Very strange problem with AGP card last night

[Kocky]

Hi guys,

I really had a weird problem last night. I'm updgrading the pc of a friend of mine and he bought a brand new GeForce 4 MX 440 card with 64 mb DDR-Ram, AGP 8X. I wanted to see how fast this card would run in my system so a inserted the new AGP 8x card in my mobo, Asus A7V8X and booted up, installed drivers and played some GTA Vice City. It ran perfectly.

Then I uninstalled the drivers rebooted the pc. Then shut the pc down and inserted my own AGP 4x card, a GeForce 2 MX 440 with 32 mb ram, AGP 4X. I then booted up the pc and no image at all. The pc booted into WinXP but no image !. Only if I installed the GeForce 4 card it would display an image.

I was even able to boot the pc without any video card inserted at all !!

Finally I erased the CMOS chip, rebooted the pc with the GeForce 4 card and set the BIOS settings to minimal settings. After that my GeForce 2 card worked again.
So when I install a GeForce 4 or any AGP 8X I think and after that I install a AGP 4X card I won't get an image.
I have to reset the CMOS chip for it to work again !
Very strange don't you think ?

Do you have any idea why this happens ? Is it a bug in the architecture of the mobo or in the BIOS perhaps ?

Greetings [thumbsup2,

Pascal.

 

[KimLeece]

Have you checked for any BIOS revisions? If you can't see any post screen at all before the OS begins to load then it should be a BIOS thing. When the new card is installed does any setting actually change in the BIOS?
If, however, you lose the screen as Windows boots and it's a Windows thing, you would probably be ok if you set a restore point with your card set up correctly. Then if you 'look' at any other cards, when you have finished you go back to your restore point - switch the cards - and you should still have the setup for the card.

Kim.

'Everybody is ignorant - only on different subjects.'
Will Rogers.

 

[Kocky]

There was no image at the beginning of the boot. I didn't see anything. Don't know if the BIOS settings changed because I could not see it. I think the problem occured because in the BIOS the AGP speed sticked to AGP 8X and my own card is a AGP 4X. After resettings the CMOS the AGP speed was set back to Auto setting. Still this must be a bug in the BIOS. I will e-mail to Asus about this matter.

 

[KimLeece]

What i meant was - it might be interesting if you put in the AGP8X card, which you can see, check the BIOS then to see what changed. The worst that can happen is another BIOS reset - and you might get more information to tell Asus or the BIOS manufacturer.

Kim.

'Everybody is ignorant - only on different subjects.'
Will Rogers.

 

[norty303]

You say you uninstalled the drivers and then rebooted b4 shutting down again and removing the card. Did windows load a generic driver for the 8x card on the reboot? Maybe you should uninstall the driver, shut down the system and swap the cards so that it reboots and loads a generic driver for the 4x card on the reboot.

Then load the detonator drivers as usual

 

[Kocky]

Well I could see in the BIOS when I installed the AGP 8X card that the AGP speed was set to 8X and I could not change it. It was grayed out. I think that was the problem that it was not reset after I installed my own AGP 4X card.
But the problem is solved now.

 

[hoffdog]

I had a buddy had the same thing happen with a asus 87V8x-x mobo. It is a bug, the bios sticks in the 8x mode when you revert back to the 4x card. I guess they just figured once you saw what an 8x agp card could do that you would never go back. Anyway...once we did the lastest bios flash, that problem went away. Check and see if you have the lastest installed for your BIOS.

 

[SYAR2003]

The reason there was no image is that with 8X
the card is feed with 0,8v witch is to little
to fire up a 4X card that needs 1,5v.

 

[coneKlr]

Usually, if everything works, but no image, this indicates an incorrect refresh rate. Try going to safemode to remove and uninstall the old driver. Then, windows should boot with a standard VGA driver, which u can then update to the correct one.

The incorrect voltage is an interesting idea. But I would think you would get a post code beep and no booting with a voltage problem like that.

 

[Kocky]

It wasn't a wrong refresh because I could not even see the POST screen. After I reset the CMOS chip everything worked fine again and the CMOS chip has nothing to do with the refresh rate of the monitor. I have seen more reports in the internet about this problem and with a new BIOS version it should be solved.