new graphics card problem

ok guys. . i need some serious help my system specs. . Athlon 1800+ (not overclocked) A7n266-E (nforce1 420D) with integrated gfx 256mb pc2100 micron RAM 20GB, liteon writer I needed a gfx upgrade and after checking various forums, I thought a cheap ti4200 would do well for me until those dx9 games come out.

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ok guys ..i need some serious help
my system specs ..

Athlon 1800+ (not overclocked)
A7n266-E (nforce1 420D) with integrated gfx
256mb pc2100 micron RAM
20GB, liteon writer

I needed a gfx upgrade and after checking various forums, I thought a cheap ti4200 would do well for me until those dx9 games come out. I got a Gainward 64mb ddr ti4200 for 81 bucks from GameVE.
On install and boot..there's massive display corruption on bios screen, POST screen and desktop (basically not a driver related prb). I installed the last 2 forceware builds plus det 28.32, hoping one of them would do a miracle. The funny thing is when i change resolution(i do manage a few times w/o the system crashing) the visual anomalies disappear ...even upon restarting the system. However my system crashes after a while and thats when they reappear . No problems in safe mode tho ..hav'nt had a crash.
what do you guys think? is it bad video RAM. i have a hunch its to do with sideband addressing (its enabled says sisoftsandra). Anyone had this prob with the nforce(1)? I had a geforce2MX 400 before and no probs with that. What do you guys make of this? Please help me out.
graphics card prb

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data/avatar/default/avatar02.webp

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1. have u disabled onboard graphics in bios?
2. what wattage is your power supply
3. try newer drivers nvidia now on 53.03


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Many problems are usually associated with the bios the first reply is a good place to start...

I might also add that while in your system bios look for anything that states FAST RE-Write or FAST WRITE capabilities (DISABLE) this and you might want to change your AGP strength also to a hex of FF which I think is max if this is available...

I know with my older board which is an ABIT KT7-RAID that I had to disable the FAST item within the AGP area in bios to stop the lock ups and allow my Ti 4600 to function properly...

I hope this helps...


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Check your BIOS and disable Fast Writes, if it's enabled. Also, make sure you enable an IRQ for the card in the BIOS. If you're getting video corruption during POST, that's got NOTHING to do with a driver issue. If there's an on-board graphics chip, disable that too. They SHOULD co-exist just fine (the Ti-4200 and the on-board chip) but why bother.

What happens when you boot cold? Turn it off (power down) and leave it off for a few minutes, then turn it back on. Do that 2 or 3 times and let us know what you see during POST from a cold boot. How long ago did you buy the card? Is it new or used? Has it EVER worked correctly?

Later.


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ok .... here goes
1) brand new card ...installed it today morning
2) onboard graphics disabled ofcourse
3) no options in motherboard bios to tweak any of those settings ...viz fastwrites, sideband, 2x -4x etc except agp aperture ...its at 128. i've tried all possible values for this already
4) PS = 300 watt ...is that a prb? what video problems can u expect if it aint sufficient. i cud even run nfshp2 for a while ...but now i can just abt do nothing. even having prbs making a driver install.
5) cold booting - no avail, i've done that a few times in the last 12 hours odd.

I used powerstrip to disable sideband addressing ...i'll try disabling fastwrites now. dunno if powerstrip is a good idea...
so catch ya guys in a lil while ...and thanks for the feedback


data/avatar/default/avatar03.webp

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just tried disabling fastwrites with powerstrip ... the prb persists
Cant even install a driver now ...the system just reboots during install :(


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the card has a bad core
My gf2mx does that.
Return it dawg


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yeah looks very likely like a bad card .... FW and all those tricks are nice may improve stability or whatsoever but the card MUST work with enabled and disabled and since I had a TI4200, too ... Im pretty sure it has to work .... just replace the card and give us the resut


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find a friend or someone that you know that could test the card out for ya before you RMA it, who knows it might just be incompatibility


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Ok you mentioned also about weird during post etc. and you tried all those other items mentioned...

Here is my other story...

I have a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra and during post blocks of color and a sort of colored Bar code was all I seen so I returned the card for free replacment PNY...

Went and bought a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra to get by... Well guess what got home same problem...

Figured maybe Motherboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe v1.0 board) AGP slot bad... Returned this board for free replacement and ordered a v2.0 board to get by and guess what Same damn problem...

So last but not least I replaced my 350WATT power supply with a 600Watt power supply - problem solved!!!

Now the reason I gave you the first answer above about FAST WRITES because of the card you have my 5800 Ultra and 5600 Ultra all use power from ps and the older Ti cards didn't but this could be your problem also... POWER SUPPLY...


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it MAY be your PSU ... but its not that sure since 300W are OK he does not have that much power hungry hardware and if then it may only be one weak powerline ... go and get http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php or any other hardware monitor and give us an overview of the voltages ....


