Please help! Weird boot problems with video card...

Jex

Senior member
Apr 4, 2001
588
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Ok, this might get long. I appologize. I ask that you please read this and help me out if you can. I'm getting pretty frustrated...

Basic setup is Abit KT7A-RAID, 1.333/266 Tbird, Elsa Gladiac Geforce2 GTS, Crucial PC133 RAM, using RAID0, USB Intellimouse explorer.

I was running this setup with a Duron700 and a regluar ps2 mouse (usb controller was disabled). No problems what so ever. This weekend, when I plopped in my 1.333/266 Tbird and hooked up my mouse, I started to have eratic boot problems. Every now and then, the bios would not post and give me an error beep code of 1 long, 2 short (signaling a video problem). Usually I could just power down and back up and it was fine.

I also noticed some little video "mess-ups" in Unreal Tourny. Like a little 1 frame flash or somthing. I messed with the bios (I think I enabled assign irq to usb controler) and the flashes went away.

Well, tonight it was terrible. I couldn't get the damn thing to post at all. 20-30 tries with no luck. I put an old TNT2 in and it worked fine. Plug my GTS in and no go. Tried clearing the bios, different settings, nothing.

So I left it alone for a couple of hours, and now it seems to be running pretty good. Only once now have I got the beep codes, and it came back the next power up. I've been rebooting a lot, and shutting down and it still seems ok. Plus no flashes in UT. Some video "artifacts" when I enter or exit the game, but that could be a driver problem since I've been swapping the cards.

One difference is that in the bios, I didn't push the agp settings. Like 4x is diabled, fast writes is disables, apature is set to 64. I want to think that these settings were the problem, but I have gotten the post error beep codes with them.

So I'm pretty confused. Is the card going bad? Is there a problem with my running a 133 Mhz FSB? Is it a probelm conflicting with USB?

I don't think heat is a problem. Via HW monitor shows the cpu temp at 32 idle and 48 load (UT). Sys temp is 28. I do notice that when I first boot into windows, the cpu temp reads about 44 and then quickly drops to 35 or so and eventually to 32. On my case I've got a front intake, 2 side intakes, and a rear exhaust. The fan on my vid card is still running too.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I'm getting frustrated and I'm about the return the GTS. But even then, I'm worried that it's something else or I did something to make the card go bad.

Any advice you can lend would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. Something else I could use is a good link on how to tweak the bios on my KT7A-RAID. I've been looking at some site based on the KT7, but it's pretty incomplete and terse.
 

MCS

Platinum Member
Feb 3, 2000
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Make sure the card is properly and evenly seated in the AGP slot.
If your I/O voltage is set to default 3.4V, try lowering it to 3.3V or 3.2V.
Could be your power supply (insufficient). What have you got?
There is, by the way, a known problem with cold booting Geforce cards on the KT7A...

Hope this helps!
 

Jex

Senior member
Apr 4, 2001
588
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0
Thank for the reply MCS!

The card is definately in alright. I took it out and re-seated it several times.

I will try messing with the io voltage. My case is a Tornado 1000 from 3dcool.com with a 300W PSU, so it should be fine.

I have not heard of the problem with Geforce cards booting on the KT7A. Could you point me to more info on this?

The thing that worries me the most is that these problems appeared when I put my 1.333/266 Tbird in. With my 700 Duron, there were no problems at all.

Can you (or anyone) verify that my AGP bus is in fact runnig at 66MHz and there isn't some weird problem with the bus going too high because the FSB is at 133?

Thanks again for the help!
 

MCS

Platinum Member
Feb 3, 2000
2,519
0
76
A good reference source would be Here; Have a look at the Forums there, and also they have a brilliant FAQ.

Your AGP will be running at 1/2 divider - you cannot set this yourself; its automatic. So if you are are 133Mhz FSB your AGP will be in spec.

Do you still have your Duron? You might want to pop it back in and see of the problem goes away. That's what I would do.