Upgradeing Video Card Problems

[macaw]

I am running Win2k Pro on a homebuilt box consisting of a KT7a-Raid mother board with an AMDAthlon "Thunderbird" 1.3 GHZ 266FSB processor, 768MB ram, ATI Radeon VE AGP 32mb dual display video card, 3 160gb maxtor 7200rpm HDs(not setup in a raid config), 450watt ps.
This combination has been very stable.
I recently purchased an ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 128mb AGP video card. I followed all the instructions, I think, removed all the old ATI software including the drivers,(rebooting on the old V-card gave me that funky safe boot type screen), and installed the updated VIA driver. The only thing I wasn't sure of was the GART? drivers, but I assumed they would be included with the Catylist driver disk. This was all to be done before the installation of the card.
When I installed the card and powered up the box, I got nothing, no POST, the monitor would not come out of stand-by, and the HD LED would lock on. but I could not hear any HD activity.
I assumed it was a bad card, returned it for an exchange, and the second card did the same thing, now I am not sure now if it's the card or somthing I missed.
Every time I went through this I would reinstall the old card and everything would operate normally.
I have reinstalled the old video card,drivers and ATI software and the video is perfect.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Bill

 

[felixc]

Please verify what is the AGP level that is supported by your mobo. The Radeon9600 only supports AGP 4X and 8X.

 

[lgebhart]

If felixc's idea doesn't work try:

Also my ATI 9700 has to be connected to a 4 pin molex off the power supply to work, so see if yours too has a connection for that and it should be located at the top of the card. Is the fan working on the video card?



lgebhart

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[macaw]

Thanks for the quick response.
The mobo supports both 4 & 8.
There is no fan on this card.
There is a 4 pin connector on the top of this card but the instructions state that it's for internal sound connection.

 

[felixc]

If your system does not even beep, it means that it does not boot at all, so something deep is happening, before any driver issue. Have you tried clearing teh CMOS ram? Sometimes it resets timings to safer values.

The Abit site says that the KT7A is a 2X/4X AGP. If it can do 2X, it means that the signal voltages may be too high. I suspect just a plain incompatibility with your mobo.
I have an AIW9600XT and also a radeon 9600XT at home, these are the best boards I've ever had. Never a crash, never a glitch. I couldn't say that from the previous ATI cards that I've had.

 

[macaw]

I was going through my mobo handbook and found a bios setting to enable the AGP 4x mode. It also has adjustments for AGP aperature size and AGP driving force.

Any suggestions?
Thanks again for your quick response.

 

[BadBigBen]

Normal procedure for exchanging/replacing GFXcards, is to set within the Device Manager the GFXcard to a Standard VGA Device, then to deinstall the drivers for the current card... powerdown... remove old card and install new card... powerup then to install the drivers for the new card (after installing the CHIPSET software if needed)...

now you say that your PC does not post? if the card is seated correctly (just a notch off could lead to a no POST situation), the Power Connector attached (if the card came with one, see handbook), CMOS was cleared, and nothing else works, leads me to think that the Card isn't supported by your mobo... in other words either degrade the gfx card or replace mobo and cpu...

Some AGP gfx-cards use 5v (usually 1x and 2x) and others use 3.3v (usually 2x, 4x and 8x) this can lead to the incompatibility of the card not firing up...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[paparazi]

BadBigBen
The AGP 1.0 specification defined 1x and 2x speeds with the 3.3v keyed connector.
The AGP 2.0 specification defined 1x, 2x and 4x speeds with the 3.3v, or 1.5v keyed connector or a 'Universal' connector which supported both card types.
The AGP Pro specification defined 1x, 2x and 4x speeds with the 3.3v, or 1.5v keyed connector or a 'Universal' connector which supported both card types.
The AGP 3.0 specification defined 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x speeds with the 1.5v keyed connector or a 1.5v AGP Universal / Pro connector.
Each up-grade is a supper-set of the 1x mode, so 4x will also support the 1x speed. The base clock rate is 66MHz, but to achieve to 2x, 4x, and 8x speeds the clock is doubled each time. AGP uses both edges of the clock to transfer data.

AGP (1x): 66MHz clock, 8 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 266MB/s [3.3V or 1.5V signal swing]
AGP 2x: 133MHz clock, 8 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 533MB/s [3.3V or 1.5V signal swing]
AGP 4x: 266MHz clock, 16 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 1066MB/s [1.5V signal swing]
AGP 8x: 533MHz clock, 32 bytes/clock, Bandwidth: 2.1GB/s [0.8V signal swing], still uses 1.5 volt motherboard power


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[BadBigBen]

@Paparazi - Thanx for clearing this up... I mixed up the voltages... don't know where that came from... Hmmm... guess I'm just getting old...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[macaw]

Thanks for the information, In the Advanced chipsetset feature setup menu the "AGP-4x mode is at present disabled if I enable itand then install the card it might just fire off.
Tha AGP slot in the mother board is not keyed, so it should be universal, and the voltage difference may have been great enought to keep the computer from POSTing.
How does that sound.
Or do you think it's a bunch of hooie.
Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[BadBigBen]

I think you found your culprit...

do let us know if it did the trick...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[macaw]

Thanks for the help guys.
I will, but it may be a couple of dayys - going on back twelves for a while,
Thanks again,