Totally at a loss for words, no idea what it could be

[scarfase99]

I'm not a novice by any stretch, and the worst part is i'm completely lost to what it could be

So here are the pictures:

http://mikeg.cjb.net/garbage1.jpg
http://mikeg.cjb.net/garbage2.jpg
http://mikeg.cjb.net/garbage3.jpg

I get this garbage crap just trying to run WinXP install (it's fine while it loads the files, but right after "Starting Setup" this happens)

Now the history of what i've tried:

-New CPU (Athlon XP 2500+, from XP 2100+)
-Different PSUs (Antec 380W TruPower & Generic 300W)
-New Motherboard (ASRock K7VM4 & New ASUS A7N8X Deluxe)
-Different AGP Cards (Nvidia 5900 Ultra & ATI 8500le)
-Memtest on the RAM, different slots
-Different hard drives (Samsung & Seagate)
-Different install CDs (XP MCE & XP Sp2)

The only way i've gotten it to work was by using an old-assss PCI Video card, then everything worked fine. On the old motherboard, i thought that it could be a defective AGP slot, but I refuse to believe that the agp card is bad on 2 motherboards, one of which is brand new?!?!??! Am i forgetting to configure something???? I'm completely lost, it's christmas eve, and i'm about to lose my mind!!

 

[alzan]

I'm probably way off, but have you tried a different monitor? From your pics it looks to be an older monitor, and possibly can't handle the output from the AGP cards.

Other than that, what adapter cards are in your rig besides the vid cards? I'm wondering if moving the cards to different PCI slots would make a difference.

Can't think of any BIOS settings to try, unless you are OC'ing. You could try BIOS setup default settings for the install, then start switching them one by one after install to get max performance.

Good luck.

alzan

 

[olds]

Ya, try another monitor. If that fails,
Try it with just the cpu, video card, one stick of ram, cdrom and a hdd.
If it fails, swap video card and try again.
If it fails, swap a stick of ram and try it again.

 

[mechBgon]

In photo #1, looking at the left edge of the photo... your heatsink is not clipped down? :Q heatsink instructions Note that the pressure point of the clip needs to be over the CPU's core, not the other way, too.

 

[RBBRMADE]

I would also bet it is the monitor.
The heatsink looks right to me, but awful hard to tell in the picture.
Ron

 

[allanon1965]

yup, monitor cant support the agp cards, have been there before.....get a different and newer monitor

 

[scarfase99]

tried that, same thing :-/