motherboard - HP DL380g6 server with graphic card powered by external psu

07
2014-07
  • nova man

    I have an old HP dl380 g6 server and I need to use it for renderings but I have one problem, some of servers don't have 6/8 pin power outs for graphic cards, mine don't have it too.

    With that in mind I bought a saphire 5450 low profile (no power pins) just for high quality remote and openGL required apps. But the 5450 didn't make it a week, I send I for warranty and if new replacement have same problem I'm in a big trouble.

    Here is problem - I have to buy a new graphic card gtx 650 this card have 6pin power pin my concern is the power supply for this card.

    My plan is to buy a 250-350w psu but how sync the server boot and external psu start ups. In pc you can short the psu from the motherboard in servers I don't know how to do it?

    So guys if any body have knowledge in this area please help.

    I find an empty 10pin power out on servers MB for hot plug hards and raid controler. Is that possible tho get power from that for graphic card.

    • Answers
  • Fizzycake

    First of all, I would not start to mess with powersupply cabling. I have done it and been fine, but it was a modular PSU and fortunately, Corsair sent me spares.

    Desktop graphics cards are built for short-ish bursts of high usage. Running one in a server which is built for 24/7 usage is a bad idea. I would look at getting a professional graphics card, such as an AMD Fire Pro line card. These are designed more for heavy, long term workloads.

    Regarding using the 10pin, I could not find a reference to it in the HP manuals for the server. I don't fancy cracking open the 2 at work to find it either!

    As it is a desktop PSU that you would be looking to use, you could always connect the wires that signal the PSU should spin up to a SPST switch and throw that just before booting the server. It is not ideal but neither is starting to "hotwire" server grade hardware.


    • Related Question

    motherboard - Problem with Graphics Card, Power Supply or Mother Board?
  • Questioner

    I have a problem that is driving me to the edge. My graphics card periodically looses power for a moment, then comes back. Once in a while it takes much longer, like 5 minutes. I have always tried rebooting during that period, since I don't know then. Black screen, with a no power message across my monitor.

    All equipment is only a few months old. The Motherboard is a few months old, MSI N9A2 Platinum Revision 1 (AMD). The Video Card is a Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 1GB. The power supply is an Ultra 700w My OS is Xp Pro, sp3

    Any ideas or suggestions how to solve this


    • Related Answers
  • hanleyp

    Have you tried running a temperature monitor such as HWMonitor to see if your video card is running into thermal issues?

  • 8088

    If I got your card correctly, its passive cooled so fan-trouble on the card is ruled out.
    But, if the air-flow in the cabinet is not smooth,
    you could have trouble as heat builds up around the card (no fans, you see).
    I use a nVidia 7950GT which is similarly passive-cooled and the cabinet is designed for proper air-flow.

    alt text

    Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 1GB (GV-R485MC-1GH)

    The same review link declares good power-management on the card (12-22W).
    And, a 700W PSU is quite good (though, I have not checked your exact model).

    If this card is what you have, you should consider a warranty check.
    The card may be malfunctioning.

    I presume that that the card seating is confirmed. Some other checks,

    1. These cards come with management software that taps sensors to show its state
      (have you checked these? does this work for your hardware?)
      • Many third-party tools look at these sensors
        (GPU-Z is on such)
      • There are also tools that do stability testing
        (FurMark is quite good at that -- they call it the GPU Burner).
  • Kez

    It does sound like your graphics card or the fan on the graphics card may be faulty.

    This would make sense if the Windows desktop is automatically returning after those few seconds of seeing a blank screen. Can you hear the fan on the graphics card spin down and up again or does it remain on constantly? If so, that would be another indication.

    Do you have a spare graphics card that you can test with to confirm this?

  • Adrien

    I don't know the details of your PSU and graphics card, but some cards require a certain amperage on each of two 12v rails; basically, are you sure your PSU is putting out enough juice?

    Beyond that, possibly check into temperature monitoring. I have an obnoxiously hot office, and periodically have heat-related problems when the graphics card is under load.

  • Snark

    Sorry for the long delay. It is the video card. It behaved fine for two weeks, then the graphics died completely, even though the fan on the card kept working, indicating that it had power. I re-installed my old video card in the PCI-E slot and it is working fine with no loss of graphics. Thank you for your help, ezwi, Adrien and the rest.

    It looks like the Motherboard may have its own problems, so two faulty parts at once, lucky me! Life is never simple, lol!