6600GT problem...help!

[Eku]

OK, very long story, so I'll try to make it quick (I've posted a lot of questions lately...sorry!)

Computer is:
Motherboard: ASUS A7V8X-LA (AGP 8x, 3 PCI)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Power Supply: (just added) Seasonic Supersilencer 350W
Current Video Card, Added: BMG (NVidia) GeForce4 MX 4000
Monitor: HP mx703
OS: XP Home Edition, 2002, SP-2 added 7/05

MX 4000 Video card was giving me fits, lock-ups, etc. Wanted to upgrade anyway, yanked it without really trying to fix the problem. Bought new power supply (above), bought new RAM (not yet installed), bought evga 6600GT. Installed new power supply; worked fine. Uninstalled drivers and disabled VIA onboard video adapter, enabled AGP in BIOS. Put in the 6600GT: no signal to monitor, no beeps, keyboard and mouse do not respond, hard drive LED stays lit. Yanked 6600GT. Put in MX 4000. Works fine, so far.

Well? Any chance the new card is fine, and I've botched something here? :confused:

[mikeandike22]

It seems like you went a little too far just because you were having trouble with your video card. I dont really see why the new card wouldnt work your system seems capable enough to handle it.

[jwenting]

Probably failed to activate the AGP slot after deactivating the onboard chipset.

[Eku]

Oh no... :o I never uninstalled the original MX4000 drivers. I'm on my way to work now, but I'll take care of that and try 'er again.

Would that do it?

BTW: My HP proprietary BIOS doesn't have a setting to enable AGP, nor to change the AGP speed. It only gives me the option of setting the Display Adapter to either PCI or Onboard/AGP. Can't find AGP-setting anywhere.

[Eku]

Wait a sec...(still at work, so I haven't tried anything new to fix the problem). Aren't video drivers loaded AFTER the POST? I'm not even getting to the POST with the 6600GT - I get dead nothing, no keyboard, no mouse, just fans running and harddrive LED continuous. So the new drivers can't do jack for that, can they?

Just to avoid having to answer the obvious:
-I'm quite sure the card is properly seated; it clicks in quite well
-Yes, I attached the monitor to the card.
-I updated the mobo BIOS two days ago, so that should have taken care of video prob's, yes? (although, I did have some concern that I didn't load it properly - Everest is still suggesting an update..? I posted on this in the Windows section.)
-the Seasonic has 19A on the 12V rail. That's GOT to be enough, darnit!
-I tried the card both connected to the PSU and disconnected, same result

Some web-sites are suggesting I flash the card's BIOS, but I can't do that since I get no screen with the card in, no matter what I do. :rolleyes:

[Alvein]

-the Seasonic has 19A on the 12V rail. That's GOT to be enough, darnit!
-I tried the card both connected to the PSU and disconnected, same result

I had 17A there and was able to run my GT for some minutes before a reboot :cheesy: .... I'm sure your Seasonic offers enough quality of power.

The GT can run disconnected from PSU in pure-text mode with no problems.

I would really suggest you to test your card in another PC, with non-propietary stuff.

[Eku]

[steps into time machine] "Ah yes, my mobo, case, and PSU have arrived...now all I have to do is assemble it with the other components, and I'll have my home-built computer! No proprietary stuff for me!" ;)

Fooey. Live and learn. I don't have access to a non-prop machine at the moment. But I did try uninstalling the drivers (see above) for the previous vid card. No go. Same problem. I've contacted EVGa support, FWIW. Onward...

[mikeandike22]

are you sure you got the card for the right port i think this card is both agp and pci-e. It could also be because this card was oddly designed to work in either slot(or at least that is wat i gather from this HSI thing it uses) but i am not sure how this works.

[Eku]

are you sure you got the card for the right port i think this card is both agp and pci-e. It could also be because this card was oddly designed to work in either slot(or at least that is wat i gather from this HSI thing it uses) but i am not sure how this works.

HSI? I'll look into it. But I'm sure its AGP. Says so both on the box and on the ISBN sticker on the card. (No, the sticker isn't over the contacts! :lol: )

[mikeandike22]

well in some random pc magazine had an article on this card and they mentioned hsi which i had never heard of and i dunno the way the explained made it sound like the card could be used in pci or agp instead of just either or which doesnt really make sense, i think they made it up.

