help with new mobo and gfx card?

i got a new nvidia gfx card a while back, but i couldnt use it because my mobo didnt have support for 8x agp, so i went out and bought a cheap mobo made by elitegroup from newegg.com, it has phoenix bios. the mobo got here and i installed it and now im having some wierd problems:

the gfx card is in the agp slot and the monitor plugged into the gfx card, but all that comes up are a bunch of funny colored lines when the comp starts... then it hangs. I tried pulling an old pci gfx card out of another computer(the new mobo doesnt have onboard video) and looking around the bios setup for a way to change it to use 8x agp, but i couldnt find anything.

i let it try to load windows, but windows gives me an error about my hard drive not working and that it stopped loading so it wouldnt cause damage to my system.

so i tried booting up with a livelinux cd(phlak), which works fine(im posting this message with it), but it gives me a strange error when it first starts to load: it says "error: only one processor found".

Quote:

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it says "error: only one processor found"

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this is normal, you can forget about this message.

if you have an 8x AGP card on a 4x AGP mobo, the card will just run at 4x. so you could check it with your old mobo.
it looks to me like your card or your new mobo might been broken. therefore i suggest you try the card on your old mobo, and if that works i think your mobo might be broken.

However, it is also possible that you have a compatibility problem. meaning: your card and mobo could both be fine, but they might not work with eachother.

on thing is for sure. i doubt it will have anything to do with your bios settings...

I guess that you are using WinXP? is it up to date?

What is the model of MoBo?

XP and video cards is a problem I have encountered several times before :(

Please check to see if there is a new set of drivers for the video card..........trust me, I once had one that was 4 weeks old from manufacture, had problems and found that there was new driver software that fixed the problem!!!!

BIG QUESTION:

Can you boot to Windows in safe mode?

Lepricaun has a point..............it seems that your video card is 4x to 8x............if your MoBo is ?x to 4x it might actually be 3.75x or something, and you will have problems.

The HDD problem sounds like something else. I would try the repair Windows option from the CD (boot from CD, install, repair option)

Try with the old PCI card and delete the card in hardware manager, then re-boot and let Windows "discover it" it might be trying to use the nVidia drivers? Remember, you may need the drivers for the PCI card as well.

Please let us know how you get on

well, the reason i got the new mobo was cuz i couldnt get the gfx card to work on the old one, it was doing the funny lines thing and everybody i talked to said i had to have a mobo that supports 8x agp for it to work. the problem is that even the bios cant use the card right, it comes up and is clearly going through the boot up screens, but it cant draw them right and ends up with the funny lines. now its doing the same thing on the new mobo... its a nvidia fx 5600 256mb card and its got some kind of lifetime insurance so i guess they have to back it up. i cant get windows to come up in safe mode, but i can mount the hd with phlak and browse my hd with no problem, i think windows is just being screwy, so im really most concerned with making the card work or seeing if its broken, i guess im gonna have to wait a while before i can talk to customer service if it's broken.. stupid columbus

well, i fixed the windows problem with a fresh install and the "only one processor found" error from phlak i guess doesnt matter so the only problem now is getting this gfx board up and running. i had heard that the gfx card should have worked with my old mobo, only at 4x agp speed, but the people at pny technologies(the distributor of this particular card) insisted that the problem was with my mobo and not the card, thats why i went out and bought this new mobo... do you think it would be reasonable do ask for some kind of compensation in replacing the card(maybe a little upgrade?) because their support people caused me to buy a $100 mobo for no reason?

i dont think this is likely to be a compatibility problem because i tried installing this card on two different mobos from two different companies with different chipsets, etc. and it hasnt worked. im taking it over to my friend's house today to test it on his comp, he has an old hp pavillion.

As far as I know, AGP 8x is backwards compatible all the way back to AGP 1x. The only issue is the voltage the card signals at, be it 3.3v or 1.5v. ( http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/...atibility.html )

What you should probably do is return the parts you can, and look at a different video card that is 100% compatible with your computer. I think most of the retailers will accept the parts back from you and refund most of your money. Good luck.

how do i know what voltage the card signal is at and what voltage signals my mobo can handle?

That video card is keyed as a Universal AGP card, since it has both the 1.5v and 3.3v keys; it will work at either voltage. The "key" is the hole in the pins where the card connects to the motherboard. Most motherboards are keyed for 1.5v. This is the plastic tab thing on the right side-ish of the slot if the left side is the back panel.

I guess a general rule is that if the card fits in the motherboard, the voltages are compatible because it is physically impossible to put a card into a motherboard that is keyed differently. (Okay, it is possible, but it wouldn't work well :p)




It is probably the video card that is at fault here. Maybe try the card out in a friend's computer to see if it works there? If it doesn't work, send it in for warrenty/refund.


Although, if it works in his computer, you'll need to list some more specs about your computer. Mainly, how many HDD's you have and what RPM they are, CD-ROM drives, CPU, how much RAM, how many fans, and all of the information you can provide on your computer's "Power Supply Unit" or PSU.

well, i never got to put it in his comp, but im gonna call customer service at pny to see about a replacement/refund the card came with some kind of orange paper that said "lifetime warranty" on it.