PCI Express Card/Slot? doesn't work after CPU OC

[dajo]

Hello,

Was playing with my new rig - KN1 3000+ 2X512MB Ballistic - had it up for two days then started overclocking the CPU. Didn't get a monitor signal after a failed overclock, so I cleared the CMOS - nada. Let me stress - I was not overclocking the video card - it was a default. I was overclocking the CPU. Reseated RAM, graphics card, cleared CMOS about 20 more times, unplugged for 30 minutes - nada. Then it occurred to me to put in a PCI vid card I had lying around - booted right up!

All of these seemed to happen after I installed nTune and Fuzzy software. Fuzzy overclock reported an error during install.

Anyway, I cannot get a signal from my PCI Express card now. Have reseated it about 20 times. Fan on card is working. Everything else in system fine. Am using PCI vid card now for this post.

Any ideas? If not, guess I'll go to BB tomorrow and get another card for testing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dajo]

Okay, check this out. Pulled everything from board, pulled board to get ready to RMA. Decided to test board. I got video! I know, I know... Lazy! I know I should have done this before, but wait, it gets better.

Put board back in case, mounted everything except sound card (Audigy 2Z) booted, got video. Put in sound card, boot, no video! Pull sound card, booted, and I have video?!?

Hmm... strange, no? Any ideas? SCSI card is in the PCI-X slot. There are only two PCI slots left. Placing the sound card in either results in no PCI X16 video output.

I guess I'll try moving the SCSI card. I'd like to find some documentation on this so that I could understand what is going on. I'm glad the board is back. I wasn't done playing with it - very fast and stable.

I have a Chaintech VF4 coming today. What to do, what to do...

I don't know if this is a config issue or a defect.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[kranky]

Is it possible that putting in the sound card overburdens the PSU to the point where there isn't enough juice left to get the video to run properly?

 

[dajo]

Maybe so - I wonder because these cards don't have the external ps. I'm running an Antec 430 truepower, so you'd think there would be enough.

I have an Antec 550 but it seems to be a little flaky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Don't you think the Antec 430 should be sufficient? I could disconnect the cd-rom, dvd burner and test?

 

[dajo]

Hmm... I think you might be right. I disconnected the power to my scsi drives, leaving the card in, put in the sound card, booted up and got video.

I need to test my 550. It stopped working one day with the KV8 Pro, but I learned since then that the KV8 Pro is pretty squirely with boot up issues.

Can you recommend a good PSU in the 500-600 watt range?

Thanks for the help.

 

[kranky]

I'm glad that helped you out. I don't have any specific PSU suggestions but there are plenty of threads about them.

 

[jose]

Had something similar happen on my DFI system when I first set it up. When I plugged all 4 hd's , I'd wouldn't get a video signal till I booted to the desktop. When I unplugged 2 drives,
everything was fine. The problem was solved when I used seperate molex connectors from different wire runs. Now everything is fine..

Look at the Antec 550EPS..

Regards,
Jose

 

[dajo]

Thanks - I'll play with the power lead configurations.

The interesting thing about this situation is that it seemed to appear when I set my ram up for dual channel. I first put these sticks in slots 1 & 3 because that's how my P4 board did dual channel, but when CPUZ showed single mode, I reseated them correctly (by color).

After that I got almost 6K in SoftSandra (nice!), but when I ran AquaMark3 I got a blue blank screen and had to reboot. Same thing in 3dmark05. I could play games but could no longer run these graphics benchmark tools. When I tried to OC the processor, drawing even more juice, is when the no signal problem occurred. Maybe dual channeling pulls a bit more power?

There should be enough power to run my rig off my 430 Antec. I only have:
cd-rom
dvd drive
1 18GB 15K Cheetah scsi
1 74GB 15k Maxtor scsi
scsi controller
floppy
audigy 2Z
sapphire 800xl
3000+ .90 proc
2 X 512MB Crucial Ballistix

That doesn't seem like much to me, but maybe the scsi drives draw a lot. I'll play with the power distribution via the leads when I get home. The VNF4 comes today. I'll have to check that board out. Wonder if it does the same thing?

