Computer Help Thread

t3ice · Post by **t3ice** » 07 Jan 2007, 12:59

@ darknight : ins't ur 6800 agp 8x too?!
Anyways that dosent seem to be problem, and i think what prince said is right, that
u will need to reinstall windows..to sort of reinstall ur mobo...OR im completely Wrong!

Stereo · Post by **Stereo** » 07 Jan 2007, 16:36

darknight788 wrote:im pretty sure they are backwards compatible. arent they

If the card says 4x/8x then it is. If it only says 8x, you better make sure its backwards compatible... My FX5200 and Radeon 9600XT cards worked fine with my 4x-only slot, and the cards were 4x/8x...

weedman173 wrote:I don't have experience with AGP, but wouldn't that make a difference having an 8x in a 4x slot?

No, because its still the same AGP 2.0 slot with the same voltage.

@dark:You might have a bad AGP slot... Maybe its not the required voltage that your new gfx wants... I dont know too well about AGP but I've used two cards and researched a little about them and AGP.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 07 Jan 2007, 16:46

Newer cards are keyed in a way that they won't fit into a slot that doesn't supply the necessary voltage. So I doubt it's the voltage difference that's causing it. And even if it were, you wouldn't get past BIOS and into the Windows boot menu. You'd either get a low level error before going into POST, or your computer wouldn't power up at all.

If you can boot into Safe Mode, do so and uninstall the old graphics card (plug that one in). Now shutdown and plug in the new card. If you still can't boot into normal Windows, try booting into Safe Mode again. In safemode, run the driver installation program. Now if you still cannot boot into normal Windows, it's time for a reinstall.

Carcrazy · Post by **Carcrazy** » 07 Jan 2007, 17:40

It sounds like you have an OEM version of windows... do you because if so that would be the problem. Trust me. I got screwed out of windows by an OEM.

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:28

the card's box only says agp 8x. could that actually be the problem ? while i was at the store i saw a 7800 GS OC that was 4x/8x it said right on the box.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:34

What's your new card? Try to find out if it's backwards compatible.

What's your motherboard? Are you sure it doesn't support AGP 8x?

Can you boot Windows into Safe Mode?

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:41

i think the 8x thing might be problem

every other card ive had has always been 4x/8x now im tempted to buy that 7800 GS OC it is like 300 something dollars at bestbuy and it says right on the box 4x/8x but if i return the 7600 GS i get a 200 dollar store credit

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:58

The BFG Tech, XFX, and nVidia 7600 GS cards are indeed backwards compatible, as far as I can tell.

Once again, if your AGP port was the problem, you would not even get to the Windows boot menu, which you obviously are. Can you boot into Safe Mode? The answer is key in identifying the problem.

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 07 Jan 2007, 20:13

i can try btw it is a pny verto
EDIT --- stupid question but how do you boot into safe mode (normally)

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 07 Jan 2007, 20:21

Wow, turns out the PNY Verto version of the card is indeed incompatible with AGP 4x. That is very strange.

Ok, are you 100% sure your motherboard doesn't support AGP 8x? The reason I'm asking is because you shouldn't have been able to get to the Windows boot menu due to the interface incompatibilities.

Keep trying with Safe Mode. Press F8 as soon as your POST is finished. Better yet, keep mashing the F8 key as soon as you turn on the computer. This will get you to the boot menu. Just choose Safe Mode from there.

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 07 Jan 2007, 20:27

im pretty sure it doesnt or unless agp 8x was around 5+ years ago. ill try booting in safe mode. boot into safe mode with the new card in the agp slot right ?

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 07 Jan 2007, 20:32

Yeah. I've been doing a bit more research, and it seems that an AGP 8x card should work on an AGP 4x motherboard regardless of whether the card says 4x/8x.

Basically, this is how it works. The different speeds signal at different voltages. AGP 4x signals at either 0.8v or 1.5v. AGP 8x signals only at 0.8v. But since AGP 4x has the capability to signal at 0.8v, most AGP 8x cards are backwards compatible. This is also why you'll see AGP 4x/8x, but never AGP 2x/8x, because 2x and 8x signal at vastly different voltages.

Read more here.

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 08 Jan 2007, 03:13

ok i cant boot into safe mode either

. im trying some home made cooling here for my old card. what i have tried is taking a motor out of a portable cd player and soldered the wires from the original fan onto it and i found a prop from a r/c airplane and put it on the end of the shaft and set the motor in industrial glue where the original motor was. the fan should be noticeably stronger and faster aswell as louder but it was already loud .... i have tested to see if it works by just flipping the switch on the psu and it does work and now im just waiting for the glue to cure.
so it wont boot into safe mode either. what could be the problem then ? my old card never had a problem with this but yet i put the new card in the comp im on right now with a 300 W power supply and a amd 3200 + and atleast this comp knows it is there

weedman173 · Post by **weedman173** » 08 Jan 2007, 04:11

I looked on a few sites and it says that the minimum requirement is a 300 Watt psu. So your running on the bare minimum, so if you have a lot of other things you might not have enough power.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 08 Jan 2007, 05:06

If it's not booting into safe mode, it's probably a bad hardware problem, most likely an IRQ conflict (which is wierd considering you didn't reinstall your motherboard).

