Author Topic: Radeon 9800 Pro problem... (Read 1743 times)

beet1e · « **on:** November 06, 2003, 11:18:28 AM »

I've just finished assembling my new rig - Asus A7N8X deluxe mobo, XP2600, Radeon 9800Pro...

Everything is connected, I hit the power, the fans whirr into life, single beep for POST successful... and then the monitor (iiyama 454 Vision Master Pro) flickers into life. A bold white message displays "CPU have been changed!". Well OK, this mobo has never seen a CPU before, so in that sense the XP2600 is a change. I hit DEL to enter BIOS setup, and then the BIOS screen is displayed, but in a most peculiar way. All the DOSsy type lettering is scattered across the screen, with some letters missing, eg.

H a r d a r e S t u p

instead of Hardware Setup. All the time the screen is displayed, there's a flickering effect, and then some more white bits got added to the blue background. Sorry this is a bizarre description, but I've never seen this before. Half way down the screen, there's a whole area with nothing in it at all - just blank.

I've looked through the iiyama manual, and the only problem described that remotely matches what I've got here is "synchronization", which seems to suggest that the Radeon is pushing the monitor too hard. But the translation is poor, and I'm not sure what it means. The Radeon 9800 manual doesn't give many clues either.

The iiyama 454 VM Pro monitor is fine. I moved it downstairs and tried it on my old system - using it to type this message - works perfectly. Really good colours, sharp images... So the problem seems to be at the Radeon end.

Any ideas?

Roscoroo · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:46:13 AM »

your looking in the right place .. I test fired mine with a sony e200 crt monitor and didnt have a single problem .

Do you have a different monitor to try again with ??
And a different video card to trouble shoot with just in case ..
(that 9800 maybe putting out more than the monitor can handle)

as for the bios with the A7N8X its going to run at under clocked speeds until you go in and reset it .. 1.5-1.8 ghz 266fsb or so.
I left mine at the underclocked speeds until I had everything loaded and stable .

Wanker · « **Reply #2 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:55:38 AM »

Beetle, did you remember to plug in the second power plug into the Radeon?

beet1e · « **Reply #3 on:** November 06, 2003, 12:44:03 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by banana
Beetle, did you remember to plug in the second power plug into the Radeon?

The second power plug? I've plugged in a power supply to what I thought was the only power inlet...

Replicant · « **Reply #4 on:** November 07, 2003, 06:56:29 PM »

Well I'm using a Radeon 9800 (o/c to Pro) with that monitor with no problems whatsoever, so I would hazard a guess at either the bios/or drivers from old vid card causing probs?

beet1e · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2003, 03:01:28 AM »

Nexx - I was hoping I might hear from you about this.

It's a brand new mobo, brand new HDD, so there are no old drivers lurking around. It's a virgin system.

Since posting, I put my old vidcard (Elsa Gladiac Ultra) in the new system, and it works fine. I got to the BIOS and then allowed the boot to continue (W-Me boot diskette). 8xAGP is enabled. Someone suggested in an email that I check the voltage for AGP - I'll have to look up how to do that...

I've phoned my supplier about this problem - http://www.scan.co.uk - and they have seen this problem before and have asked me to return the card, which I'll do on Monday.

Any suggestions for things I might try before Monday?

Replicant · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2003, 05:36:49 AM »

Hmm.... perplexing!

I know that when I tried installing my Rad 9800 first time the power leads weren't quite connected correctly, but then it flashes up on screen (along with beep) that it's not connected!

I'm not that au fait with Asus boards and if it's working with your old vid card then it must be pointing towards the 9800 at being at fault. Voltage wise, it should be set automatically for your mobo.

What PSU are you using? Skuzzy recommends a minimum around 430w.

Also, what chipset is that? Have you checked any compatibilty issues on the Asus website, or bios updates, or patches required (sometimes supplied on the installation CD)? - I had to install a special patch for my mobo, but that was for USB2 controllers.

beet1e · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2003, 07:22:45 AM »

Hi Jason,

It's the Nforce chipset. That's what the N in A7N8X represents. (My current Asus is A7V133 - VIA chipset).

My case came with a 300W PSU, but I have removed this and replaced it with a 400W PSU. So I'm slightly short of Skuzzy's recommendation.

