In the trash... darn AGPcard problems

[steviee]

Just bought a new ABIT BD7-RAID, installed Win98se fresh onto new hdrive. After that I proceded to instal the mb drivers just like ABIT says! then intalled their chipset application program. All OK so far, Then I rebooted and went into the bios (7c) and enabled the RAID... Windows started and I installed the RAID drivers and again rebooted. Windows comes up and says found new hrdware...etc.. finding...and loading... Ya OK, so far so good. NOW the fun starts bought a new Gainward pro460XP (G4 MX460) and installed it then the mb beeps 2 or 3 times real fast and no display. It looks like it beeps on the error code 26 whatever that is!!! then sometimes it will get stuck on code86. It auto shuts off!
Yes, I've re installed it many times, made sure it was in correctly. but nothing, No display, I have to put my old PCI ATI card in just to see what the !@#$ is up. I end up disabling the RAID and trying again. It seems to work some times, better if the computer is cold but If I have to reboot or restart it get the beeps and no display. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG! It seems the AGP slot is pissed off. I even had a Diamond Viper II AGP card that wasn't happy, At least it POSTed but would lock up on win98 loading.
I'm ready to get my old Tyan 1850 and my P3 667 back and toss this expensive POS out the window. Unless someone can help me!!! P L E A S E
steve

 

[mechBgon]

Hey Steve, you might try the test showed here if you have a continuity tester or multimeter on hand. Bummer about your board... you might see if Abit will RMA it for you, or preferably the place where you bought it. I'll see if I can look up any info on what that error code means.

edit: they don't have the manual available for me to download, so you might root through the manual and see if they list the error codes.

 

[steviee]

The ABIT manual has some error codes but not the ones that show up, (maybe it's a secret) I bet error code 26 says "hey you fried your agp with a 3.3v card but we aren't going to warraty it now ha ha)
I have to say that it seemed to work for quite awhile but as soon as I tried to enable the RAID in the bios it would give me problems. I actullaly had the RAID and the video card working if I didn't install the 845 chipset drivers.
Unfortunatly AbIT says to install the 845 drivers right after the clean Win98 install. I had the card work fine because I forgot to load the 845 drivers, !! I reformated, installed 98 and then the 845drivers and it's ticked off,
Another weird thing that happens is..
If I leave my monitor on I get the beeps from hell... but If as the computer boots I have the monitor off, it boots fine...most of the time.
Pretty crazy, I've even tried to boot with the monitor on and as it hangs up I shut the monitor off and it continues to boot.

I'm confused. I don't think the mb could be bad, help.... anyone!

Any other MB that doesn't care if the AGP card is 1.5v or 3.3v ??? I might save the head-ache and buy a different MB !

 

[KGB1]

Your Gainward Geforce 4MX card is NOT 3.3 V. The last of the 3.3V video AGP caqrds were the Geforce 256's and TnT2 series. Could be you do not have enough POWER Captain (I couldnt resist) Get a pretty good sized power supply. Intel Approved and over 400 Watts to be on the safe side. If you have HDD hooked up to the RAID could be draining the power. I suggest trying the card out on the old Tyan, then see if you might have been something wrong. Good Luck

 

[steviee]

I did that test on the video card like above from mechBgon and the funny thing is that my diamond viperII comes up as pin2 grounded just like the G4 MX460 but in the article the guys list the viperII as it a "might fry my motherboard", I don't know what they were thinking if I did the exact same test and found both to be of non-3.3v which tells me I'm OK. I just thought that was funny, I did have the viperII in for awhile and never had any problems it was only until I loaded the motherboard device drivers that all hell broke loose. unfortunatley there is no more support for the viperII so that's why i figured I should just buy a new agp card, one with DDR ram
I thought that maybe there was a conflict in an irq or something but i couldn't even get to safe mode to see. Maybe the bios isn't happy and I'm having that error code 26 boot problem Ive been reading about. I should tell ABIT about the problems I'm having as well. Too bad I can't get a prompt reply.
Thanks KGB for making sure the card is 1.5v
Also the power supply is a new 400watt P4 style. Could it be that my AC cord is plugged into a cheap UPS. along with the monitor? Maybe it can't deliver enough current together. Could explain the "cold boot OK" - "warm bad" since the cords and UPS get warm causing more friction and less efficient. Hmmmm I think I'll try to bypass it all together ans test tonight... Ahhhhhh. I just might go back to my commadore64. 😉

 

[mechBgon]

Cheap UPS's generally don't interfere with the power going to your computer, because they only kick in when it actually fails. You might look at the back of your power supply and make sure the little slide switch isn't set to 220V by accident (sounds crazy but I've seen it happen).

Really, it sounds to me like the board, AGP card or both are damaged. 🙁 ABit is known for charging $25 to RMA their motherboards, so I'd recommend talking to the people who sold you the parts first, and just tell them what happened, that you're not sure what went wrong but could you please be given the benefit of the doubt. When I was in the customer service field (bicycle mechanic, to be specific) it was rare to be told the honest truth, and we tried harder for people who did. 😀 Good luck!