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What's the problem? Artifacts and lock-ups on new nForce 2 and 2500+. Mobo back from RMA, still problem!

S

Swanny

Diamond Member
Hello all,

I just built a computer today and it's having some major problems. For one, it has artifacts on the screen. I think I saw these in safe mode too, but they're not as bad. They were present the first time I saw the desktop, before any drivers were installed.

The other problem is crashes. Twice now (once after changing a user account setting, and once after trying to change display settings) it did the blue-screen/reboot thing. I set it not to reboot after blue-screen so I could read the error, but it hasn't happened since. Currently, IE crashes whenever you try to start it up. It's the kind of crash that sends you back to the desktop with an error reporting box.

I have the latest nForce and display drivers (integrated w/ nForce, but using the Dets) installed. The BIOS is flashed to the latest revision. It passed running MemTest for about 10 minutes, then I moved on to other things.

Specs are:
MSI K7N2GM-L (nForce 2 w/ integrated GPU) Now Asus A78X-VM/400
Athlon XP 2500+
512Mb Corsair Value Select PC3200
WD 800JB
300W Antec PS
CD-RW
Floppy

Summary of what's further down in the thread:
The motherboard went in on RMA. It just came back, and the problem still exists.
2 other sticks of RAM have been tried, same problem.
An AGP ATi video card was tried, same problem.
After a reformat, I think I've found the problem to be display drivers. Artifacts appear the moment drivers are installed.
After further analysis, artifacts appear before video drivers are installed, but are not as bad as after.
Power supply has been tried.


OK, I followed everyone's advice and bought an Asus to replace the MSI. Guess what? SAME PROBLEM!!

What could possible be causing this? I saw artifacts in the GUI part of the windows install now!

The CPU is now the only thing I haven't changed out. Is it possible that this is a CPU problem?

I tried changing out the CPU. Got a BSOD before the install finished!

Well, after 3 nForce boards I bought a Via based board. Works great!!

I'm still miffed at what the problem could be.



Thanks for any help!!
Swan
 
Artifacts are usually caused by a bad or overheating vid card. Try using an AGP card if you have one, see if you still get the artifacts.
 
Also try bumping the memory voltage to at least 2.6V if it isn't there already, and confirm that the WD is jumpered for Single-Drive (usually meaning, no jumper on the pins). And personally, MSI motherboards are something I'd steer clear of lately. Good luck Swanny 🙂
 
Well, the mem voltage was already at 2.6V, so I bumped it up to 2.7V. Artifacts were still there.

Also, I managed to induce the blue-screen crash by changing display resolutions about three times in a row. Here's what it said (in a simplified form):

Problem:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000028, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80513ab2)


I can't really make anything out of that. Although my guess is that there might be an IRQ conflict?

Any input is appreciated. I'll see if I can try an AGP card sometime today.
 
hi,
try running memtest, the video gets it's memory space out of the main system memory and i've seen this cause problems before with bad ram.
link\
good luck
 
Driver conflict/IRQ conflict is my opinion. Try fooling around with BIOS feature settings, or uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. Try uninstalling your video driver, then change resolutions. I bet it will work.
 
This was with a fresh install of Win XP. All the hardware is brand new too. As I said, I have run memtest already. I'll stick in in again, though and let it run longer this time.
 
Originally posted by: johnjkr1
I'm betting an AGP card will solve the problem.
Click to expand...

True. If you saw artifacts at the bios screen, I would bet it isn't a memory problem.

 
Originally posted by: mechBgon
Also try bumping the memory voltage to at least 2.6V if it isn't there already, and confirm that the WD is jumpered for Single-Drive (usually meaning, no jumper on the pins). And personally, MSI motherboards are something I'd steer clear of lately. Good luck Swanny 🙂
Click to expand...


So true about the MSI' boards. A friend of mine brought a KT133A board, died 18 months later.
I purchased a K7N2 myself , not remembering about my friends one dieing, it died yesterday.

Brought a Gigabyte Nforce2 in replacement. Luckily MSI have a 3 year warranty, time to test it out...
 
Ok, it's had 1h30m wall time on Memtest and has passed 5 times. No errors.

I have not tried the AGP card yet. But what if the problem is the onboard video? This is a computer I'm building for someone else, so it needs to use the onboard video. Is the problem likely something I can fix or will the board have to be RMAed?
 
BTW, a little clarification:

I have NOT seen any artifacts in the BIOS screens.
I have seen them in Safe mode, but they are less severe than in regular mode. I'm assuming this is because safe mode runs at a lesser resolution.
 
Its definately overclocked graphics hardware that gives your symptoms, or overheating. I delibrately set the memory clock on my Geforce 4 Ti to 720mhz, and it behaved as you described.

Not saying you've overclocked, but its a board problem.
 
I know it's an obvious thing, but you've got the ATX12V auxiliary power plugged into the board, right? 😱
 
Originally posted by: sandorski
Check for BIOS update and Update all drivers.
Click to expand...

If he's seeing artifacts in safe mode it not the drivers. The next step it to reset the cmos and try an agp or pci video card.
 
Originally posted by: John
Originally posted by: sandorski
Check for BIOS update and Update all drivers.
Click to expand...

If he's seeing artifacts in safe mode it not the drivers. The next step it to reset the cmos and try an agp or pci video card.
Click to expand...

True enough, but his screen resizing issue might be solved with drivers.
 
Ok, an MSI tech and I decided the problem was a faulty motherboard. Well, I returned the motherboard and I still have the problem. This is driving me nuts!!!


What could the problem be?????
 
get you money back, and buy an Abit or ASUS MB. I don;t know the model numbers that integrated video.
 
Ok, I just tried an ATi AGP card known to work. It displays the same artifact.

That completely baffles me. What piece of hardware could be causing this? Memory, Mobo, and Video are now presumed working. Is it possible for a CPU to do this? Is it possible that it's in software?


Thanks,
Swan
 
I still think its the motherboard. You could some known working memory though, that is a distinct possibility. I have never seen a CPU do anything like that.
 
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