Gigabyte GA-8IHXP Boot up Issue

[BreadFan]

Just got a Gigabyte GA-8IHXP with a 2.26GHz processor with 2 256mb Kingston PC1066 RIMM's. I paired all this up with my current equipment which consists of an Elsa Gladiac 920 (Geforce 3) and a Soundblaster Live Platinum. My issue is when I boot up the system, my screen flashes all different kinds of colors and patterns (patterns are mostly full screen). It will do this until I turn off the system by the case power button. When I turn the system back on, it comes up normally. I believe that when the system comes up with the screen flashing and stuff, the OS is actually booting because when I come back up the second time, XP asks if I want to boot normally or safe mode. This issue only happens on a cold boot. I remember there being some kind of white button or something on the AGP slot. I didn't do anything with this button, was I supposed to? Any and all help/comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

Check to make sure your GF3 card is seated properly. Remove it & reseat. To remove, should require you to push back "card lever", if it's properly seated. All the lever does is to "lock in" the card, on the mobo. When seating it locks itself. To unseat requires you to release lock lever. Check vid card/monitor cable connections.

Next best try for solving problem is to reset CMOS. Check mobo handbook for location & how to do this, if not familiar, or write back. My 8IHXP did not come with a jumper for the CMOS, but any generic jumper from an old board will do. Clearing the CMOS, booting into bios, checking your configuration, should do the trick. Make sure you're using the latest Bios F4, on Gigabyte site. Don't bother using EasyTune for now, as it isn't fully supported yet. The Bios has all you need. If you installed ET, then uninstall it, to ensure no hardware/software conflicts.

Third option is to AXE the Soundblaster hardware, for the time being, as SB hardware & software can be cause of many weird problems. See if problems go away by not using the SB. (Yes, I'm a SndBlasterAholic too. Sobered up with TurtleBeach Santa Cruz. Haven't had a SB problem for 2 years!)

Finally, if you moved to this board from another, & didn't format HDD/reinstall OS, then you owe it to yourself to do it. It's a pain, but well worth the trouble. Proper install of new mobo drivers is essential. Newest drivers are on Gigabyte site.

The GA-8IHXP is an excellent board. Respond back if you still have problem.

Currently, using GA-8IHXP, WinXPpro, 2X256Kingston 1066-32 rdram, 2.53@2850 (fsb150), 4 scsi hdds, dvd-rom, cd-rw, Zalman 6500B-CU AIR cool. Setup is rock solid, passes all 3DM benches, running 24/7 several weeks now.

 

[BreadFan]

Thanks Belly. This is an upgrade so the expansion cards are coming over from my old PC. I did a format and reinstall of XP Pro when I put it all together. I have already updated the BIOS to F4 rev. I'm currently at work so I can't reseat the vid card yet. FYI, I am not nor do I plan on overclocking this board/processor. I appreciate your reply and will try all that you have suggested this evening. Thanks again.

 

[BreadFan]

OK, I've reseated the vid card and jumpered the CMOS. Still having the same problems. I'm looking at the screen now and I see a full screen of 3 thin green lines followed by one fat blue line followed by white fatter strips in between the green and blue lines. Any other suggestions?

 

[Revs]

Have you tried with another vid card? What kind of power supply you have?

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

Can you throw in a different vid card, to help sort this out? I asume you're using latest drivers for the ElsaGF3.

This is the classic scenerio where you may have to add one hardware card at a time, to discover the cause.

Please give us a quick thumbnail of the entire sys specs, i.e., PSU, network cards, hdds, etc..

Are your Kingston rdram modules in slots 1&2, crimms in 3&4? This is best orientation. Check seating of crimms too.

If you run the Gigabyte Utility manager, you can check the VOLTAGE activity easily, for potential PSU problems.

 

[BreadFan]

OK, I've found the problem. It's my video card. I took the vid card out of my wife's PC (Geforce 1 SDR) and put it in my PC. Booted up like a champ. I put my vid card (Geforce 3) into my wife's PC. Booted up no problem. I put my vid card back into my PC, same problems I've been getting. Are there any known incompatibilities with this mobo and my vid card? I've searched everywhere and can't seem to find anything. I can't even find Elsa's site anymore to see if there is a BIOS update for my vid card. Any ideas?

 

[BreadFan]

Bump

Any ideas?

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

Did you search out any Internet User Groups for the Elsa card you have. Can't comment, I don't know that card, but if you're using latest drivers & setup at card defaults, & have this problem....you have the opportunity to upgrade to a GF4.

By the way, exactly what Elsa card do you have? Give product number, because I'm curious.

 

[BreadFan]

It's an Elsa Gladiac 920 (Geforce 3). I'm kind of tapped out at the moment, so upgrading the vid card won't be an option (it shouldn't be anyway). I've sent an e-mail to Gigabyte (this last Wednesday), just waiting to hear back from them. In the mean time, I've just kept my system powered on all the time.

 

[AntiAMD]

BreadFan; one other thing you might want to do is try and see if you can update the bios on the Elsa board, it might not be Giga-byte's fault, it might be Elsa that needs to do the fix.. just a thought.

 

[BreadFan]

Could you please tell me where I can get the updated BIOS for my vid card? I can't find Elsa's site anywhere, any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

Here you go: Go to Downloads/Elsa to find your card. There's even a bios flashimg tool available.

Nvdia Bios Collection

You should be running the latest official Nvidia 30.82 drivers as well.

