New rig troubles

[n7]

I put together my new system last night, & got it running alright, everything except for the video card.

My ATI Radeon 9800 Pro seems to be unhappy in there for some reason.

I tried running 3DMark 03 & 3DMark 2001 SE, but each time i ran it, my comp would crash at some point, basically just black screening to a reboot.
Then i tried playing UT2K4, & i get a blank blue screen & then a crash to a reboot.

The drivers are the 4.6 Catalysts on a fresh install of Windows, so there's no conflicts there.

This card was working beautifully in my other system just yesterday, so i know it was fine.




System specs:

Asus K8V SE Deluxe (bios 1003)
AMD A64 NewCastle 3200+ 2.2 GHz (everything stock)
1024 MB DDR400 RAM
74.3 GB Raptor
LG 4040B DVD RW
TT SilentPure 480W PSU
Windows XP Pro



Are there any settings i should check?

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanx in advance.

 

[nick1985]

how are your CPU temps? is your heatsink properly fitted?

 

[mechBgon]

If the CPU temps check out ok, you might want to make sure to bump your memory voltage to 2.7 volts and/or run Memtest86 on the memory. Also, did you use the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers on it? If not, here they are.

 

[n7]

I was just running Prime 95 for a bit, & they were up to 50C, but they've been just under 40C on idle, up to 43ish.

The heatsink is on correctly...it's actually one of those retail access deals where it came preinstalled.
I don't really enjoy installing heatsinks, so i decided to trust that they knew what they were doing over at AMD.
The heatsink is a TT of some sort, not marked anywhere.

 

[nick1985]

follow mech's advice with the memtest.


next, what are your voltage rails at?

 

[n7]

Okay, it's running memtest86, so far so good, but as for the voltage rails?

Where do i look for that? Hardware monitor is my bios?

 

[pookie69]

Sorry to interrupt - what does MEMTEST86 do?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: pookie69
Sorry to interrupt - what does MEMTEST86 do?

Stress tests your memory for errors i guess. Damn it takes long though.

 

[n7]

Well, Memtest ran error-free for about 2.5 hours.

I tried 3DMark03 with the 4.5 Cats instead of the 4.6s, & it finished with a nice score of 4300
The second time it just crashed.

Any other things i can try?

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

how are the GPU temps. Check to make sure there is room for the fan (assuming there is one on that model; there are so many now lol) to allow free airflow around the graphics card. Make sure the molex to the graphics card is not shared with any other (I can never remember if that applies to the 9800pro and 9800XT or just the XT) peripheral

 

[Markfw]

nvermind, mech got it... The via drivers are key !

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Excellent my friend. Congradulations! Enjoy the pleasures of stable speed

 

[n7]

I've decided to reformat again & reinstall with the very latest drivers for everything, since i'd just used the ones off the Asus CD iirc.

It must be that, since i stuck my vid card back into my older comp to recheck that is was still okay, & it was.

As for my GPU temps? I was looking around for a tool that measures temps, but i didn't have any success. Anyone have a link for a good proggie?

Thanx for all the help so far; i'll get this baby workin' yet

 

[n7]

Now i'm mad :|

After reformatting & reinstalling only the latest drivers for my board...i run 3DMark 03 once again.

And once again, my comp crashes about 3/4 through :|


I would think maybe it's my CPU, but Prime 95 runs great.

Grr...

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

PSU wattage? Get the newest catalysts and try again with the 3DMark 03. Check the PSU! See if it can handle the juice of the new component.

 

[n7]

PSU wattage is listed in my first post in this thread.

It's a TT SilentPure 480W, & i am using the latest Cats, 4.6.


Anyway, last night i got 3D Mark 2001 SE to run, & got a score of something around 16,000, which though low, i could even handle that if it was stable.

I actually got UT2K4 to play smoothly for about 30 mins., but then it crashed. Just a blank blue screen, then it reboots.
After that, it kept crashing after a couple minutes of UT2K4 only.

What makes me sure it's something to do with driver incompatibility or something to do with the 9800 Pro is that the less graphics intensive 3D Mark 2001 SE ran okay, but the more graphics intensive 3D Mark 03 doesn't.
Also, everything runs blazing fast; it's only when i start something highly graphics intensive that it crashes.

Is there any driver just for the AGP on my mobo that i have not been able to find?

Sorry to keep bumping this up, but any other suggestions would be welcome.

 

[spelletrader]

First off ensure you have the latest via chipset drivers, as mech said.


Next open up ATI Control Panel and check SMARTGART, make SURE you are set to AGP 8X in SMARTGART, and also turn Fast Writes OFF for good measure.

I had a similar problem with an Asus P4P800 Board, and without the latest Intel Chipset Drivers SMARTGART would not set to AGP 8X at all.

It does sound like more of a software/driver problem then anything hardware related.

 

[Markfw]

BTW, I have (my Opterons are on the fedex truck) the same system as you almost itentical, K8V, and 9800pro. So there is something you are missing here I think, or memory is bad or ??? Anyway, its not driver incompatability with the K8V and the 4.6 cats, thats for sure.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
BTW, I have (my Opterons are on the fedex truck) the same system as you almost itentical, K8V, and 9800pro. So there is something you are missing here I think, or memory is bad or ??? Anyway, its not driver incompatability with the K8V and the 4.6 cats, thats for sure.

I wouldnt' disagree.

I likely am missing something, but what?

It's a clean install (twice now), the latest drivers are all installed on that, the Hyperion 4-in-1s are installed, the memory is fine (i've used it with no troubles on my previous rig; still tests good on here), as is the CPU.
Smartgart is set at 8x, Fastwrites are off, i have the A64 CPU driver installed.
Graphics size in the bios is set at 128 MB.

Neither Omega's or the Cat 4.6s seem to make any difference; it crashed with both.

And the card itself works smooth as butter on my other rig, but on this A64 you'd think it was possessed.

Gah...i will figure it out yet.

 

[Markfw]

You say memory worked on previous reg, but have you run memtest on THIS rig in the current configuration > The Athlon64 has an imbedded memory controller, and is a little picky about memory.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: n7
...the memory is fine (i've used it with no troubles on my previous rig; still tests good on here)...

I shall retest it though