[SOLVED] Need help with 8 pin and 6 pin connectors for power supply...!

[Baranovich]

I upgraded my power supply to a 1,200 watt Corsair after I found out the place I got my gaming PC from uses absolute garbage psu's. My fault for not researching ahead of time!

Any way, I managed to get everything connected. The PC boots up and is running stable.

However, the only issue I ran into is with the graphics card. With the HDMI cable connected to the card and both of the PCI e cables connected to the power supply, the screen says, "Power down and connect the PCI e cables for this video card."

The card was working perfectly before the power supply upgrade, so I doubt it's a bad card.

???

My card is the GeForce RTX 2070. It has two ports on the card, a 6 pin and 8 pin. The power supply obviously has plenty of PCI e ports.

The two cables I used were one 8 pin to 8 pin, and the other cable was an 8 pin to a 6+2 pin.

Am I using these cables wrong?

This is essentially mirrored on the power supply end. So the power supply has one 8 pin port connected and one 6,+2 port connected with the extra 2 pins left unconnected. Did I mess up?

 

[lvt]

Why didn't you use a 6+2 to 6+2 cable? I think those cables must exist for a reason.

 

[DRagor]

one 6,+2 port connected with the extra 2 pins left unconnected.

Are you saying that at PSU end one of the cables does not have all pins connected? That seems to be incorrect to me, although without knowing exact PSU model can't be sure. Check your PSU manual which cables should be used and how connected.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Are you getting power to the gpu, lights, fan spinning?

 

[Vic 40]

Which Corsair psu exactly?

The two cables I used were one 8 pin to 8 pin, and the other cable was an 8 pin to a 6+2 pin.

What does it say on the side of the 8pin connector you put into the gpu? PCIE or EPS, wonder if you managed to shove an EPS connector into the gpu.

 

[geofelt]

Most graphics card pcie aux connectors will come in the form of 6+2 allowing for either 6 or 8 pin connections.

I suspect that the 8 pin connector you used was a eps cpu connector which is not intended for graphics cards.

 

[Baranovich]

Hey everybody, thanks for your insights and help, much appreciated!

So right after I posted this I figured it out. I was using all of the right cables, I think I might not have described it adequately or clearly enough.

The power supply is a Corsair ATX 1,200. So I don't know how cables work with other brands of psu's, but with Corsair they have the PCI e cables marked on one end as "PCI e" and then the other end of the cable with the other connector is blank.

The Corsair ATX 1200 comes with (1) 12v 8 pin to 8 pin cable which is for connecting the psu to the motherboard to supply power to the processor. And of course it has the usual 24 pin cable which connects to the long port on the motherboard as well. So those two cables were accounted for and already used.

What was left for cables was stuff for SATA and peripherals, which I had all connected correctly.

And then finally the box had a half dozen PCI e cables which were all "6+2" on one end and then solid 8 on the other (with one empty pin.)

The "PCI e" marked ends are both "6+2" so you can accommodate both the 8 pin and 6 pin ports on the graphics card itself. You end up with the typical setup where on the graphics card the 8 pin port is filled with one of the "6+2"'s, and then the 6 pin port is filled with the "6" part of the "6+2" with the two extra pins hanging off the side and not needed. The other end of the cables (the end that goes into the psu) are solid, one piece 8 pin with one pin empty.

I had one of the cables backwards. I was using the solid 8 pin on the graphics card end and the "6+2" on the PSU end, which is backwards. Once I turned that one around the graphics card was recognized instantly and the PC went right to desktop no problem!

Just for reference: I read on a quite a few forums where gamers claimed that it doesn't matter which way you have PCI e cables when you're connecting a graphics cared to a psu. Well, that may be true on SOME brands of psus and gpus, but it certainly DOES matter with Corsair psus!

 

[Vic 40]

I had one of the cables backwards. I was using the solid 8 pin on the graphics card end and the "6+2" on the PSU end, which is backwards. Once I turned that one around the graphics card was recognized instantly and the PC went right to desktop no problem!

Well figured that you had a cable wrong since having a solid 8pin on the gpu side, but didn't think the 6+2 would fit the psu side.

Good to hear it works now and no other issues started because of this.

 

[DSzymborski]

I think the confusion was that you were describing normal cables with the numbers of pins on the PSU side. That doesn't actually mean anything -- PSU cables are proprietary on the side that goes into the PSU, and the number of pins on the PSU side isn't standardized, so isn't generally relevant.