POST/Video problem on boot with Biostar M7NCD Pro (Nforce2)

[dchilder]

Here's the situation:

When I start my computer, it usually doesn't POST, and if it sends any video signal at all to my monitor, it is just a bunch of colored vertical lines, mostly pink. I can't use the Power or Reset buttons to restart the computer. However, if I turn of the power supply switch on the back of the computer, and then turn it back on and restart the computer with the soft Power switch, it always starts with no problem. I figure this is caused by one or more of the following: power supply, motherboard, or video card

I have a relatively new (< 1 year old) Antec Truepower 330 power supply, so I doubt that is the problem (but who knows).

The rest of my relavent specs are below (in fact, the MB, processor and memory are also only several months old, the graphics card is 2 years old or so):

Biostar M7NCD Pro (Nforce2) motherboard (December 2003 BIOS-- I've already updated the BIOS to see if it helped, it didn't)
AMD 1700+ overclocked to 2400+ (12X multiplier, 170 FSB-- no other issues with overclocking, it has been stable for many months)
MSI Geforce 2 Ti Pro, 64 MB VIVO graphics card
2x256 MB OCZ PC2700 RAM (running at 6.2.2.2 with no prior issues)

This all worked with no problems for many months, and it just started doing this recently. I noticed the problem a short time (days) after I updated my Nvidia unified drivers for the Nforce2 chipset, but I kind of doubt that would impact this because those shouldn't do anything until Windows XP starts to load.

Before I start trying to buy a new power supply/MB/video card to diagnose this problem, I was hoping that maybe someone had experienced something similar and could give me a quicker (and cheaper) solution. I'd be grateful for any help. Thanks!

David

 

[TD77077]

Sounds like the video card. I don't OC, but every time I've had a comp that won't start initially but does after a cold reset, it's always been because the video card never initialized. When OCing, does the increased FSB also inrease the AGP speed? Maybe you wore out that poor old GF2 Ti.

Try a different Video card if you've got one. Good Luck.

 

[Tango57]

yep sounds like the video card. i had an old video card that i screwed up when i overclocked it by too much and then had rebooting problems similar to the description you gave with the vertical lines except mine were green lines against a black screen. my solution: i bought a new video card and the problem went away.

 

[Tango57]

yep sounds like the video card. i had an old video card that i screwed up when i overclocked it by too much and then had rebooting problems similar to the description you gave with the vertical lines except mine were green lines against a black screen. my solution: i bought a new video card and the problem went away.

 

[dchilder]

Well, I thought I had the AGP slot locked at 66 Mhz, but it turned out it was set for "Auto" which probably means that it was running overclocked too. I locked it in at 66 Mhz in the BIOS now, but it did not change the problem... if that is indeed what the problem is, it is too late to do anything about it.

I would still appreciate any further input from people who have experienced something similar, especially if the video card was NOT the problem now. Thanks for your help!