All kinds of issues since I got my 7800GS

[Sephy]

A64 3000+
FX5900 -> 7800GS AGP
1GB RAM
Antec TruePower 2.0 430W

Before I installed the new video card, I previously had no issues except for slow performance. When I installed the new card, at first the PC would reach the screen where I could hit delete for BIOS, but it would never actually proceed to that point. It wasn't locked up, as a little "Go" would pop up when I'd press the button for setup, network boot, etc. I reset the CMOS, and all was well until I tried to change my timings to "Turbo", at which time the system would return to the same pre-BIOS state. These timings worked fine under the 5900.

Cue about a week ago, my system hard rebooted while loading Oblivion. No idea what caused this. Never experienced anything like this with the old card. No further issues until today, where while playing MVP 2005 the system locked for a second, came out of it, then the sound went into an infinite loop. When I tried to reboot, it was stuck on the BIOS screen.

I tried pulling the card and replacing, resetting CMOS, and nothing worked until I randomly reversed the order of my RAM chips, and all of a sudden it decided to boot. Right now I have the 5900 in, and I haven't tried a game yet. I don't know if the RAM thing has anything to do with it, I have run memtest before with no issues at all.

I don't know what to do. I don't think it is a power problem, because the PSU is pretty new, and has plenty of juice for whatever. I don't know if I should RMA the card, or is it something in my system that has a problem. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Remedy]

Whuch motherboard chipset do you have?

 

[Sephy]

K8T800, a MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R

 

[Remedy]

Check your board revision etched on the PCB. Are you using the latest BIOS?

 

[Sephy]

I'm not, but I also don't have a floppy. I'd use the latest if I could get a boot CD somewhere.

 

[RallyMaster]

Got the latest AGP drivers (VIA Hyperion drivers)?

EDIT: Check www.viaarena.com

 

[Sephy]

No, I didn't have the very latest, but that still doesn't explain the inability to boot on turbo and require a CMOS clear every time it was set. Nor does it explain the random shutdown/reboots.

 

[Sephy]

OK, I flashed the BIOS. A bit of a non-bootable situation but a CMOS clear and we were OK. Still using the old card. Also, still no idea WTF to look for.

 

[honkee]

maybe a new psu?

 

[Sephy]

I just bought this PSU not that long ago. I can't imagine it being a power issue, it certainly has enough juice.

 

[bob4432]

look inside the psu, the 430W antecs had issues with leaking caps....

 

[JEDIYoda]

what you said was you bought the power supply before you bought the 7800 vid card.

I will tell you it sounds like a PSU issue...

I had the same issues before I got my current PSU!!

I`m not saying you need to get what I have,,

I am saying you might not have enough amps on your 12v rail....


anyways good luck!!

 

[Sephy]

Originally posted by: bob4432
look inside the psu, the 430W antecs had issues with leaking caps....

So what am I looking for if I do this?

Not enough amps? I have 2 12V rails with 17A each. Plenty.

 

[RallyMaster]

No, he's saying your PSU is defective and you might want to crack it open and check it out. I remember the NeoPower 430W PSUs were really bad and many were defective from the factory with the warranty seal broken on arrival.

 

[Sephy]

I realize that, but someone else said the PSU might not be powerful enough.

 

[Sephy]

Originally posted by: bob4432
look inside the psu, the 430W antecs had issues with leaking caps....

So I did some research, and this issue was only with the original TruePower units. The IIs have no such issue.

Ran Prime95 overnight, no huge variations on the 12V line over +/- 0.45%.

What else can I do to diagnose this problem?

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

lot of ppl, if they dont know what might be the actual problem, assume it must be something wrong with the PSU. And btw theres electricity in the darn PSU, so pls let it discharge over night, before opening it and touching the inside with ur bare fingers. Shoosh...electric shocks arent funny.

btt: how did u install the card? what steps?
Maybe something messed up with the drivers. Did ya reinstall Windows OS? Changing GPU sometimes causes driver troubles..

Id say to exclude driver or OS problems, u could reinstall windows and drivers. If the problem still shows up then, time to check for the cables, and bios settings for AGP.

 

[Sephy]

The card was installed correctly. I know how to put in a new video card.

Being that I've been having these hardware/BIOS problems, I can guarantee it isn't an OS or drivers problem.

Also, I'm not going to open my PSU and lose my (lifetime?) warranty. I might try putting the card on a dedicated line if it isn't already and trying again.

 

[unmerited]

Might be your memory since you first got the card to work before changing the BIOS settings to Turbo, and doesn't turbo run your memory more aggresively? Then, when replacing the old video card and clearing CMOS, changing memory slots was necessary to get a working machine. Try some other memory if you have it available or test your current memory.

unmerited

 

[Sephy]

I've tested the mem through Prime95, memtest, et al, and it checks out. I did a CMOS reset at the time I switched the memory, so I don't know if that is the problem.

 

[rise]

do you know what turbo is doing? is it a 10%, 5% oc? memtest stable isn't necessarily windows stable and prime isn't a great memory test.

 

[Sephy]

Honestly, I don't know. It doesn't look like it changes the timings at all. it definitely doesn't change the CPU clock speed.

 

[rise]

well, i guess i'd just forget turbo. if you want to oc, do it manually.

 

[Sephy]

That's not really number one on my concerns. It doesn't seem to make a difference benchmark wise, anyway. My concern is figuring out if the problem is in the video card or not, and what is causing this locking/rebooting thing.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

didn't read posts but try to reformat and reset cmos, fresh install