XFX GeForce 5500 and Abit NF7-S2

[The Mozster]

Ok, I originally got a the deal most people have from TigerDirect for 60 bucks. Here's the deal. I installed the card and the comp booted up just fine. No issue with the drivers at all. Was running perfectly for a few days. Then one morning I worked on my comp and left it on. No apps were running when I left. I came back and the comp was off. My first thought was "did I turn it off?" I hit the power switch and nothing. I pulled the power cord off and put it back on. Reset the power supply and tried to power up. No luck.

My first guess was the vid card. Was there an issue? I pulled my old MSI Ti-200 out and swapped it out. Powered up the comp and it ran perfectly. I had installed the latest drivers from Nvidia and there was no issue. I promptly got an RMA and sent it in. I got the replacement back and tried to boot the comp.

Just like before, nothing. The comp will not boot with the card in the AGP slot. I have no idea why. Anyone else have any ideas. I put the MSI card back in and it runs perfectly.

I have:

-500watt PSU
-AMD 1.4 Thunderbird
-1 GB total Muskin PC 2700 RAM (2 sticks)
-Abit NF7-S2 mobo with current bios updated 2 weeks ago
-Soundblaster Live 5.1
-ATI PCI TV-Tuner
-Windows XP Home Edition


Has anyone else had this problem or did I get 2 bad cards in a row?

-Moz

[Newbie2]

Here a few members have had bad experiences with XFX video cards.

Well, here's an EVGA FX 5500 for $60 US.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1010681&CatId=935

But currently that's "Usually Ships in 7 - 21 Days" so this is a different FX 5500 card that's for $5 more:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1617711&CatId=935


(Off topic: What is the brand of that 500W PSU?)

[The Mozster]

It's a a Coolmax PSU i got from Newegg about 6 months ago. I am seeing more and more trouble with these XFX cards. I might just call it a loss and spend some big money on a real upgrade to SLI vid cards from MSI. I am buying a new 21 inch LCD and need the horsepower. Which means new board and cpu and RAM.

[Midknyte]

The 5500s are pretty horrible cards to begin with. They are basically higher clocked 5200s. The ATI 9250 or 9550s would be a better choice.

[The Mozster]

Thanks for the help and advice. I guess it is true you get what you pay for. In this case, a real sweet deal that was not to be.

Lesson learned.

[Damins]

XFX is about the same as they all are and now they offer a double lifetime warranty on their cards so you can transfer the warranty to first person after you to own the card. BFG still makes better cards and has better support but its nice to get a double lifetime warranty.