NF7-S issues - NF2/GART chipset driver issues with ATI cards?

[OatMan]

**changed the thread title**
This has been my most problematic PC build by far. I have a thread at AMD forums. here's a link to save resources, though let me know if I should try and summarize here (don't know how I would do that).

Background to my woes at AMDMB forums

I am getting Display draw errors while booting, tho its seems to boot ok. Depending on circumstances the draw errors are so bad I can't navigate or the video signal quits all together.

No video errors while in BIOS or when running MEMTEST86 Diognostc from floppy (made 1 pass with no errors all tests, cach - takes an hour due to 1GB RAM). So I figure the Video drivers are corrupted. Probably other things are corrupted in the Windows build (ie on the HDD)

When I boot after a CMOS clear I get a message at POST to the effect that BIOS data has become corrupted. Tho I can still go into the BIOS make change and reboot. When I go to "LOAD FAILSAFE DEFAULTS" or make other BIOS setting changes the changes take hold and subsequent POST bears no corruption message. This is repeatable, so if I CMOS clear the message is back.

SO... I have a few questions:

A) Is windows xp repair or system recovery an option and if so how do I do this. System recover asks for a recover floppy which I do not have. repair only brings me to a DOS console. It asks me to log into the build (there is only one) as Admin. then I'm stuck at C:\WINDOWS. no clue what to do.

B) I am very nervous about flashing the BIOS at this point. I do not seem to be dead in the water, but I feel trying to flash the BIOS is pushing my luck. I don't think the issues are BIOS related. the Video issues only occur when I start to boot into windows.

at this point I'm inclined to try a fresh install but - other options ???

NF7-S rev 2.0 BIOS 19 10/9/03
Antec truepower 350W (not the smart power but dual fan - came with SX635II performance plus 2 case -
2 x 512MB SAMMY RAM 1GB total (supposedly PC3200, but I think I got ripped)
Barton 2500+ Runs fine at 11x200 with my HyperX mem (single chanel as my other sys only has one stick)
Alpha PAL-8045
Pioneer 106 DVD-RW (dual format)
Line-On 52x32x52 CDRW
ATI Radeon 9800 AIW Pro
variouse 80mm case fans.

Already had to RMA one VID card and the MB once. I can't RMA the mem as I'm past the 30 days and it won't go past 181 FSB. Upping the vDIMM a notch to try and get 182 to work is what got me into all this trouble (after removing the MB to swap my crappy HSF for the Alpha). It was 24 hours stable in all three P95 tests and memtest v3 (38 loops) with my "good mem" at 11x200. only had to bump the vCore to 1.8v everything else at defaults.

TIA as always. This PC is a video editing workstation for my brother and his new baby (the first in my family). It was supposed to be done over the summer. It has been delayed because of my graduate studies at Columbia and the numerous problems. I'm supposed to unvail it this Sunday as our family gets together for our Holiday - I really can't do this to him again, his old PC died a few months ago...

 

[OatMan]

BTW the thought user error occurred to me too. Thats what I would think. Bad board, Vid card and RAM - yeah right. All i can say is that I'm a CCNP, MCSE, and have been working on hardware and scratch building PCs for over 10 years. I build networks from scratch (used to🙂. I almost always work with a ground strap and always at least ground my self when I'm lazy and don't. I tested all the components in multiple systems with multiples of each hardware. I have another NF7-s system (well did - its sold) and a DFI lanparty system. FWIW.

TIA yet again.

Actually I'm at grad school to get an EDM in Science education, no longer interested in IT career but thats another story.

sorry for the bable - brevity aidn't my thing obviously (nor spelling🙂.

 

[stevty2889]

After you clear the CMOS, it's actualy normal to get a checksum error as all the setting need to be reset. To do a repair with windows xp, don't use the first option that says repair, as you said, this will just bring up the DOS consol. Instead, continue through that, like you are going to do a new install. It will then scan for previous installs, and give you the option to repair your current installation. It will look like it's re-installing windows, but all your programs and files will remain intact. Hope this helps..

 

[OatMan]

I tried this, it did not help. I did a clean installation and initially benches and stress testing was going well as it had before. This time the wife accidentially unplugged the PC while it was running memtest86.

It is now exibiting the same instability and video errors that had necessitated this clean re-install. It has been suggested that my PSU may be the problem. All three occasions of issues can be seen as power related. The first 2 both occurred when I was trying to find my max FSB. THe default DDR resulted in no issues. When I bump the DDR voltage one notch it was fine (I think 2.6v). When I bumped the DDR voltage any higher is when everything went FUBAR. THe fitst time I could not recover and had to RMA the MB. The second time promted I was able to recover but resulted in the VID and Boot issues resulting in clean install. The third time was when my wife pulled the plug and is not DDR related.

I had attributed the others to the RAM. But a power interruption while booted to a DOS floppy should not adversly affect a windows system on the HDD right? All of these were power related. ANd my voltage readings have been odd. the 12v rail has been low - idle 11.8v and as low as 11.67 under max load. I read that anything above 11.5 should be fine. But I don't buy that and even at idle it fluctuates, rather than constant.

