Since installing my 5850, my PC will not boot every time I start it up. Most of the time all I get is the vid card fan goes hyper sonic and the mobo reports no vide with beep codes. I shut it down and it starts up and runs perfectly (except a little wobble from the gpu fan when its getting a work out).

I would RMA my card but...

The retailer and the mfg both refused my request for cross-shipping

The card is not in stock so, I could be down for a long time.


I will RMA it when the demand dies down but, for right now, does this sound like it might be remedied with a new PS?

My current one is an Antec Neo 550

I was thinking of going up to a 750?

I have besides the components listed in my sig I have 2 sata HDs, 1 sata optical, Cisco wireless card and an Audigy 2

Thanks!

Did you test by pulling the card and running off of onboard video or an older card?
Could the issues come after running a while, maybe a heat issue?

Certainly concur on testing with another card.

I was doing some work on a PC last week, and suffered intermittent boot failures. Reseating the graphics card solved that particular issue.

Not sure on the exact TDP of your CPU, but I would say 550 is safe, and it's an Antec.

My bet would rather be on a slightly bad card. Am I correct to assume you can always get a boot on second restart (doing a "warm restart" rather than a cold boot?)

This could also be a mobo issue BTW. Best would be to test the card in a different system.

I would say that 550 PSU would be good and you have some other issue. I'm running a E4400 at 3.4Ghz, P5N-e SLI, 4 SATA hard drives, two burners, PNY 9800GT 512, 2X1Gb DDR2 and many fans on a supposedly not too good Apevia 500W PSU with no problems.

Also, you could try pulling out the other add-in cards and extra HDDs if you suspect a power problem. That way, more juice will be available to the graphics card in theory.

The system ran fine with my old 8800 but, the difference is that this card wants 2 PCI-E power connections. The old one does not.

I will disco 2 sata drives and see whats up.

It does not always boot on the second try. Some times it takes 3 or more attempts. But when it's up, it is rock solid with ArmA2 and FSX.

You might also want to move that Audigy to another slot. I've seen them not play nice in one slot and be fine in another.

But does it start up reliably when you remove it?
Check for dust. Check for any particles in the slots. You said the last card used one slot, the 2nd one used now in particular could have dust/residue in it. If there is not solid contact that might explain that kind of issue. As said, if it isn't properly seated that could do it. Check everything in there while you have it open, any other loose connections? Unplug, replug them all. Check the memory to be properly seated.
Put your old card in the slot you're now using that you didn't before and see if you have issues using that slot alone.
Dust will do crazy things.

Okay, this is becoming pretty clear now. Since the card needs much more wattage under load (A2 and FSX) yet is running solid there, the total watts of your PSU are more than fine for the boot process. It can only be that there's a spiking peak power demand when switching the unit on, which I would put down as problem with the card or mobo, maybe the combination of both, but that shouldn't happen. If a PSU can steadily run a system under load it's strong enough.