Computer Wont Boot! New gfx card

Firefly86

Firefly86

Firefly86

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Hi guys,

I'm having some problems with an older machine that belongs to a mate of mine.
Specs are

Asus P4S800
Intel P4 2.6Ghz
Radeon 9250 256MB Ram
2GB Kingston Ram
300W PSU

Nothing special at all. Computer was working fine up until friend decided he wanted to play Sims 3, but it wouldn't play with the 9250 due to pixel shader version. So got a cheapo card for him, the GeForce 6800 512MB.

The computer would not longer boot reliably. I say reliably because perhaps 1 in 5 times it will boot successfully into windows. But most of the time what happens is that the screen just goes blank after POST, and nothing happens, fans all stay on, hard drives still spinning, but nothing on the screen it never actually reaches the Windows XP logo screen.

I placed the original 9250 radeon back in and the problems went away, I thought faulty graphics card but why would it boot sometimes and run fine for hours?

I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough juice from the 300W power supply so tried a 550W PSU of my own in his machine, same problem didn't seem to help at all.

Am I right in thinking the graphics cards borked? If it never boot at all I might have thought that but its just random.

Any ideas?
 
Try updateing the MoBo bios. It would seem to be a comptablity issue between the Mobo and the gfx.

You could also look into the mobo bios and play around with the graphics settings.

Does the new gfx card work OK in your PC ?
 
Unfortunately there is only 1 other bios update for this mobo and its a beta bios update. I can give it a try but the bios description doesn't seem to have any beneficial improvements.

What sort of settings could I change in BIOS? I've only seen things like changing default video from PCI to AGP. Changing memory size from 32MB to 256MB etc.

Thanks for your advice :)

Will try the 6800 card in my machine and see what happens...
 
When I got my XFX card it wouldnt boot into windows, it would freeze on the loading bar, but when i put my old card in it worked fine.

My solution was to put the old card in and boot up, then make sure id deleted every shred of display driver, then put the new card in, booted up and installed the drivers that are on the disc.

Other than that it might just be a compatibility issue :(
 
hi satriani, thanks for the advice.

I thought about that too and used driver cleaner to make sure there weren't any remnants of drivers left in there but unfortunately it didn't help :/

Sometimes I can't even get into safe mode coz as I mentioned it seems to freeze/screen goes blank just after POST before windows logo ....
 
have you tried putting the original card in and using device manager to remove any display drivers?

I could get into safe mode with my new card when it wasnt booting so ive no idea why youre struggling, power connected? PSU wattage enough etc?
 
ye im a little confused too :S never come across this before

yea its where its happening thats causing problems, if it decides to boot its all runs fine until the next time you try and turn on the machine, but if it decides it dusn't want to Im pretty much screwed as I can literally only get into the BIOS, I can't even get to the Boot from CD stage its literally right after the BIOS and HDD search screen.

I tried my 550W PSU thinking perhaps it wasn't getting enough wattage but that didnt help at all.

what sort of readings in BIOS would be worrying? Here's what I get with the 300W PSU:

VCore Voltage : 1.58V
+3.3V Voltage :3.28V
+5V Voltage : 5.02V
+12V Voltage : 11.58V
 
Firefly86 said:
what sort of readings in BIOS would be worrying? Here's what I get with the 300W PSU:

VCore Voltage : 1.58V
+3.3V Voltage :3.28V
+5V Voltage : 5.02V
+12V Voltage : 11.58V
Click to expand...
BIOS voltage numbers are notoriously inaccurate until calibrated with a 3.5 digit multimeter. If those voltages are accurate, you have a complete power supply failure.

But again, before making any conclusions, measure voltages when the nylon connector connect to the motherboard on purple, red, orange, and yellow wire. And make these measurement when all peripherals are in used (multitasked to). For example, play complex graphics, while downloading from the internet, while playing sound card loudly, while something is in use on the USB port, while searching the hard drive, etc. Now those voltage numbers have more meaning.

If BIOS numbers are accurate, the power supply is 100% defective - at least in this system. Normal is for a computer to boots and work with a completely defective power supply. Normal is for a perfectly good supply to act defectively in an otherwise perfectly good system. All reasons why only a meter can provide a definitive and useful answer.
 
Firefly86 said:
pretty much gave up and put the old 9250 in and works perfectly again.
Click to expand...
Does it? Or are voltage still too low; but not enough to cause failure? Normal is for a defective supply to boot a computer. If the load by the old card is a little less, computer may still boot but voltages are still bad. With so much part swapping, nobody knows. And that strange intermittent failure will be blames on what? Bad software?
 
A 300w Generic PSU is not enough for a P4 2.6 and GeForce 6800 512MB.

I assume you have been plugging in the extra power into the card itself. (think the 6800 512Mb has one)

Also have all the ATI drivers been completely removed?
 
hi sasahara,

yea I used the 550w and gave the 6800 its own power cord but still the same intermittent problems.
Even went as far as to try a fresh install to make sure it wasn't a driver problem but still happens :/
 
hmm same thing also happens with a geforce fx 5200 I had lying around. Only card that manages to start up all the time is the 9250.

I think you could be right westom. I think its a power problem but not with the PSU if that makes sense as changing to 550W makes no difference, im starting to think it might be a problem with the mobo's agp slot or a problem with how it distributes power to the agp slot
 
Firefly86 said:
I think you could be right westom. I think its a power problem but not with the PSU if that makes sense as changing to 550W makes no difference,
Click to expand...
First, I am not saying PSU. I am saying PSU 'system' - the many components of a supply 'system'.

Second, I am saying do not speculate. It "could be this or could be that" results in nothing useful. Either it "is this or is that" because the numbers (that only take 30 seconds to get) say so.
 
well turns out it was the motherboard.

Swapped it with another and no problems so far...

westom what numbers are you referring to voltage readings? I don't have a meter that I can use :/
 
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