GF4 Ti4200 HELP!!!!

[Therapist928]

Hey all,

I just got my new Gainward Geforce4 Ti4200 from Newegg. It's the one with support for just one CRT, no VIVO or TV out. Anyway, I installed the card and got the latest drivers from Nvidia (v28.32). Windows and surfing is fine but on every 3D intensive game i run (max payne, medal of honor, tony hawk 3) the game runs for about 2 seconds and then locks up, making a high pitched, constant beeping sound. All these games worked fine with my old tnt2 ultra. Tried reseating the card, removing and reinstalling drivers, using gainward's drivers. The card is running at stock levels and is not overclocked.

I'm running Win2k Professional with 1800+ AMD@1533 Mhz, Epox 8k7a, 256 pc2100 crucial ram, 60 GB, 7200 RPM barracuda HD, and 32x Lite On burner, with 19" Samsung 955Df.

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. Just don't really want to RMA this thing, i've been waiting for it forever.

Thanks

 

[PizzaDude]

What's your power supply?

 

[Therapist928]

Sorry, my power supply is a generic 400w PSU.

One new update: I thought it might be a heating issue, as the card seemed to get really hot really fast. I took off the side of the case and put a gigantic, 22" fan there, to help cool the card. Now, instead of getting lockups with the beep when i play, the computer will simply restart.

Could this be a voltage issue?

I have tried changing 4x to 2x for the AGP port too, no effect.

Thanks again

 

[silentScope]

whoa that doesnt sound good at all... now im worried about getting mine....

 

[Rage187]

Having the same problem w/ a gf4 4600


Plays fine for awhile then makes a high pitched beep, and my computer restarts..


I have adequate cooling and a 400watt psu..


WTF

 

[Ash2Dust]

Got mine (the same 64meg no vivo or 2nd mon support) from Newegg also today. I love it! I'm now selling a Geforce 2 GTS 32meg card as I aint going back.

The only thing that has concerned me about my new vid card is that the fan blades were hitting a fin on the heatsink making a ticking sound. Could not really see where it was hitting but after 5 minutes of trying to figure out which fin, the sound went away.

My case temp is up but today was a very hot day here. I have 1 case fans and a Enhance 300 Watt psu in my fong kai case. I should really add an exhaust fan in front as I'm running 40C case temp today and 51C CPU temp.

Currently I have it clocked at 285/549. After a couple of days of hopefully no probs, I'll push it up another 5/5. I like to season the parts as many days as I can wait.

Running Medal of Honor 1600x1200x32 (monitor max) with everything maxed except shadows (simple). Lowest FPS I've hit is 27. Its mindblowing.
And dont get me started about Morrowind, its da kind eye candy.

I went for the no frills 64Meg as I know in a year when 128megs are needed, the 4200 will probably be outdated and I'll have to turn down the details/options anyways. I paid $159 for this and 15 months ago, I paid $200 for my Geforce 2 gts 32. I can say my video card habit is getting cheaper and better.

 

[silentScope]

if you end up wiht a card that starts hanging and reseting ur cpu and stuff, what should u do? return it?

 

[sep]

I'm not to familar with AMD/EPOX motherboards, but have seen may posts about them. Try searching for Epox and Gainward to see if you find anything.

Other things to try:
*Remove all other cards and only.
*don't overclock anything.
*Try this card in another system.
*Put back in your TNT card to see if the problem stays.
*Last option would be to reinstall OS or just wipe all hardware from Registry.

If you try all this and it still false back to the card, return it or just return it and then try these if the replacement is showing problems. It does sound like a defective card. Good Luck!

 

[Therapist928]

First off, thanks to everyone who offered advice.

Here's an update.
Tried it in a friend's cpu, no problems. Tried taking out all cards except geforce4, same problem, but card lasted a bit longer before system locked up. Tried reformatting hard drive and fresh installing windows 2kpro. Still doesn't work, same beeping problem. The problem is definitely stress related as when games are run at low res with low settings, they are playable for much longer than on high settings.

However, I have run into a thread on anandtech whereby someone else had a very similar problem. He eventually got it fixed and cited it as a PSU problem. He was using a 375w generic PSU, i believe, and I am using a 400w generic PSU. Could this be the problem? Both PSUs seem to be way higher than what would be required but perhaps the quality of the PSU comes into play...

If it is the problem, is there any way to bump up the output of the PSU without going out and buying a new one?

Also, a friend suggested changing the OS to WinXP and doing another clean install there. Would this help?

Thanks again.

 

[rippk]

goto guru3d.com and try the detonator destroyer to remove all old drivers and stuff (you did the add/remove programs when installing the new card, right?)

you should do a re-install the video games, or promt them to to the -firstuse setup. Check the documentation.

also what about directX? what version do you have? 8.1 should be installed before the card or games.

wierd stuf man! hope it works out for you! I've run my PNY TI4400 on win98,w2k, winxp without serious problems. The only game I couldn't get working was an old one (Unreal), everything else was a breeze.

 

[Therapist928]

Hi,

Yeah I did that. used about 5 different guru3d detonator drivers, as early as 23.11, as late as 29.40. Didn't help one bit

also tried reinstalling DX8.1, didn't help

tried reinstalling the games, didn't work

I've basically done everything possible from a software standpoint. I'm practically convinced it's a hardware issue, more specifically, the power supply. I'm going to try a different PSU hopefully tonight, if it works, i'll go buy a new, name brand one.

I'm soooooooo pissed off with this card right now

 

[MithShrike]

Somewhere in the AnandTech forums there is a thread about EPoX motherboards and their being incompatible with the AGP specification. If I read right, there is a capacitor or resistor in the way of the cards or something. Well, that's all I can think of...

 

[silentScope]

Originally posted by: Mith
Somewhere in the AnandTech forums there is a thread about EPoX motherboards and their being incompatible with the AGP specification. If I read right, there is a capacitor or resistor in the way of the cards or something. Well, that's all I can think of...

That's only with the G4 Ti 4400 and 4600 .. some of the video cards of these brands get in the way of the capacitors...

 

[Therapist928]

Hey all,

First off, thanks for all the help on this problem. This was my first time posting on anandtech but i've been lurking for quite some time.

I'd like to announce that the problem has been tentatively fixed. I tried using a different power supply, a 300w PSU from Antec, and the card never locked up once. Tried it with every 3d game i had. Couldn't play more than 2 seconds of medal of honor before and I just beat the first level =)

So I guess I just have to go pick up a quality power supply now. Hard to believe that there's that much of a difference in power from a 300w Antec and a 400w generic PSU, but at least i learned a(n expensive) lesson

So thanks again

 

[silentScope]

thats great news man, thanks for letting us know cause if i get same problem then i know wats wrong..

 

[cali99boy]

I don't know about you guys. I think i had the same problem kind of.
Heres my specs:

AMD 1.4 ghz TB
Epox 8k7A
Geforce 2 Pro

(this was almost a year ago.)
now,.. I tried to install win 98, if I let the thing finish installing... everytime the Windows 98 Boot screen came on... couple of secs later , my system would hang up and Beep like crazy. I couldn't do nothing about it. I thought my comp was overheating or I had a messed up Mobo/harddrive/CPU.. I returned everything and got new ones. Same result. I figured what the heck, I F8 before Win98 started and installed ME. Everythings been fine since. I recently upgraded to WINXP and no prob.

Also, Is your AGP Fast write turned on?(I couldn't turn in on with 98 or ME).. You might want to turn off AGP Fast Write, and other Speed options in your BIOS