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have you tried underclocking your card. if it is a problem with the card you should still be able to find a speed its stable at. a lot of problems with todays cards are from poor workmanship from assembley. they may not have enough thermal grease between the heatinks i have a prolink 5900 and it will not run stable at all at stock settings. but i used powerstrip to lower it about 10mhz and stable as a rock. just something to think about... :knife: -the doc


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yeah true ... try that but underclock in no option since his card is new it MUST work /w default speed ... if not RMA


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I have the problem when entering the bios, with ,my Geforce 4ti 4200 (128mb) by ELSA. The words or instructions is corupted after i press 'del' and it goes normal after it is in the bios. I've change my Geforce ti 4200 to Radeon 9600 pro and the problem has gone as well.


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:cry: guess i'll try installing it on a friend's PC ..should be my last hope really. And if it does, I'll upgrade my PSU.


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:cry: guess i'll try installing it on a friend's PC ..should be my last hope really. And if it does, I'll upgrade my PSU.


Don't be too hasty to blame or upgrade your power supply. I've got a spare system that's LOADED with all kinds of crap (GF Ti-500, TV tuner card, Audigy sound card, Promise RAID card, internal modem, Ethernet card, CD buner, DVD drive, CD-Rom drive, two hard drives, over-clocked XP-2100, 1-gig of DDR ... everything but the kitchen sink ... AND it's water-cooled) that's running just fine on a no-name 300-watt power supply.

Don't just replace it because somebody says it MIGHT be an issue. Check the +12 volt and +5 volt rails in your BIOS. If they're MORE than 10% off (LOW) AND that video card works fine in somebody else's system, THEN replace it. Don't burn your money just because the power supply is on a list of things to check. CHECK IT first.

Also, if you have an older video card (what did you replace with the Ti-4200?), plug that back in and see what happens. If your symptoms persist, it's NOT the Ti-4200. I've put about 6 or 7 of those Ti-4200s in systems for people and they are EXCELLENT cards (great bang for the buck). I'd check it out first in someone else's system though just to make sure it's the problem. Check out YOUR system though with either your old or a borrowed video card to make sure it's not YOUR system first.

Later.


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I just also want to mention that my 350 Watt Power supply worked fine for over 8 months and you can see my specs the only change on my specs now is the Power Supply... THEY CAN GO BAD...

I just wanted to mention that if this card can't display things during post and if you see any weird goings on that I had it's most likely the Power Supply... Especially if the card works in someone elses system...

Before it stopped functioning properly for me in POST it would make it into Windows for a while then all these square blocks would show up on the screen and nothing could be made out... Over time then the POST wouldn't even display anything but that colored Bar Code...

I used a PCI card for my testing to see if it would work since both my AGP 5800 and 5600 werent' working and of course after returning each item thinking those were the culprits (READ MY OTHER STORY) - First Video Card then Motherboard - And still had same result - I might add the PCI card worked fine... I didn't have a newer AGP card to test or troubleshoot at time...

I'm not saying just jump into buying a POWER SUPPLY but don't rule this out for graphics problems... Don't get caught up doing like I did - Now I have a spare motherboard and video card and of course spent about 500 dollars just to find out that it was just a power supply...

These are cheaper than 100 bucks and worth it than going through all the hassle I did...

I build computers and work in IT and have for 10 years and never thought that with the problems I was seeing would be a simple power supply considering it worked fine for so long... My new 600 Watt (COMPUSA) brand has been working fine now for 4 months without a hitch...

I learned don't rule out the oddest of things when doing troubleshooting - don't always look at the OBVIOUS...


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I am running an overclocked AMD 2400+ at 2.20 Ghz, an overclocked MX 440 Vid Card, 3 HD's (300 GB total), 4 PCI cards and 4 cooling fans, and this is all of a 250W power supply, and it works perfectly for me too. I am even overlocking my FSB with no problems and the thing never reaches above 40 Degrees C (104 Degrees F).

So I would tend to agree that you must leave the impulse rush behind you and explore all alleyways before taking a turn onto the main road. It might save you the toll.

Cheers,

-Cub. =o)


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Well if you got newer graphics card you may consider going for a 350w. Either way there's only about £10 difference from 230 to 600w, so I say go ahead and buy the biggest one you can.

Otherwise I used to have this Athlon XP 2100, GeForce 4 ti4200, 2 hard drives, 1Gb ram, and 2 cd drives, running on a 230w. That being said, the 230w got crippled just one week after installing the second hard drive and it completely killed my graphics card.

I had to get a 350w and a Radeon 9700 pro - sure enough, 6 months later I have to upgrade to a 400w. Now that the 400w is in a different PC I'm running on a 350w, just fine.

Conclusion: Don't just look for power in a PSU. Look for qualities as surge protection and the like. The PSU might need power but it first needs to be safe and reliable. I would suggest a safe, reliable PSU at around 350/400w, giving room to upgrades to faster more power hungry hardware in the future, new drives and whatnot.

My $0.02


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my sons pc has the same board (a7n266) and it also would not take a vid card in the agp slot.
did all the same stuff, shut off in bios etc.
just cycled up and down.
i gave up