[Eku]

ARRRRGGH! Take a look at this thread, on this very forum:

msi 6600gt

Am I an unlucky schmuck or what? (It could be said I should have done better research, I s'pose. :rolleyes: )

[Alvein]

[steps into time machine] "Ah yes, my mobo, case, and PSU have arrived...now all I have to do is assemble it with the other components, and I'll have my home-built computer! No proprietary stuff for me!" ;)

Fooey. Live and learn. I don't have access to a non-prop machine at the moment. But I did try uninstalling the drivers (see above) for the previous vid card. No go. Same problem. I've contacted EVGa support, FWIW. Onward...

You don't have to be sarcastic. Have no friends or what?

Write to eVGA. They will tell you what to do. I don't think your card is dead anyways.

[Eku]

You don't have to be sarcastic. Have no friends or what?

Write to eVGA. They will tell you what to do. I don't think your card is dead anyways.

Didn't mean to come across as sarcastic, just making light of a situation that's got me going crazy. ('Course, "have no friends...? is kinda sarcastic, isn't it?) Anyway, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate all of the help you and others have given me, and I don't want any bad blood.

I have contacted eVGA for support. I await their answer. It sounds like someone needs to write a patch to make this card work.

[Stoned_coder]

I think that problems follow this card. I have 2 of the inno3d versions of the 6600gt agp. Neither of them can run even dxdiag 3d tests to completion. I get visual artifacts on one and the infinite loop error on the other. Even going up to a 560W psu with 29A on the +12V rail didnt help. Im in the process of RMA'ing the two cards for 2 more. If they dont work I'll chop them in for a couple of radeons of some sort.
I have tried every driver from 71.xx to 77.77 without successfully running ANY directX 8 or DirectX 9 games. Im beginning to feel that the hope of getting a good GT is seriously diminishing, and I need two of the buggers.
Inno assure me that the card needs at the very least 18A on the 12v rail and better yet 20A. Thats one power hungry card. Ive had to go out and buy 2 new psu's just to run them.

[Eku]

Sounds pretty bleak, Stoned_coder. They do TEST these things before they put them in the boxes, don't they??!! Anyway, your post convinced me to RMA it to newegg. I'll be out the shipping, and if the next one doesn't work, more shipping and another 15% of the cost if I have to return it. ATI 9800PRO 256MB sounds like the best for the price in the AGP line - anything better would be wasted in my machine anyway.

[Catweazle]

Hey, wow!

Seems you've gone to great lengths unnecessarily, especially in relation to BIOS settings. Here's the steps which need to be taken:

* Uninstall the old card (or onboard graphics) entry from device manager. Do not reboot.
* Uninstall any related drivers from Add/Remove programs. Shut down and remove the power cord.
* Open the case and physically install the new card. Close the case and connect the monitor to the new card rather than the onboard video connector.
* Power up, go straight into BIOS Setup and change the 'shared memory' setting to Disabled or to the minimum available value, as the case may be. This step is ONLY to reclaim system RAM ;)
* Boot to Windows and cancel out of any Hardware detection dialogue.
* Install the display card drivers either from the installation CD or (preferably) from the latest driver downloaded from the NVidia website!

That's it. Anything else is really unnecessary! If you've done a whole heap more fiddling around and changing settings than that, reset CMOS, reboot and start again.

[Eku]

Thanks, Catweazle. As I mentioned, I've RMA'd the card, so when it comes back, I'll try the above. I'll post my results.

Just for the record, I didn't really do a whole lot of messing around with the BIOS settings; in fact, all I changed was the AGP setting. (Updating the BIOS and clearing the CMOS were recommendations by the card support people.)

As far as the lengths to which I've gone: actually, its been VERY educational, so honestly, I don' t regret a thing, other than wishing I'd gotten better informed sooner.

[Stoned_coder]

well for the record I have one of these now stable and one mostly stable.
The stable one was gotten by turning fast writes off and restricting agp to 4x. Now with the dna-force drivers based on 77.76 I get no stutter, no crashes and a 3d mark score of 3500 with stock speeds at default driver settings for quality.

