MSI KT3 Ultra2-R - Problems with Videocard!

[Ewin]

Hi All,

I recently bought a MSI KT3 Ultra2 with Raid. I tried to get this thing to work, and it does, but somehow when I install the correct drivers for my videocard the system won't restart anymore .

When Windows XP assigns a standard VGA compatible driver, everything works fine (1280*1024 - 16bit color), when installing any Nvidea driver (I tried about 5 different versions) the system will not reboot :Q!

I tried with and without VIA 4-in-1 drivers, no changes.
I even tried another videocard, the same problem occurs again.


Here are my systems stats:

MB: MSI KT3 Ultra2-R
MEM: 256 MB PC2700 cas2.5
CPU: Athlon XP 2000+

VC: Point of View GeForce 4 Ti4200 Special Edition (64MB 3.3 ns memory)
or
VC: ASUS V8200 GeForce 3 Deluxe (GeForce 3 Ti200)


Can anyone give me some advise what to do???

 

[laura]

FWIW, I'm having a nearly identical problem with a KT3 Ultra2-R I bought a week ago:

MB: MSI KT3 Ultra2-R
Video: Matrox G550 DualHead
CPU: Athlon XP 1800+
Mem: 1x 512Mb PC2100 Cas2.5 (Crucial), from my old motherboard system
Mem: 2x 256Mb PC2100 Cas2.5 (Crucial)

(I bought the new motherboard because it's cheaper than a RAID controller, and I need fast disks and tons of RAM for Photoshop. Eventually I'll upgrade the RAM too. The MB is correctly identifying the RAM as PC2100 CAS2.5 and adjusting its timings accordingly.)

When I run with the standard Windows SVGA drivers, I'm fine. And for a while I even had it working with the Matrox drivers and only one stick of RAM, but it was very fragile. As soon as I put the rest of the RAM back in, it started flaking out again. The typical symptom is that it will boot all the way into the Windows XP desktop, but as soon as I try to do anything that draws on the screen (e.g. drag a window around), the system will hang.

Since then I've tried about everything I can think of: take all but one stick of RAM back out, take out all the other cards, upgrade the VIA drivers, and so on.

On Matrox's support forum they mention a problem like this that occurred with Matrox cards and older VIA chipsets, and they blame the problem on VIA. I wasn't sure I believed them, but if other people are having video problems with the MSI boards, maybe it's true.

Laura

 

[trenchfoot]

i've built 3 boxes with this mobo so far and i have'nt run into the problem mentioned here. i was told and have found out for myself that besides being low in cost, it runs quite stable in various configs. i set one up with an xtasy ti4200 graphics board that fired up without a hitch. i did have a slight problem with one setup where i carelessly forgot that the hdd i was installing was not s.m.a.r.t. capable and i enabled that feature in the bios which caused some really wierd things to happen. the other g-boards i set them up with is radeon 7200 and 8500, all with xp1800's and 512 pc2700 mem using all onboard features.

as for a fix, the first thing i can think of quickie-quickie is to back up your bios settings, reset to default, and if it runs with your vidcard drivers that way, then make changes to your bios one at a time until you run into the problem again.

 

[laura]

Thanks for the tips. I'll give 'em a try tonight.

-- Laura

 

[Smilin]

I've built two boxes with that mobo - no troubles. Used the following vid cards at one time or another: GF3 Ti500, GF4 Ti4200, Radeon 9700 pro.

Do what he said: clear the bios (hell...reflash it even) and see where you get. Don't spend too much time on it. If the sucker aint working right, RMA it.