So is this a bad PSU, or is this PSU just not sufficient. THe PSU is Antec smartPower 350w. Is this too weak for my system? I am NOT trying to OC at this point. just default 11x166. It ist he PSU that came with my new ANtec SX635 PerformancePlus 2 case. So is this an RMA, or a replace with a bigger PSU??? or is this not enough info to link to a power issue???

thanks.

updated amdforums post too...
link to update at amdmb forums

 

[stevty2889]

One other question..does your motherboard have a pci/agp lock in the bios? When you were overclocking, if the agp bus was overclocked, it could have very easily damaged your video card. It could be a power supply issue, but sounds more like a bad video card to me..

 

[OatMan]

Update I replaced the power supply with an antec true430. The truepower PSUs are supposedly better quality than the smartpower (both Antec) This was the biggest PSU at CUSA other than generics which I'll avoid.

I am not sure the video card is the problem:
1. I have RMAed the Video card once, and getting similar results except that the first card would have display errors at POST, in DOS programs, and in BIOS

2. THe ABIT NF7-S does have AGP lock, I have never changed the AGP voltage or clockrate

3. The display works fine when running DOS aps like MEMTEST86, in BIOS, POST, and when installing Windows. The errors occur at the moment I try to install the NVIDIA NF2 drivers. As soon as It starts to "Load GART Drivers" the display goes to hell. It is repeatable. I have tried different older driver sets, all with same behavior. I will try the ABIT drivers and the CD drivers next.

4. The video card seems to work just fine in my other RIG. I don't really have a test RIG, and until my papers for the semester are finished I am not going to do any more testing with it. But as soon as I am done, I'll verify this again.
________________________________________________________

I am at a loss. I have built over a dozen scratch PCs and never had trouble like this. I have replaced the RAM, PSU, MB, and Video card to date. The only other thing I can think of is to swap out the CPU. I will try a spare CPU in the BROKEN RIG while moving the Barton CPU to my GOOD RIG. other than this I am completely out of ideas.

 

[Gravity]

My money's on the board. It could be the card but the it's sounding more and more like the board. Ram goes bad but not near as often as the board. Have you reduced the fsb speed to default? Did you disable the virus software before installing the vid driver?

You have been very thorough in your description and your processes. It's nice to hear that you know your way around the box. I doubt your psu is the culprit but as we all know, they will go bad from time to time. LIttle bro replaced one and then the mb about 6 weeks after the psu.

Give that a try oatman and btw, try to keep the wife as far away as possible during testing, estrogen can generate static and that can interfere with any organized effort to work.

🙂

 

[OatMan]

Every iteration has been a clean install of WinXP. Virus software hasn't even been installed yet (well since the beginning when I was stability testing, but that sems another life at this point). I am not even getting to the point of installing a VID driver.

Everything is at BIOS defaults except I disable SATA RAID and adjust the boot device order.
1. FDISK to remove and make a DOS partition (just for anal sake of ensureing corrupted data is purged)
2. Load WinXP Pro (w/ SP1) from CD and choose to Format NTFS partition (not quick)
3. GO through WinXP installation, boot into WinXP for first time. (default VGA driver)
4. Load Nvidia NF2 Drivers - tried several versions - Video goes to hell as soon as driver istall begins. Sometimes the install sees to quit, sometimes it seems to continue, but the machine is at this point unusable and unrecoverable. No VID errors at POST,DOS,BIOS only appear once Windows starts to load.

I have had boards go bad before, what are the chances that the I got 2 bad boards? Bad in the same way, with the same symptoms? I have not read any reports of similar issues with this NF7-S at AT or at the AMD MB Forums.

The only thing I can think of is that in both cases, both boards seemed to be running great untill I tried to OC the SAMSUNG RAM. In both cases it was the first Set of Samsung RAM that I STILL suspect is bad and am no longer using. In the case of both MBs I could OC up to 181. WHen I tried 182 everything goes FUBAR, and I clear CMOS data and have nothing but trouble since. Both cases happened before I got the new PSU and new RAM. Is it possible that I somehow damaged the MB when I tried to OC? and that the damage is permanent?

 

[OatMan]

thanks grey_wolf on the AMD MB forums that did the trick!!! - Once I deleted the GART and Display drivers from the NF@ chipset driver package I was able to proceed.

I was able to install the 3.13 NF2 chipset drivers, and update winXP and load the AIW 9800 drivers. Now into my sixth hour or so of P95 BLEND test.

have a few questions at this point:

1) what is the GART and what are the consequences of not installing it?

2) If the GART drivers are the AGP to PCI bridge (i could only find one post on this and thats what it said) IS my AIW now running like a PCI card???

3) where could I get more info on this and other issues involving the NF2 chipset drivers - NF7-S board and ATI cards?

4) I still don't understand why I was able to make several clean installs of WinXP on this exact same hardware without an issue untill suddenly after a failed attempt to OC to 11x200?? Now this issue is persistant and repeatable.