The other seems much more stable using the dna-force 77.76 drivers too but the bios in that one doesnt allow me to restrict agp or turn off fast writes. Get the occaisional infinite loop with this card but no stutterring as with all the other drivers.

Got away without rma-ing either.

One thing you do need with these cards is a heavy duty power supply capable of at least 450W and a steady 20A on the 12V rail.

[Catweazle]

Disagree with the power requirements claim there. A 350 watt unit should be fine, if the power unit is of a suitable quality. Cheap generic units often deliver unstable voltage levels and insufficient ampage. Just because the sticker says '350W' or '450W' doesn't necessarily mean that the unit is a good one. A quality 300W or 350W unit will ALLWAYS be better than a cheap 'n' nasty 450W unit!

[Eku]

Just a note regarding the power supply: my sense has been that my Seasonic is a good brand, and when it says 350W, it means it. It has been performing well, as far as I can tell, though I've experienced the same problems with the MX4000 I was having before (blue screen with the "infinite loop" error, blaming the driver for the problem.)

I'm going to install the latest drivers for the MX4000, 77.77, and use Driver Cleaner in safe mode to make sure the onboard drivers are wiped, as well as all traces of the older nVidia drivers. Here's the question: when my RMA'd 6600GT comes back in a week or so, it seems to me I won't have to do a thing, just switch cards...they use the same drivers, according to nVidia. Will there be an issue with this?

[Eku]

Update:
-did the driver cleaner, all's running smoothly.
-Tech support at eVGA informed me I could just keep the 77.77 driver active, and switch out the cards. We'll see when the new card gets here next week!

Odd...you'd think this question would come up all the time, given how nVidia uses the same drivers for almost all of their cards.

[hoobastank68]

Should work fine, my 6600gt runs amazing.

[Eku]

Nope. No go. Black screen of death. Same exact problem.

The card came back from newegg today, (and I'm sure it was a different one) and I simply swapped out the MX for the 6600GT, as I'd been told to do by the eVGA people, since it uses the same driver. No change, the machine will not post, no beeps, though the fans and everything power up.

I've been cruising the forums, and it looks like the VIA KM400 chipset in my mobo is simply not compatable with the 6600GT. Period. Solution: buy a new, better mobo. :rolleyes:

[edit: NO, I'm not buying a new board! The computer isn't worth that much, I might as well start from scratch!]

If anyone knows anything more about this issue, PLEASE let me know. Otherwise, I'm thinking I'm going to have to send the card back and get something else. Total cost out-of-pocket for my trouble? Approximately $50 US (shipping twice + restocking fee.) :evil:

[Catweazle]

Most of the A7V8X motherboards require a BIOS update for AGP 8X compatibility to be improved, from what I can see. I can't find reference to an A7V8X-LA on the Asus website. Perhaps the BIOS update needs to be obtained from the system manufacturer website?

[Eku]

Ah yes...gotcha covered there. There is no -LA from Asus, since (I think) HP/Compaq has them made specifically for the Pavilion series and perhaps others. I downloaded the 3.10 update to the BiOS from HP for my mobo, and performed the update a while back. I was everso hopeful that it would help. :( One thing is obvious: the BIOS is extremely limited as far as options, almost like HP stripped it down so it couldn't be tinkered with. (Or am I being cynical?)

Using the 4in1 drivers from VIA was a bit risky, since they didn't come from HP, but so far my machine is now working quite well with the MX 4000.

[Catweazle]

Starting from scratch sounds like the best option. I wouldn't bother trying to upgarde a Compaq, because they're not designed to be upgraded. BIOS usually prevents you even from using processors that the motherboard should be able to accept!

Brand name PCs suck!

[Eku]

Brand name PCs suck!

Yup. But what sucks more is that they sucker folks like me into thinking they CAN be upgraded! If only I'd found this forum before I'd bought my HP. Oh well, we learn from mistakes, eh? :rolleyes: At least I'm fully functional now with my MX4000, now that I know the proper standard computer maintenance procedures. (Again, thanks, forum gurus.)

I ain't done yet, though...SOMEBODY (VIA...are you listening???) will come out with a patch or something to make this work...the problem is just too common to ignore. I hope.