My Antec TrueConnect 550, not mounted in a system, sometimes starts, sometimes doesn't. I wonder if it has to do with the manual settings I did. That's the PSU which has the 5 1/4 bay front which allows you to change voltages with a small stylus/screwdriver. Do you think my having adjusted these could cause the PSU not to power up correctly, or does it sound like that unit is defective?

That PSU is expensive, and only 3 months old, so I need to RMA it to Antec after I determine for sure that it is defective.

Thanks for all the support you guys are giving me.

 

[jose]

Set the psu to it's default settings... Don't oc'd anything, get the latest bios, then go from there... But definetly check the wire leads...

Regards,
Jose

 

[dajo]

Rough couple of weeks for me with motherboards I guess.

After I decided to rma the kn1, I ordered a VNF4 from newegg. First thing I did was pack it with all the same components just to see if I got a video signal. I did, so I started to do a clean os install. I keep my os on its own disk so this is usually very fast and simple - usually. I deleted the partition, created one, and began the process but right away I could tell there was a problem as it was horribly slow. Checking the post again I noticed that I was getting a "failed to load bios", or maybe it said "rom", for the scsi card. I also did not see the scsi drives in the bios hd priority list. I moved the controller to another slot, finally got a successful rom load message (I think I had to disable some onboard features for the board - raid?), but the extreme sluggishness of the system persisted. I went ahead and installed the os even though I knew the problem was most likely at a bios/board level. I was hoping that at some point the issues might be resolved, but finally getting to the desktop revealed that there was %100 cpu usage (mostly by explorer.exe).

After 5 hours of messing with this and getting nowhere I decided to put the KN1 back in because I need a computer. This went without issue and I was back up in short time.

Any ideas about how to resolve this with the VNF4? I've done some googling but haven't found any posts which indicate others having this same problem. Searching for "scsi" in the pdf manual did not help either.

I really like the KN1. It's wicked fast. I'm wondering if there is actually anything wrong with the board after all. I think I read somewhere that the last four pins for a 24 pin psu have to do with the pci x16 slot. I know the concensus now is that a 24 pin psu is not needed, but perhaps for this board it is.

So, for now I have two boards and I'm not sure which way to go. I could buy a 24 pin psu just to see if that makes a difference but I'm running out of money.

 

[T101]

Hmm, I know it is not recommended, but trying a 20 -> 24 pin converter for your PSU should be cheaper than a new PSU. At least so you can test if voltage to those extra pins make a difference. It might however be so that with the converter, the lone rails that now support two or more connections to the motherboard, is not able to provide enough Amps. Which might result in that in the end, you might have to buy a new PSU after all.
But I think it is worth a shot to see if it makes any difference just to have power on those extra pins.

 

[dajo]

Thanks. I'm not sure what to do. I've heard bad things about converters, but I haven't reallly researched it much. I think I'll wind up getting a 24 pin psu. I wish now that I had ordered one from newegg when I got the VNF4, but I hadn't discovered at that time that the KN1 video signal did work when I reduced my power requirements.

The KN1 is too new to have a lot of user based feedback with these issues. I'm hesitant to rma it now because I'm having a lot of fun using it and am not sure that there is anything wrong with it. It's super fast even when not overclocking.

I need to research the VNF4 issue with the scsi controller. There has to be a way to get around that %100 cpu usage I was getting, and it's probably something simple in the bios. What I really need is another 939 chip and another scsi controller and another scsi drive... Ha! That's not going to happen.

I'm using on-board sound for now, which isn't nearly as crisp as the Audigy, and, I believe, does not off load the CPU work like the dedicated sound card does. One of the reasons I got the Audigy is that a review showed it to be good for gaming because of the way it reduced CPU usage.

Oh well, hardware's a never ending journey.

I have to give the KN1 two thumbs up at this point. Very stable and fast. Unless I hear that many users are having PCI-E failures/issues I have to conclude that it is an issue with my setup and that this is a good board.

Did you see that newegg has it for $75 + $5 shipping? If this board proves to be stable, its pricing will ensure that it becomes one of the most popular boards in use during this time.