any ideas why

[haven4ever]

right ill try to give you as much info about my problem as i can and hope some one can help

i installed a sata h/d about 2 months ago, for a month everthing was fine until one day i switched on my pc and it had a problem it booted up got to the windows xp screen with the loading green bar running across the bottom and that was it it just keep going as though it couldn,t find my h/d or o/s.
so i booted it up in safe mode and did a system restore. this worked fine but the next time i switched it on same problem, went in in safe mode and it wouldn,t allow system restore.Anyway after 2 days trying to suss it out i gave up and reformatted
know i didn,t go for the quick format but even still it only took about 20secs to format the drive i thought this was strange so i didit again and the same about 20secs to format it.
So i installed everything again(now it was at this time i noiticed that even though i have an 9800xt with cat 4.3 drivers the smart gart had agp setting to off) and it didn,t matter what i did it wouldnt allow it to be change , the card worked fine with the likes of far cry etc but i thought the agp would be set to 8 x.

so everthing was back on and working well until last thursday when the same problem occurred at start up , got around it in safe mode with a restore but then it was just a repeat of the first time so i formatted again(again only 20 secs to format the drive) loaded everything up and it was fine , next day it started up fine and worked so i installed a game(IL2 sturmovik) following day back to the same problem as though it got stuck on the windows screen and could find my h/d o/s.

got round it with restore and it has been fine since but im just waiting for it to happen again.

so after all that could anyone provide answers to any of the following

1) why is my 9800xt setting set to agp off and can,t be altered( agp 8x is set in my bios)
2) any ideas what could be causing this start up problems.
3) it seems to occur after installing games(h&d2/sturmovik) are these likley to be the cause
4) 160gig matrox sata hd/ which shows up as a 152gig h/d?

my system spec is as follows
athalon xp2700+ running @2.17
1gig pc3200 ram
hercules 3d prophet 9800xt with cat4.7 drivers from omega(problem happens with ati drivers too)
windows xp home edition sp1 all updates download
bios driver all up to date


thats it folks thanks for taking time to read this and i hope you can help

 

[haven4ever]

forgot

my mobo ias a gigabyte ga-7vt600 1394

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, the usual cure for the AGP problem is to reinstall your mobo's chipset drivers and then DX9 if necessary.

The HD size discrepancy is normal. You lose some space for the tracks and sectors to be written and some for differences in the value of a kilobyte.

 

[haven4ever]

so how do i go about doing the mobo chipset drivers is there anything i need to be wary of.

and this should sort out the agp problem
but could that also be causing my start up problem?

 

[LTC8K6]

GA-7VT600 1394 drivers

New bios mentions AGP instability fix

I would flash to the new BIOS and then reinstall the VIA 4 in 1 drivers and see how it goes. The 4 in 1 driver is just an exe file that you run. To flash the BIOS click on the how to link at the top of the BIOS page.

 

[haven4ever]

trying to flash new bios in with gigabyte bios writer and it keeps giving error message as follows

can not load rom image from bin file maybe bin file size does not match

any further help please

also do you think this is also the cause of my start up problem as stated in my original post

thanks

 

[haven4ever]

forget that last post

i have now flashed the bios to version f5 and then updated my chipset drivers, but it has made no difference
in smartgart the agp is off
in advanced smartgart
pci read and write is on
agp read and write if of

when i reset them and restart to test them they just got back to the above settings, it is a 9800xt i have the bios update only mentioned 9600


any further help please i feel if i can solve this it may resolve my start up problem

 

[LTC8K6]

Did you reload the VIA 4 in 1 driver?

 

[haven4ever]

yes i flashed the bios the installed the updated 4in1 drivers

 

[LTC8K6]

Now try a reinstall of DX9.

You could also try the CAT4.7's.

I am not sure what is causing the startup problems, but maybe we can get rid of the AGP problem first.

 

[haven4ever]

reinstalled directx9 change my agp settings restart to test them and again they just end up as follows

smatgart agp off
advanced smartgart pci read and write on
agp read and write off

im using cat 4.7 drivers

shoul reinstall these is it worth trying that

could my card be faulty, windows says its ok

 

[LTC8K6]

This is a common problem with smartgart. It sometimes causes the AGP to turn off because it doesn't detect the settings correctly. It can be very frustrating at times. Basically, if the last thing you do is install the CAT drivers, it turns your AGP off, forcing you to reinstall the VIA 4 in 1 drivers. Make sure you install the 4 in 1's and DX9 last.

Check to see if DXDIAG says AGP texture acceleration is disabled.

If you have tried everything, and AGP is still off in smartgart, and DXDIAG still says AGP texture acceleration is disabled, then you can uninstall just the Smartgart part of ATI's drivers to see if that will get your AGP turned back on.

Smartgart removal tool

If you try that, check DXDIAG again and see what it says.

If that doesn't help, then I have suggested everything I know of to suggest.

 

[haven4ever]

where do i find dxdiag

order that things have been
cat 4.7 driver
bios flashed
vi4 in 1 installed
directx9 installed

 

[LTC8K6]

Just click start then run then type dxdiag in the box and smack the enter key or just click OK.

The Direct X diagnostics program should run.

Click the display tab.

All will be revealed.......

 

[haven4ever]

it reads as follows

direct draw enabled
direct3d enabled
agp texture acceleration not available

in notes no problem found

 

[haven4ever]

--------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: HERCULES 3D PROPHET 9800 XT Classic 256MB (Omega 2.5.58)
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc. (Omega 2.5.58)
Chip type: RADEON 9800 XT AGP (0x4E4A)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E4A&SUBSYS_00021681&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1600 x 1200 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6458 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 6/11/2004 03:57:24, 207360 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 7/8/2004 06:33:56, 746496 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-0D0A-11CF-0B6C-0820A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4E4A
SubSys ID: 0x00021681
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

 

[LTC8K6]

agp texture acceleration not available

That's actually a big problem. One that the 4 in 1's should solve. Why they aren't, I don't know unless it's something turned off in the BIOS.

Until DXDIAG says "AGP tecture acceleration enabled" and allows you to test it, you will have low performance out of your 9800XT.

At this point it may pay to start over again.... :roll: :frown:

Why don't you try uninstalling smartgart and then see if DXDIAG reports correctly, if you haven't already tried that. You can always reinstall everything again.....

 

[LTC8K6]

As for your other problems, you might find your HD manufacturers diagnostic tools and check to see if your HD is healthy. You will have to go to the MFG pages and look around for the tools.

You might also download memtest86, put it on a floppy and check your memory out with it.

 

[haven4ever]

uninstalled smart gart and it made no differnce

so i ran the ati gargoyle demo too see what it was like and it seemed fine

if i was going to start again what is the order i should install each software and is it worth it will it not just be the same , im sure im not the only one to have this problem

by the way thanks for all your help on this it is very good of you

 

[haven4ever]

at last reinstalled everything, cat driver ,bios,chipset and dirextx9 and it worked i can now alter myagp settings

thanks for all your help

i hope this helps with my start up problem

 

[LTC8K6]

Glad you got that solved.

Now would be a good time to set a restore point.