I've about had it....(video problem)

Okay. It's a long story, but I'll try to abbreviate.

I had an AMD XP 1700+ system, running on an ASUS A7V266-E/AA mb. Well, after 3 years of use, it decided it didn't want to power on anymore. I got a new case with a generic 400W ps (yes, I have sinned). System would now power on, but wouldn't recognize the RAM (266MHz DDR). So, I picked up some new RAM (also 266 MHz DDR) and a new mb (ASUS A7V8X-X). System now powers on and detects all devices. Hurray! Not so fast......

Video is now the problem. I cannot do anything that requires 3D video. As soon as I load a game, say NHL 2004 or Sims 2, my machine locks. I have tried 3 versions of drivers, everything is the same. Here is my current hardware:

ASUS A7V8X-X motherboard (Award BIOS 1013)
AMD Sempron 2400+
1 GB PC2100 (266MHz DDR) RAM
MSI FX5700LE TD128 (nvidia fx 5700 w/ 128 MB DDR)
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 sound
16x DVD drive (Acer I think)
LG 24x10x40x CD-RW drive
60 GB Maxtor UATA
20 GB Quantum Fireball UATA
floppy drive
running Windows ME (yeah yeah, I know, XP is better)

Everything worked flawlessly when I had the old motherboard and cpu (asus a7v266-e/aa and amd athlon xp 1700+) with 512 MB PC2100 DDR and FX5200 w/128 MB video. Everything else was the same.

I reinstalled Windows and other than the 3D problem, everything is running super. What am I missing? Is the new power supply just not enough? The old one was also a generic 400W that had no problems.

I do have another system I could test the video card in, but it's a machine I set up for my wife's birthday so she could play Sims 2 better (athlon 64 3500+ based system, awaiting nvidia 6800 GT w/ 256 MB video) and it doesn't have an OS on it yet (which will be XP Home w/ SP2), and I don't want to unveil it prematurely if I can avoid it. Or would I be chasing a wild goose by testing the video card?

Any help or suggestions to point me in the right direction would help. Thanks.

 

Hi,

I would check the ram with memtest86 first, let run for at least 3 passes and remember any error is no good.

As far as the psu, 400 w should be enough but some generic psu can be flaky and don't have stable voltages on some of the rails that todays mobo's need. Could be the problem but I would guess ram first.

how are your temps?

Run prime95, it don't test video cards but does test cpu,mobo,ram,psu, and heat. Same thing any errors and there is a problem with one of them and not the video card.

Rick

 

Okay, ran memtest86, 3 passes and no errors. Ran prime95, no errors no warnings. Test ran for just under 24 hours.

temps: CPU 48C/118F, MB 29C/84F
fan speeds: CPU 3276 rpm, chassis 2636 rpm
unable to find video card fan speed or temp, MSI 3D Turbo application does not tell me, only lets me adjust memory speed and core clock speed, and I'm not convinced it even saves the changes.

voltages: +12V - 12.3V (OK), +5V - 4.999V (should be close enough to be OK), +3.3V - 3.0V (may be cause for concern), Vcore - 1.648V.

The only problem I can see here is the +3.3V being somewhat low (down about 10%), but not horrible.

Anything else I can check?

 

As a reminder, the components which have changed since the problem first started:

CPU, Athlon 1700+ XP to Sempron 2400+
Motherboard, ASUS A7V266-E/AA to ASUS A7V8X-X
Case and power supply, from generic 400W to another generic 400W
Video card, GeForce FX5200 w/128MB to GeForce FX5700LE w/ 128 MB (although problem has shown on both video cards in the new setup).

Is it the +3.3V that feeds the AGP slot? Cause that could explain why it freezes when doing 3D. I'm thinking the total wattage requirement goes up when 3D kicks in, or am I way off?

 

I don't know, I will look into it and get back to you. That does make sense though, you did a very good job of running those tests and prime should have shown a error if the psu is not supplying enough voltage on that rail.

I am sort of stumped here cause everthing points to the video card but if you tried two different cards that is highly unlikely.

You could try uping the northbridge voltage a little if your bios has that option, it may give the agp bus more voltage.

I did check into the cpu, mobo and ram combination and everthing is supported

Rick

 

One other thought, do you have all the M$ updates?

 

Yeah, I ran all the MS critical patches when I reinstalled. The sad thing is, everything is running much faster than before, except for the 3D.

There's no hardware conflicts either. Device Manager shows everything working A-OK.

 

UPDATE: I've about had it....(video problem)

Well, while fiddling around with my system last night, I discovered that the power supply that came with my new case is only a generic 350W ps, not a 400W as was told to me. I should have checked. So, I'm almost certain that is the problem now. I'm going to pick up a new 420-430W ps today and swap that in. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

SOLVED! I've about had it....(video problem)

SOLVED! Power supply didn't cure it, but I was double checking the core voltage for the Sempron 2400+ on the AMD website, and they must have updated their page since it says that the Semprons are all 333 MHz FSB. Since my RAM was only PC2100 (266 MHz), it was not co-habitating very well with the new cpu during 3D applications (data transfer likely too slow!). I took out my 1 GB of PC2100, put in 512 MB of PC2700 (333 MHz), and voila!

Thanks for the tips though!

 

Glad to here the good news, I checked on the pc2100 and your mobo cause I new it was a little slow for that system but the mobo supports that ram. Banging my head right now because I know for greatest system stability the cpu and ram need to run insync, (same speed).

I always recommend to run them insync when there is stability issues but most of the time the ram is overclocked, I just overlooked the underclock of the ram in your case. We should have tried underclocking the cpu to see if that worked, then I would have realized it was the ram.

Anyway glad you figured it out and posted back your results. I will put this one in my memory bank

Rick

 

Re: SOLVED! I've about had it....(video problem)

Hey BBYZED, do you want to sell that pc2100? you can PM me if ya do!