A7N266-VM Problems

[Sickpuppy]

UGH! Onboard Video and sound dont work.
Video has a bunch of horozontal 1 inch lines in 2D mode, and dies in 3D mode (instant restart/bsod/etc).
Sound Causes BSOD's
AGP Video/PCI sound work flawlessly.

Brand new board, Win2k pro SP3, Nvidia's Newest Nforce drivers.

Anyone else had this problem? This seems more severe than a bios flash being needed, however i will be thrilled if its a software problem.

 

[clumsum]

No problems at all with my A7N266-VM on-board audio or video .......... I just used the drivers from the included cd-rom.
Did you try those before installing the newest drivers from the website?

 

[mechBgon]

I now have seventeen A7N266-VM systems with Win2k SP2 and I install the drivers off the CD, then update with the latest nForce driver package from nVidia, then install DirectX 8.1b and finally install nVidia's 30.82 video drivers. Works great.

Never use a video driver from Windows Update, for starters. And I'm not using SP3 for the time being.

 

[Sickpuppy]

I tried the cd drivers and the nvidia ones, didnt let windows blow it up for me =)

I guess ill just have the board replaced... newegg is pretty good with my complaints so far and if they dont cooperate ill have to find a new primary reseller.

 

[Sickpuppy]

oh... what do you use the 17 systems for?

Just curious =)

 

[clumsum]

mechBgon,

Are you using the integrated video/audio on all your A7N266-VM systems .........?

 

[mechBgon]

Work fleet! They're perfect for the office work my users do

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: clumsum
mechBgon,

Are you using the integrated video/audio on all your A7N266-VM systems .........?

All but one, which has a built-by-ATI Radeon 7500 in it (we're going to set up a dual-monitor arrangement for one of our database people). In all fairness, I haven't run a 3D game on any of these (obviously such things are not appropriate for a business fleet). The onboard sound gives noticably better CD audio than my home stereo's full-sized Sony changer does :Q and with the nVidia 1.13 drivers I've been adding, I believe it gives 5.1 capabilities. Then there's that mystical S/PDIF jack, which I am ignorant of what I would do with...

By the way, the reason for the 30.82 drivers is to fix a little glitch in (get this) the Microsoft 3D Pipes screensaver. When the screen does its "dissolve" after drawing a bunch of pipes, with the stock drivers from the CD or with the nVidia 1.13's, the dissolve may take about 20 seconds, and the screensaver won't kick out until it's done dissolving. Dunno what to make of that one, but the 30.82's seem to take care of it.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Sickpuppy
UGH! Onboard Video and sound dont work.
Video has a bunch of horozontal 1 inch lines in 2D mode, and dies in 3D mode (instant restart/bsod/etc).
Sound Causes BSOD's
AGP Video/PCI sound work flawlessly.

Brand new board, Win2k pro SP3, Nvidia's Newest Nforce drivers.

Anyone else had this problem? This seems more severe than a bios flash being needed, however i will be thrilled if its a software problem.

Are you aware the BSEL0&1 jumpers are listed backwards in the manual? I only ask because if that's a Duron in there it may be overclocked and that would explain your trouble. Otherwise I would suggest you try a different stick of ram as BSOD's are often caused by bad ram so try to eliminate that as well before giving up on the board.

 

[mechBgon]

Now that's a good point! Another possibility would be an inadequate power supply, too.

 

[Sickpuppy]

The Bsod's were caused by some Nforce files specifically one that handles sound.

I did do an extensive ram test and tried 2 different sticks, or both together, always the same problem, and always passed the ramcheck.

As for power supply... 300W Enermax should be sufficient for:
AMD 2000XP
2 hardrives
1 cdrom
2 fans



If it were power or ram, would hte AGP/PCI cards work without ANY problems? Usually if its ram then EVERYTHING is screwed over. But i havent had too many problems with ram so i cant say for sure.

Come to think of it... When i was downloading large files (Service Pack 3) they were always corrupt. There was RAM buffering of the file when it was being copied i would imagine... but the ram is good!

I think that has something to do with the Onboard video using 32 megs of Ram. When I use the AGP video, the problem stops, even tho i still use the onboard sound. But onboard sound causes BSODs! So frustrating.

 

[clumsum]

I don't know if it would help, but you may try reformatting and reinstalling everything from scratch, maybe even underclocking your system ....... or (at least) using the most conservative DRAM settings?
Also, install the audio drivers last!