gigabyte mobo does not have sensors supported by HWInfo??

 

[paulus22]

CORRECTION (was testing the software on a Medion machine). On the machine in question voltages look good: 12.024, 5.070, and 3.305. I have left both monitors on, and will see if any variation in voltages when problems arise.

 

[paulus22]

A couple of hours on - still full colour, but jitter started. All voltages still look very good. Suspecting possible driver issue, so deleting drivers and re-installing the driver that came with the gpu, and blocking any driver updates. See if that sorts it.

 

[paulus22]

Driver makes no difference - still full colour with jitter (the jitter is just on the task bar).

Links to the sensor reporting for both power and gpu are:

http://gyazo.com/d2f3b4538e59f2232a5dce41698806a0

http://gyazo.com/bd913b83302399e1425727aee6ed6865

One gpu temperature shows as 79 degrees C, whilst other is just 52 degrees. Not sure whetehr trhe problem is here??

 

[Mousemonkey]

Have you tried a driver other than the one that came with the card?

 

[paulus22]

Yes, there are two later drivers which were automatically updated. Originally, I thought that might be the problem, hence going back to the one that came with the card.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Yes, there are two later drivers which were automatically updated. Originally, I thought that might be the problem, hence going back to the one that came with the card.

AMD now recommend a 'procedure' when changing drivers and the auto update does not follow that 'procedure'. The recommendation involves using a wiper tool such as DDU to remove any current drivers before installing any new ones.

 

[paulus22]

Very interesting - will follow that now and see how it goes.

 

[i7Baby]

CORRECTION (was testing the software on a Medion machine). On the machine in question voltages look good: 12.024, 5.070, and 3.305. I have left both monitors on, and will see if any variation in voltages when problems arise.

Those voltages are OK. So your PSU shouldn't be the problem.

 

[i7Baby]

Driver makes no difference - still full colour with jitter (the jitter is just on the task bar).

Links to the sensor reporting for both power and gpu are:

http://gyazo.com/d2f3b4538e59f2232a5dce41698806a0

http://gyazo.com/bd913b83302399e1425727aee6ed6865

One gpu temperature shows as 79 degrees C, whilst other is just 52 degrees. Not sure whetehr trhe problem is here??

The Voltage Regulator was 79C - which is OK. The GPU is 52C which is very good.

The R9 280 was running at 1.25V, fan 1324rpm, GPU 972MHz and Memory 1250MHz all at 32% usage - which is all good.

 

[i7Baby]

I've also come across some people who had to uninstall Catalyst Control Center to get their drivers to install properly.

 

[Lutfij]

The voltages are not the issue here, the drivers on the system are whats causing your system to have jitters and go monochrome. I had a similar experience on my A10-6800K.

You'd be best served to follow MouseMonkeys advice!

 

[paulus22]

I agree, the problem seems to be that AMD do not "upgrade" their driver as per their own procedure. Once totally deleting the driver and reinstalling, everything is back to working OK. Please close the thread with mousemonkeys in put as the solution. Thanks guys.

 

[Lutfij]

You're welcome mate! Hope your son has a great time engaged in gaming.