9800 GX2 never detected on boot-up

[Static EMP]

I built my new PC, and when I put the 9800 GX2 in, it wouldn't boot up. I just get a blank screen and one short beep. I thought it might be defective, so I bought another one to test... same thing happened. Right now I'm using a temporary PNY GeForce 8500 GT card until I can figure out how to get my 9800 GX2 to work. Could it be the power? I have 850W, which should be enough. Here's my specs:

750W power supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
ASUS P5K-E WiFi AP motherboard
2 Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA hard drives
Samsung Lightscribe DVD-RW SATA
Floppy Drive
Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS. Has 4 fans.


Anyone know what's going on? I want to get my 9800 GX2 up and running

 

[BlueAcolyte]

what do the LEDs say on the 9800GX2? They should be green. Also, have you looked up the post codes for your motherboard? How about drivers?

 

[Static EMP]

they are green, which is supposed to mean the power is ok. the post code is one beep, which usually means everythings fine. i'm on my computer right now, with a different gfx card in

 

[Static EMP]

oh yeah and i can't install drivers since i can't see anything on the screen with the 9800 gx2 in...

 

[DerekWilson]

there should be the two green and one blue if it actually tries to display something ... is it just two green, or is the blue there as well?

are you using the dvi port that's furthest from the CPU? this is the primary and the other won't display anything initially ime ...

 

[Static EMP]

i'm using the top one, so it's closer.... and there is a blue light as well.

 

[TigerMonsoonDragon]

sounds like bios doesn't see/support it

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Static EMP
i'm using the top one, so it's closer.... and there is a blue light as well.

plug the monitor into the other one ... it really should work -- i had that problem when i first hooked it up.

 

[Static EMP]

OH yeah and my bad, i put 850 either. i'm a dumbass, i meant 750. I corrected it in the original post.

 

[imported_wired247]

my top DVI port doesn't seem to be working either, not sure if this is because SLI is automatically enabled or if it's just impossible, but I had to switch to the lower DVI port.

The one short beep should mean that your system is POSTing just fine. there's a slight chance that you could need a BIOS update but I find that unlikely.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: wired247
my top DVI port doesn't seem to be working either, not sure if this is because SLI is automatically enabled or if it's just impossible, but I had to switch to the lower DVI port.

The one short beep should mean that your system is POSTing just fine. there's a slight chance that you could need a BIOS update but I find that unlikely.

after the drivers are installed you should see the second port work when windows loads. you still won't see anything during boot on a monitor connected to that port though.

this is how it used to be with single gpus that had multiple displays -- today they detect which is connected and set that as the output at boot. must be a little more difficult with 2 gpu cards.

 

[imported_Shaq]

When I installed my GX2 I got 3 beeps. I powered off and on 3 times at least and pushed down on the card again to make sure it was seated. It finally came on when I went into the bios and powered down. I didn't enter anything because I couldn't see. I powered on again and it was fine.

If you get it working don't use the 174.74's. Everytime I loaded a game the window would minimize on me. I went back to the 174.70's and they work fine.

 

[mrphones]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
what do the LEDs say on the 9800GX2? They should be green. Also, have you looked up the post codes for your motherboard? How about drivers?

drivers won't do anything if the pc won't post. you have the latest bios?

 

[djnsmith7]

Static, did you get the GX2 to work?

 

[Static EMP]

I had to use the lower DVI part. Normally I would feel like a dumbass for missing such an easy thing... but not really -- it's not like they make a note of it in the instructions. Thanks for all your help!

 

[nanaki333]

damn.. i had the same issue with mine when i bought it, except neither port worked. not even the hdmi. mine was actually doa

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Static EMP
I had to use the lower DVI part. Normally I would feel like a dumbass for missing such an easy thing... but not really -- it's not like they make a note of it in the instructions. Thanks for all your help!

They do make notes of it. again and again. There is even an LED that shows which one works outside of windows!
I never even seen a GX2 and I heard about that one (that only 1 DVI port works outside of windows)

 

[jdmech]

I'm having a very similar problem. I just upgraded my cpu to a new Q9450 on an evga 780i board and upgraded to the 9800 gx2. I have a coolmaster real power pro 750w, updated to the lastest bios, have lastest nvidia drivers for the card and chipset. I have to boot then hold the power button in to shut the computer down because the gx2 won't detect my monitor. I do this twice then on the 3rd boot it will detect the monitor but then on the post screen I get the message "Now System is in Safe Mode" .... reset cpu and memory settings in cmos. But I have defaults loaded and no overclocking. If I press F1 I can go to windows and everything works fine until I have to reboot. 1 stange thing was when I went start the Nvidia Temp monitor.... the whole system just died like I had held the power button down to shut it down.

Anyone figured this issue out?

 

[imported_Shaq]

Originally posted by: jdmech
I'm having a very similar problem. I just upgraded my cpu to a new Q9450 on an evga 780i board and upgraded to the 9800 gx2. I have a coolmaster real power pro 750w, updated to the lastest bios, have lastest nvidia drivers for the card and chipset. I have to boot then hold the power button in to shut the computer down because the gx2 won't detect my monitor. I do this twice then on the 3rd boot it will detect the monitor but then on the post screen I get the message "Now System is in Safe Mode" .... reset cpu and memory settings in cmos. But I have defaults loaded and no overclocking. If I press F1 I can go to windows and everything works fine until I have to reboot. 1 stange thing was when I went start the Nvidia Temp monitor.... the whole system just died like I had held the power button down to shut it down.

