Problem w ATI 9000, 8500 and Aopen AX6BC Mobo

[DougB]

Just bought a "Powered by ATI" 9000 Pro card and can't get it to work in my second PC, which has an Aopen AX6BC mboard (440BX). There is no video displayed whatsoever on bootup. Since I already have an ATI 8500 in my main PC (with an Asus A7V333 mboard), I tried that one as well and it didn't work. It appears that the Aopen is not even supplying power to the video boards, as the fans don't even spin. Also, most of the time (but not all the time) I get the single beep followed by 3 beep error code, which I believe means that the mobo doesn't detect the video card. I also tested the 9000 in my Asus-based PC, and the PC boots up normally.

Is this an AGP version incompatibility? I thought the ATI cards were backward compatible. Something to do with the Radeon chipset? How about an issue with the DVI interface (even though I'm only using the standard VGA connector)? Is the mboard providing enough power to the AGP slot?

BTW, I currently have a TNT2 Ultra card in this PC which works fine (besides the fact that the fan is shot).

Any info or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Doug

 

[Fallen Kell]

It might be that the motherboard can not send the power required to run that video card to the AGP port. The newer cards draw significanly more power then older cards did. It could very well be that the specs for that motherboard do not support the power requirements to the new video cards. But I don't suspect the behavior that you are describing to be this type of issue, but its something to consider.

 

[Peter]

Granted, but the 9000 has such a low power consumption that even the oldest AGP 1.0 mainboards should be able to run them ... and if there were an overload, then you'd see unstable operation once the GPU really gets down on some 3D work, but not while doing boring 2D stuff at bootup.

If not even the fans spin, then there is actually absolutely no power on the AGP slot. Did you manage to seat the cards correctly?

 

[DougB]

Originally posted by: Peter
If not even the fans spin, then there is actually absolutely no power on the AGP slot. Did you manage to seat the cards correctly?

This is something I didn't mention. The 9000 card did have some play in it within the slot. When best seated from a slot perspective, the side connector panel was not perfectly lined up (parallel) with the opening in the back. I don't think the 8500 card had as much play; can try it again as well (although I'll hate having to take that card out of my other PC again). I've had many experiences of this nature with cards, whether AGP, PCI, ISA, etc. However, do note that the contacts are completely embedded within the AGP slot and fairly snugly (but probably less than what I'd consider 100% snug). I cannot see any part of the card's contacts, so I am dubious that this is the problem.

It's still a bit perplexing that I don't always get the beep code on bootup. When I don't, the computer appears to just freeze prior to BIOS post; it's hard to tell the state without the video, but I do have the bootup password set and don't seem to get any response subsequent to entering password. It does sound as if the hard disks are read at the beginning, but there are no subsequent sounds after entering password. Again, since the fan is not activated, it doesn't appear that the card is getting power even when the beep codes do not sound. As an experiment, I juggled the card and pulled the contacts partially out of the slot while in this state (one of those no-no's, but desperation...), and this caused the beep code to sound.

It seems that if this card (or the 8500) should work with this mobo, I can't seem to get it to work. Guess I'll try a little bit more. Where's my hammer.

Thanks.

Doug