I've been monitoring this forum for some months, and the A7N8X deluxe mobo and Radeon 9800 Pro seem popular choices, so I would have thought if there was a compatibility issue that someone would have pointed to it by now. But I'll go to the Asus site to chek for compatibility issues anyway.

I'm typing this from my old system. I bought a cheapo vidcard for setting up/testing my new rig - MX400 GForce2 for £35. It's in the new system now and working fine...

bloom25 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2003, 12:34:49 PM »

It sounds like a bad card to me. I've seen what you seem to be describing with overheating video cards, but since this is happening at a cold boot I'd probably wager on the card itself being bad.

I run a 9800 on an nForce 1 board myself and have built 9600 Pro on A7N8X deluxe systems myself. There are no issues that I know of between Radeon cards and nForce chipsets. (If anything, this is probably one of the most popular combinations for enthusiast systems.)

I personally think a good 400 Watt supply is fine for that system.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2003, 01:23:17 PM »

A quality 400W or better power supply is good for that system.

beet1e, that combination is very popular (video card/motherboard) with the AMD crowd. You could have a bad card. Go the RMA route. At least you should be able to confirm it that way.

Rut, for the 800Mhz FSB motherboards, I like the 430W Antec TruPower supply. Typically, those same systems are also running 2.8Ghz (or so) CPU's. Add a power hungry critter like an 9800Pro/XT card and you are looking at some serious power consumption.

Sixpence · « **Reply #10 on:** November 09, 2003, 10:24:28 AM »

My first 9800 pro was a bad card.

beet1e · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2003, 10:51:52 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
beet1e, that combination is very popular (video card/motherboard) with the AMD crowd. You could have a bad card. Go the RMA route. At least you should be able to confirm it that way.

Thanks, Skuzz. I've returned the card, and they have tested it and found no fault! So I asked them to try it on a A7N8X board like mine. They are not sure they can do this...

I have checked the Asus website for BIOS information for the A7N8X, and version 1007 is current, whereas my board was supplied with version 1006. The reasons for the 1007 update were, according to Asus, these: [list=1]

Update SATA ROM to 4.2.15
Improve system stability with Hynix and PSC memory modules.

Would that BIOS update fix it?

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #12 on:** November 13, 2003, 01:30:22 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by beet1e
I have checked the Asus website for BIOS information for the A7N8X, and version 1007 is current, whereas my board was supplied with version 1006. The reasons for the 1007 update were, according to Asus, these: [list=1]
Update SATA ROM to 4.2.15
Improve system stability with Hynix and PSC memory modules.
Would that BIOS update fix it?

Check my sig as I have BIOS 1006. No problems with this combo using 3.13 Nforce drivers. You might check this forum to see if anyone else has heard of this problem. http://www.amdmb.com/vb/index.php
There are a lot of people in that forum using your combo with 1006, so I really don't think it will help.

I think I read that if the Molex power plug is not properly connected or the PSU is not good enough, there will be a blue screen with some kind of Error message on boot.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #13 on:** November 13, 2003, 02:03:55 PM »

If the card is good (hopefully they will send a new one anyways), then I would suspect power next, or possibly RAM.

Even if you have 400W supply, check the ratings for each rail (3.3V and +5V are the critical ones).

They usually show these values as maximums. With the combination you have in hardware, I should think maximum loads of 30A on the +5V and 25A on the 3.3V rails would be good.
Check to see what your power supply rails are rated at.

minus · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2003, 02:49:18 PM »

i remember this , have a same problem, and tryed everithing , upgradet to 550 antec PSu all posible crap i returned the card they tested , found no problem, then i just becose got bored decide to change a 18 micron AMD to 13 micron and aplyed a litle less artic silver like in bad habitude, and miracle ! everithing runing fine
now tell me what a hell
this is the alst Xmas wehn i got the 9700 pro and have bad corupt , even in bios

sugest u to begin fidle at the begining , CPU , artic silver if spreading around the bridges can make some mess check the fan try to change it , something there cose problem jsut real ydont know what, later have another problem with onboard sound card , so best thing is to use audigy and stuf like

some 1 told me all those bad bios screens have to due soemthign with Videocard bios + voltage + ramdac ,