2001FP DVI Stuck Power Save Problem : Possible Solution

Question

All, I bought the 2001FP last week and have been having the boot powersave problem everyone else has had with this screen.  I tried all the solutions for ATI cards posted by forum members with no success (I have an ATI 9700 Pro):     - Replaced Dell DVI cable with new Belkin $50 dual-head DVI cable: No difference.     - 'Reduce frequency on high resolution displays': No difference.     - Latest ATI drivers: No difference.     - Read all the posts on EDID corruption: Mind blowing. After persevering until 4am this morning I have now got the screen booting reliably every time into 1600x1200 DVI mode.  The answer for me was actually quite simple....motherboard power consumption. I unplugged my spare hard disk (power only), unplugged a spare exhaust fan, removed some of the memory chips and lo-and-behold the machine booted reliably every time! To prove that it was not one of the individual components I tried each one, and many many combinations of them until I plugged in so much that the power drain through the graphics card was too much and it wouldn't boot anymore.  What sealed it for me was I got the machine to the point when I could reliably boot the machine 10+ times into 1600x1200 until I plugged in the exhaust fan.  This little extra juice drain browned-out the graphics card when it tried to push the screen up to 1600x1200.  Unplug the fan and the machine boots.  Plug it in - no screen. I have currently rigged the machine with all the components I can without draining the power too much for the screen to work.  If I plug in 1 more 128mb memory stick it won't boot.  If I plug in another hard drive it won't boot. etc. I also uninstalled and re-installed my video drivers and reliably rebooted 3 or 4 times to prove that upgrading drivers doesn't cause a problem (I know this was a potential issue from some people's posts). My workstation specifics are beyond the specs for the base machine, and no doubt straining the power supply: Dual 1ghz PIII's. ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 1x256mb PC100's 3x128mb PC100's Case Fan Vent Fan Seagate SCSI 10gb disk Maxtor 160gb Ultra133 on Silicon Imaging Ultra133 Controller Adaptec DuoConnect USB2/Firewire card Hercules GameTheater XP Sound Card Plextor 708A DVD burner Plextor 20/10/40 CD-R This all worked fine together without the 2001FP.  When the Radeon/2001FP is trying to do 1600x1200 it will work if I remove (or other components like the spare disk - but I need that): Plextor 20/10/40 CD-R 3x128mb RAM's (or use 2x128's instead of 1x256's) Vent Fan I called PC Power Cooling who unfortunately don't make a replacement upgraded power supply for the Precision 410.  They do for many other Dell machines though and have been happily using one in my XPS for over a year (after overloading that one too...). They are at www.pcpowercooling.com Tonight I am going to rebuild my machine onto the Ultra133 160gb drive and remove the 10gb SCSI (also disable the onboard SCSI controller in the BIOS and anything else you don't use - hopefully it will reduce power if the circuits are not being used). This should give me enough spare juice to add the rest of the RAM back in. Hope this helps some of you who have gone through the nightmare I have this weekend.  It got to the point when I emailed Dell support to return the screen - I think my description to them was '$850 garbage'... :-)  If I get any problems I will update this post. I don't know if this will be of help to NVidia card owners as I don't have one - sorry. Good luck! R.

TecDiver · Answer

[Update]...Machine works perfectly now: rebuilt onto 160gb disk, removed the SCSI (disabled the controller), the extra vent fan and the Plextor CDR, put back in all the memory (3x128mb and 1x256 sticks).  Running very well now.

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