Anyone figured this issue out?

That's strange..the card shouldn't have to detect the monitor on startup. My problem was slightly similar to yours...my power supply was too weak. I was using a 480watt plus a accessory power supply. Mine shut down once when loading a game and when on the desktop once. I have a real power pro 750 now also. Did you use the 8 pin from 1 line and 6 pin from the other? If you use both from the same line the GX2 uses close to the limit of the rail (19A). Other than that I don't know. Hopefully you will figure it out, but in BIOS/bootup the card doesn't need to recognize the monitor. Make sure you're not getting 3 beeps when you power on.

 

[jdmech]

Yea, I tried the power supply both ways and it's always the same.... 3rd boot up the card comes alive and then I get the "Now System is in Safe Mode" .. message. Press F1 and I'm good until I shutdown and have to boot up again. Tried clear cmos and when I booted the 1st time.. the card was detected and it posted but then got checksum error. Fixed the memory voltage and then it went back to the same 3rd boot issue. I tried leaving the memory voltage on auto but still the same thing. I'm hoping nvidia can figure it out, I sent them my specs. I'm suspecting I may need a stronger power supply. I'm running 7 case fans not including the cpu fan... so the 750 may not be able to handle it.

 

[imported_Shaq]

That power supply is 750 watts continuous and 900 watts maximum so it should have plenty of power unless it is old or defective. Fans are generally under an amp a piece and they are on the V1 rail all to themselves with hard drives unless you have an 8 pin 12volt on your motherboard. You can see in my sig what I have drawing on it plus 3 other case fans and an OC'd GX2. And my 480 watt max supply was almost enough to power it with a GX2.

It's looking like my problem was the PCIE voltage. I was running fine at stock voltage with the 8800GT but I guess the GX2 puts more stress on the PCIE bus since I am OC'ing my system. It rebooted on me yesterday with the new power supply so I knew something else was wrong. Games would minimize when I loaded them and couldn't maximize them because they would reminimize again. I raised the voltage .1 and every game has loaded correctly so far.

 

[funboy6942]

I say something in bios is holding it back from being worked. the mobo bios makes it all work till os boots up and actual drivers take over. I would say you short the pin to set your bios back to default and see if it boots then. if so you can go back into bios and start tweaking it they way you liked it before till it dies and you then know what made it do that.

Also keep in mind that with the 9800, just like the 9600 nvidia is secretly overclocking that card via the pci-e bus, even if your not doing it, with some boards it will do it on its own, and a very small increase will kill the card, or make them not boot up. If you have means to a different board I would throw the card on it to see if it will boot up. If so your mobo, and video card may be doing the oc dance too high, hence no boot screen.

But in any case I would try to reset bios first and go from there, it seems as though you have all the right stuff for it to work, unless like I mentioned above is going on.

 

[SniperDaws]

Originally posted by: funboy42
I say something in bios is holding it back from being worked. the mobo bios makes it all work till os boots up and actual drivers take over. I would say you short the pin to set your bios back to default and see if it boots then. if so you can go back into bios and start tweaking it they way you liked it before till it dies and you then know what made it do that.

Also keep in mind that with the 9800, just like the 9600 nvidia is secretly overclocking that card via the pci-e bus, even if your not doing it, with some boards it will do it on its own, and a very small increase will kill the card, or make them not boot up. If you have means to a different board I would throw the card on it to see if it will boot up. If so your mobo, and video card may be doing the oc dance too high, hence no boot screen.

But in any case I would try to reset bios first and go from there, it seems as though you have all the right stuff for it to work, unless like I mentioned above is going on.

How many threads are you going to post this crap in, there is no secret you crettin.

 

[funboy6942]

LOL cretin, best you can call me through your pc? And Im sorry its been proven, and stated by REPUTABLE people, and others in the forums that have said they were showing the same thing when they tested it. Also the ones whos cards worked one day and then poof quit wrong and they didnt do anything to them to do so. But im not going to argue with you because your obviously a fan boy and no matter what is said or written up you just dont want to believe that they would do that. You have already admitted you never took the time to read up on it so your talking through your butt, I atleast read it and all the other people who were pissed because their cards did the same thing. And its not a driver issue, they are using a different chip that makes the card read differently, and NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO it will always show up at stock volts. Its just when you up the pci bus and test it with 3dmark, it shows higher numbers the more you increase the pci bus. And with a Nvidia chipset mobo you dont have to manually increase it, it does it on its own. If you read what they wrote up you would understand.

 

[jdmech]

Update for anyone who reads this. I was going to take the gx2 back and put my 8800 gtx back in and had the same issue. So the problem appears to be the new cpu I insalled --> Q9450. I played with the voltage settings and ended setting the vcore to 1.25 and the fsb to 1.2 and running at 2.7ghz, although ntune is saying the fsb is at 1.3. Anyway, did that and now everything is good. The gx2 gets detected every time on first boot. Now the fun will be trying to overclock more without going back to the originally issue. Thanks for everyone's help.