Bad Motherboard or bad video card?

[Mike1949]

I recently, with the help of a friend, put together a budget computer.
I have a 300 watt power supply, Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 90 Gig hard drive,512MB PC2700 DDR DIMM,
A Gainward G-Force FX5200 graphics card ( yes, I know they suck) An AMD 2600XP and a ECS K7VTA3 motherboard.
I immediately tried to upgrade the video card but hit a brick wall
I have tried a FX5600, a FX5700 and a ATI 9600. Nothing works on this motherboard but a 5200.
I even tried replacing the power supply with a 450 watt but it made no difference. After trying the other cards I returned them and got a Leadtek 5200 because a 5200 is the only thing that works on this set-up and it was cheaper than the Gainward.
What is the problem? The card says its 8XAGP and the mobo is 4Xagp but my buddy says it should still work. He has built many computers and he is baffled. He says the mobo is crap and thats why it wont work with anything but the 5200 card. Does anybody know what I can do?
I would greatly appreciate any help or advice you all could give me.

P.S.

Why the hell isnt there a Half-Life 2 demo?

 

[Mike1949]

Originally posted by: Mike1949
I recently, with the help of a friend, put together a budget computer.
I have a AMD XP 2600mhz, a 300 watt power supply, Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 90 Gig hard drive,512MB PC2700 DDR DIMM,
A Gainward G-Force FX5200 graphics card ( yes, I know they suck) and a ECS K7VTA3 motherboard.
I immediately tried to upgrade the video card but hit a brick wall
I have tried a FX5600, a FX5700 and a ATI 9600. Nothing works on this motherboard but a 5200.
I even tried replacing the power supply with a 450 watt but it made no difference. After trying the other cards I returned them and got a Leadtek 5200 because a 5200 is the only thing that works on this set-up and it was cheaper than the Gainward.
What is the problem? The card says its 8XAGP and the mobo is 4Xagp but my buddy says it should still work. He has built many computers and he is baffled. He says the mobo is crap and thats why it wont work with anything but the 5200 card. Does anybody know what I can do?
I would greatly appreciate any help or advice you all could give me.

P.S.

Why the hell isnt there a Half-Life 2 demo?

 

[Cerb]

Define "nothing works"
And give us a brand and model # on that PSU.

 

[Mike1949]

The origanal power supply that came with the case is an EZ MEDIA # PSEZ300. And I am running Windows Xp pro Edition
As I said I tried a 450 watt power supply with the 5600 and 5700 FX cards and it did not help. I took it back and kept the EZ MEDIA
When I say nothing works I mean nothing but the 5200 cards.
I tried the ATI 9600 with new catilyst drivers and the computer boots to desktop and looks great. As soon as I
start a game....Half_life or Unreal Tournament 2004 ( theres a spread ) it crashes. On Half- Life with the 9600, I got the first 30 seconds of the train ride into Black Mesa before it crashed to desktop. The FX's looked great on desktop but woulndnt even start Half-Life.

On Unreal on all three cards, the 5600, 5700 and the 9600 would show just a part of the
circular logo the game starts with. The logo the monster with the machine gun steps out of before the game menu starts. It would give me a round circle with a red square grid inside it. Like it could only show a small part of the entire logo.
As I said the 5200 plays all of my games, HL, AVP2 , and Unreal, but it chugs and forget about AA and AF
although it does make HL look stunning. HL is a 6 year old game.
I have been looking at all the tech forums and I have read about voltages.
I also note that none of the cards require an extra power plug ( a dongle ?)
I have read about clearing the CMOS ? I am sure my friend that helped me build this thing has thought of that.
I have tried new drivers for all three cards. And I was careful in removing the old drivers( I used a removel utility.
I am at my wits end. My friend tells me my mobo sucks and I cant get another
video card till I replace the mobo and If I replace the mobo I need another power supply etc. etc.

 

[Cerb]

Still seems like ti could be either mobo or PSU (BTW, I'm a techie, and having to figure out the same question, with what should be two excellent parts). Part of that, assuming it doesn't shut down, reboot or lock up on the NVidias, could be driver issues.
However, if it does lock up, shut down or reboot, it is most likely power supply. If you look at what's running in Shuttle XPCs, it will become plain that wattages mean diddly. A good 300w can often power more than a cheap 450w.

The PC locking or shutting down a few minutes into a game or so is typically a power issue. It could be the mobo, and if so, I have a $51 recommendation , but seems more like PSU.

Oh yeah! Physical check: are any capacitors on the mobo bulging, by any chance?

 

[Mike1949]

Whats the $ 51 recamendation?
Also I got the 450 watt at Frys and my computer guru buddy picked it out. After trying it with the 5600 and the 5700 hundred he told me to take it back he said that wasnt the problem but he doesnt know what the problem is so he told me I needed a different mobo. So Im back with the 300 watt.

 

[Mike1949]

Also my monitor ( a 4 year old 21" Viewsonic G-810) is flickering. The borders on the left side get fuzzy and sometimes it looks like its resizing itself. It will expand and contract 1/8 to a 1/4 of an inch, like its breathing. I never had this problem with my old Sony comp that ran this monitor for 3 years.
I dont know if its contected to my other problem or not. I have tried different refresh rates........85mghz to 60mghz. It seems to do this when I first start the computer and settles down after a while.
It does it on desktop and games.

 

[Cerb]

$51, Gigabyte SiS 748 board. Set the IDE controller to standard dual channel, shut down. Boot up w/ new mobo. You may still have issues after new drivers are installed (though I always do fine), but should work for testing.

On the monitor...sounds like it's gone bad. IIRC, that's what happens when the monitor PSU starts going on the fritz. Try another monitor and see what happens.

 

[Mike1949]

Thank you. So you think the problem with the video cards is the mobo?
Thats what my buddy says.

Another question.If I get another mobo, can I then upgrade my video card to a 5700 or 5900
without getting another power supply?

 

[Marsumane]

Mobo or PSU. I had a similar issue. It was the psu. Another issue that was similar was the mobo.

 

[Cerb]

5700: yes.
5900: Try it and see.

Unfortunately when it comes down to mobo & PSU, it is very hard to determine which exactly it is