video card / mobo not work together, very odd

[thadbme]

I didn't realize that there were so many motherboards that were having problems with the 8X AGP. Does anyone know of any NForce2 boards that support 8X AGP, specifically the ATI flavor of them...

In theory there are many that work, but i've ran into a particular type that doesn't. I do want a high performance board, and the GA7N400 Pro 2 had everything i wanted, including 4 DDR slots incase i wanted to upgrade later, which is a rareity, but i'm wanting most of these features.

Next board i'm looking into is a DFI Lan Party, NFII i think is whats its official title is. Got really good reviews from anandantech, as did the GA7N400 (a slightly higher horsepower version atleast) ....

they were running Radeon 9800's in the test for it, i'm not getting why a 9700 doesn't work... I've babbled on enough... my new computer has been nothing but a headache lol! I'm going to heavily research the next mobo before I take the leap this time!

[thadbme]

After monkey'n with this for a few weeks and not having my new computer completely up to 100% I sent the motherboard, ram, processor, & video card off to a friend of mine so he could hopefully isolate the problem. He has a better area to test it with, not to mention tons of experience with gigabyte / ati combination, and even another Radeon 9700 AIW to test it with...

There was a problem with the power being supplied to this particular video card. He asked if I tested the card without power. My answer was no because video is an essential part of your computer, and this particular card needs power to work. Once powered on without the power plugged in the computer WOULD boot, but of course it would scream at you to plug in the power.

Upon testing my video card in the other machine with the other computer with the AIW, it worked. Upon testing my friends AIW with my setup it worked. So the solution was trading video cards, I'm happy, he is happy, and that makes me not feel like an idiot and couldn't fix computer problems. This is the first case i've ever heard of anything like this so its not an ID10T error if you know what i mean

Thanks for the help though!

[nihil]

Thadbme,

Many thanks for letting us know the final outcome. I was watching this with some interest, and it seems that it was a question of tolerances between the individual components?

I do recall some years ago having the same sort of thing with sound/videocard combinations in PII boxes, but that was more of a compatibility issue.

Tolerances worries me, as it suggests that kit is getting more sensitive and is not being so well made.

I would check your motherboard spec very carefully before splashing out on extra PC3200 memory. I have seen several MoBos that will not support more than 1 gig of PC3200, yet would take 2 or 3 gig of the slower stuff


Cheers, and thanks again.

[jeffs72]

Hm, I'll look into that as well. I suppose it is possible my power supply is the source of my frustration.