 

[BreadFan]

Thanks for all your help Belly. Unfortunatly, the BIOS they have at the site you gave me is the one I already have. I guess I'm just waiting and hoping that Gigabyte will reply to my e-mail even if it isn't their issue. On another note, did Elsa go out of business or something? Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[mastertech01]

Elsa Taiwan

 

[BreadFan]

Thanks for the link Mastertech01. I have sent an e-mail to Elsa support regarding this issue.

 

[mastertech01]

Does this board have a PCI/AGP lock?

 

[CloudsShinji]

I hope you get this figured out, Breadfan.

Does this board have a PCI/AGP lock?

Actually, I was wondering the same thing... I couldn't find any info about this.

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

The GA-8IHXP does NOT have the agp/pci Lock.

It may be included in the final version of EasyTune4, the OCing utility by Gigabyte, but this board is not fully supported at this time.

All functions included, in the latest Bios menu, F4, are adequate for now.

 

[mastertech01]

Well as much as I would like to have this board, I went ahead and jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got a P4T533 with PC4200.. just for that silly PCI Lock.. LOL

Thanks for the info though.. I sure wish they would have decided to release the GA-81GXP..

 

[Bellyofthebeast]

mastertech01,
Keep your RMA handy, the Asus P4T533 with PC4200, you ordered, most likely will be recalled soon. Many major problems. Check out the [Hard] Forums for gory details.

The agp/pci lock is great to have & as an Abit user for years I appreciated it, BUT, its real value is when you radically OverVolt your cpu or system. With the new P4s, moderate overVolting is very sufficient, & there's more likelyhood of cpu damage, past 1.85v for the P4, above the 2 Ghz range. (8IHXP limits you to 1.7v max; default is 1.5v) For the below 2 GHz pentiums, then that function will lend some stability. Once you overvolt past 1.85, which I've done up to 2.2 with P4s, you must have complex heat reduction, like water-cooling or refrig type case cooling, to run on a practical basis. The real limitation, for now, is with memory stability at higher FSB speeds. Both DDR & Rambus have limitations to be worked out. There is NO advantage to the new RIMM 4200, but board design issue (means boards can be made a little cheaper!) & bandwidth performance/speed may actually be slightly lower.

You're more of an expert than I, mastertech01, & you know all this stuff, but just wanted to comment. I, too, would like to continue using rambus mobos, before everything changes to DDR, but choices are few. Looking forward to a mobo made with the new SiS 658 (excedes the Intel 850E by a mile!) chipset, which can be made to be supported by 16 or 32 bit (rimm4200) rdram. Another possibility is Aopen which is supposed to bring out a rambus mobo line (850E) soon & their new boards may have agp/pci lock capability, along with the incredible FSB selection (over 200) known for sure.

Sorry for going off on a tangent, the real issue is to help BreadFan get his board issue resolved (either new 8IHXP or another board), & to give those perspective reading this, who want a new rambus P4 board.

 

[BreadFan]

I have received a reply to my e-mail from Elsa. They told me to try the same things everyone here has had me try. They seem to think it's the motherboard since my card works in another system. By that token, I've tried a couple other video cards with the GA-8IHXP and they all work fine. I'm beginning to think it's just an incompatibility between the motherboard and the vid card. I still haven't heard anything from Gigabyte, thinking about e-mailing them again. I haven't turned off the system in about a week now, thinking about shutting it down for a couple of hours then doing a cold boot to see if the problem is still there. If there is anyone out there that has access to the Gigabyte GA-8IHXP and an Elsa Gladiac 920 Geforce 3 video card, could you please pair them up and let me know if it works for you. Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[gaucho]

I just got this board a few hours ago and will be installing this evening. One thing i noticed in the manual in reference to AGP cards is to check the voltage. Default on some of the older cards is 2.2v. This board will only work with 1.5v.

Just one more thing to check before you toss it

BTW, i came to this board after having a couple of "nightmare" days with the ASUS P4T533-C. Tried reseting CMOS and everything else that was suggested but could not get the damn thing to post. Hopefully the GA-8IHXP will be a pleasant experience...

 

[LoverBoyJ]

[ i]Originally posted by: gaucho[/i]

BTW, i came to this board after having a couple of "nightmare" days with the ASUS P4T533-C. Tried reseting CMOS and everything else that was suggested but could not get the damn thing to post. Hopefully the GA-8IHXP will be a pleasant experience...

hey gaucho, pls update us on your experience with this board (8IHXP), I have been looking for an RDRAM solution to replace my aging P3V4X-800Mhz PIII. This board is my second choice, my first choice WAS the ASUS's board P4T533 and from what I heard, there a lot of people having nightmares trying to run it (good board tho).

 

[gaucho]

Originally posted by: LoverBoyJ

[ i]Originally posted by: gaucho[/i]

BTW, i came to this board after having a couple of "nightmare" days with the ASUS P4T533-C. Tried reseting CMOS and everything else that was suggested but could not get the damn thing to post. Hopefully the GA-8IHXP will be a pleasant experience...

hey gaucho, pls update us on your experience with this board (8IHXP), I have been looking for an RDRAM solution to replace my aging P3V4X-800Mhz PIII. This board is my second choice, my first choice WAS the ASUS's board P4T533 and from what I heard, there a lot of people having nightmares trying to run it (good board tho).

Yeah i was disappointed i wasn't able to get the ASUS P4T533-C up and running but now that i have the GA-8IHXP up I am loving life! So far my only complaint is the manual (OK in general terms but lacks some important info - like how to properly install ATA133). When i get back home from work today i will complete installing all the software and run some benchmarks before i try my luck at OC'n...

All in all i am very happy, so far this rig is flying (can't even see the RAM count cuz it goes by so fast...)