The power cable is not connected to the video card

I have a june 2008 vintage PC. A core 2 duo e8200 and a MSI radeon 4850. The power supply or PSU is a dec 2009 vintage OCZ mod X stream pro 600w.


Recently I've been getting this error message. It pops up in red letters during POST, along with a beep - pause - beep  sound. 

"The power cable is not connected to the video card. Please refer to the Getting Started guide for information on proper hardware installation"

This happens if I turn on my PC within say 30 minutes or so of turning it off or if I reboot or if I go to the BIOS setup end exit. Otherwise the PC works normally. Games work.


Using a little common sense (confirmed by googling), I theorized some possible diagnoses. 

• video card
• PSU
• 6 pin cable
• video card's sensor or power chip

My PSU is modular so I tried changing the 6 pin cable with the spare one in the PSU's box. Didnt work. There are 2 free slots on the modular PSU where I could plug the 6 pin pci-e cable and both did not work. A visual inspection of the video card, motherboard and PSU (it was still in warranty so I did not open it and I just looked inside the grilles).

I dont have a spare PSU or video card available so for a week or so I ended up keeping the PC on all the time (except when I went to work or slept for the night) since it does work as long as I let it rest 30 min or so after turning it off.

Eventually I bought a 2 x molex to 6pin pcie cable. It solved the problem.

I have to assume that the problem lies within the PSU.  I am theorizing that the molexes and the 6 pin power cable are separate, maybe connected to separate rails or something and the rail that powers the 6 pin cable is faulty while the rail that powers the molexes still works. 

the end


Update: after a few days, I'm again getting the red flashing letters if I don't rest the PC for maybe a half hour. I contacted OCZ and they said that the RMA center for OCZ is in taiwan. Its not worth it to mail the PSU to taiwan so I bought a HEC cougar 550w  for php 2700 at PCHub. Unfortunately, this new PSU does not fix the problem. I have to assume that it is the video card. The video card is probably sending a signal to the PC that it lacks power.


Bummer. I'm thinking of buying a radeon 6870 or a geforce 560ti. The geforce has slightly higher power consumption and benchmarks. Both cost 11,000+ pesos. Both can be run by a 550w PSU.

Update: The problem is fixed. It really was the video card. I'll blog about it later


the end

OCZ modxstream-pro 600w

Well in my last post here you saw pics of the inside of my busted Hec PSU. I had to go to PC hub sm pampanga to buy a new PSU. My choices were PChub and PC express. I looked at their price lists online and pchub's selection was better. They dont have a landline but they gave me a cell number. I'll post it later.

Since my old psu was a 550w, i would be getting at least that. They had a hec cougar 550w for ~ 3800. An OCZ 600w for 4200 and a corsair 6xxW for ~ 5k-6k. Ok OCZ it is. Tipidpc discount applies so thats 4090 pesos.

They were kind enough to troubleshoot my PC (tear it apart) and confirm that it was the PSU that was the culprit. And NO EXTRA CHARGE for the troubleshooting and the installation and the cable management. My cpu hsf was a little loose so they fixed it too. Its pretty easy to isolate. The mobo was on a box on the table, connect psu, 1 ram and vid card. The old psu doesnt work and the new psu works. Case closed.

I'm now home using my PC.

Pics here






THANK YOU PCHUB!!



They dont have a landline so txt louie at 09293560807.

UPDATE:

Here's the website of OCZ with the specs

HEC 550 ab power supply - pics

 pictures of the inside of my june 2008 vintage hec 550ab. Bought from PC options.

My pc now turns on and off. I think the psu is busted.

UPDATE. Yah confirmed, its busted. I bought a new PSU. See the next post

For the record, these are the symptoms. When I turn on the PC it turns on then off then on. Cycle ranges from 3 seconds to 2 min. Mostly seconds so it rarely gets into windows. Sometimes the pc just stays on with no beep, naka hang.