If your graphics card itself was busted, you would not get past POST. More than likely you would get a blank screen from the beginning. Or you would get an error message saying that your card was busted.

If the problem was cooling, booting into Windows would not cause a problem. Windows runs in 2D mode, which is the absolutely least extensive on any graphics card.

There are a lot of factors to consider here. Firstly, you have an AGP 4x slot and are doubtful whether your new graphics card supports AGP 4x. To figure out if this is the issue, simple plug in the older card (if you have one) or plug your newer card into an AGP 8x computer. If either of those two works, you need an AGP 4x compatible card.

Next, as weedman suggested, you're running the bare minimum power supply recommended by the manufacturers of the card. This may cause a problem. You could try booting your system with the bare minimum (i.e. one hard drive and no peripherals). Or you could try a more powerful power supply. Incidentally, does your motherboard have a 4-pin power connector in addition to the normal power connector?

If you have a Windows installation CD, put it into the drive and boot the computer. When it asks to boot from CD, do so. If you see everything working and Windows Bootable loads, then you know your problem isn't with the graphics card. At this point, I would suggest a fresh reinstall of Windows. If this is not an option, then find a miniPE bootable disk and run some diagnostics on your computer hardware. The Linux-based DSL is a very good bootable OS for this kind of job.

Try what you can. Let us know what happens.

Stereo · Post by **Stereo** » 08 Jan 2007, 05:21

Try Ubuntu. It's a linux OS and it can boot directly from a CD. Its free to download aswell.

If you have a normal AMD/Intel processor (non-64-bit) then go here to download:
Around 700MB download, so be patient...

If you have a 64-bit processor then go here:
Also near 700MB - 64-Bit PROCESSOR ONLY -

EDIT: Well I figured out what DSL means... Damn Small Linux. It's a 50MB download so I reccomend that if you don't want to use linux frequently. Heres a linky. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 08 Jan 2007, 06:37

i know it is not a power issue b/c the comp that the card somehwat works in has the 300 W psu. the comp im trying to get it to work in has a 500 W psu. i think i might just end up getting a cheap new comp with a good motherboard and add all of my stuff to it. the older card does work and it is 4x compatible but i specifically asked one of the slaes reps if this new card was compatible with 4x even tho it doesnt say anything about 4x on the box just 8x. im really tempted to buy that 7800 GS that says right on the box agp 4x/8x

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 08 Jan 2007, 13:08

Hmmm, check your PSU, it might be faulty.

t3ice · Post by **t3ice** » 08 Jan 2007, 13:33

Yea..i think its prolly a bad psu, because i had a similar problem with my 6800 GT when i had replaced my Psu with a cheap one and all that would load was the bios and then the computer would suddenly restart when it had to load windows...i too had the card RMA'd but it wasnt the cards fault ...

And yeah, it didnt work in Safe mode either...and also ..ISNT UR 6800 AGP 8X AS WELL ???

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 08 Jan 2007, 17:39

yea it is 8x but also 4x compatible
@ t3ice did it flash a yellow screen and then the monitor shut off ? if it wasnt getting enough power wouldnt it say that it wasnt getting enough power and then it would down clock the gpu. at least thats what my comp did before way back when i had a 6600 and didnt plugin the power cable.
EDIT --- hertes the weird thing, the comp that the new card works in has a 300 W psu, well i took that psu and put it in the comp that i want to put the new card in a i still get the same thing but i put the 300 w psu in the comp it came in and it works

i think its something with my mobo

Neoned · Post by **Neoned** » 10 Jan 2007, 00:40

I have a 7300 LE.I think its good what you guys think ?

2fast4all · Post by **2fast4all** » 10 Jan 2007, 00:42

Its ok for gaming at 800x60 or 1280x768. My 6600GT can beat that lol.

Stereo · Post by **Stereo** » 10 Jan 2007, 01:35

The thing that sucks about my 7900GS is that in Halo, the Active Camo doesn't look shiny as it did on my Radeon 9600XT... Weird. But even weirder, is that other versions of the 7900 (like GTX or GT) can view it as shiny. And yes I have detail to the max... (Including Spectrals) Any way to fix this? Because when I play online I can barely see the camo'ed guys... Its like a 2% opacity...

Jmac- · Post by **Jmac-** » 10 Jan 2007, 03:14

Neoned wrote:I have a 7300 LE.I think its good what you guys think ?

It sucks ... Worst card in the 7000-series ...

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 10 Jan 2007, 07:06

i thought the 7100 GS was ?