System with X1900GT fails POST ... most of the time

[JeffTex42]

I've recently upgraded my GPU to a Sapphire X1900GT, and my system fails POST most of the time ... ~3 of 4 times. (Everything was fine with the Sapphire X600XT before the upgrade.) When it fails, the mobo beeps 8 times indicating a problem with the graphics card. When it works, it works. XP boots fine, and everything seems happy - particularly me.

I RMA'd the X1900GT thinking the card was DOA. I also upgraded the PSU to an Enermax Liberty 500 thinking there might be a power issue. Neither helped - same results.

Now I am on to the mobo. I've got Intel's Rapid BIOS Boot enabled, and I'm thinking that the mobo is ready to go before the X1900GT is ready, but I've really got no clue. I haven't tried to disable it yet, but will tonight.

Any ideas that might help are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

System:
Intel 915PBLL Mobo
Intel P4 3.2 Prescott
2x512 Mb Corsair DDR2-533
Enermax Liberty 500W
Sapphire X1900GT (Viewsonic VP930b)
1x SATA HD
2x Optical Drives
1x Floppy Drive

 

[JeffTex42]

Disabled the rapid boot option, and still the same thing. But now, it fails pretty much every time I try. So, unless somebody can give me an idea how to save it, it looks like I've got a dead box. I suppose a new motherboard is next in line. Any suggestions?

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

I had the same problem with my Intel 975XBX and a 1900XTX - worked fine for months, and one morning the thing would not POST - sometimes I would get it to POST, and it could ran for hours, other times only for a few minutes and then a complete freeze. Problem is I got no beeps, no screen, nada...

Tried everything (from booting with minimum cpu and PSU with ram etc), and I ended up buying an Asus mobo.... Been running now for two months on exactly the same components on my P5B, and no problem whatsoever.

In my case, I could only conclude the mobo being faulty either through my own wrong doing, or same stroke of bad luck.

 

[sruane]

That card needs to be down all the way into the slot and latched. Sometimes the back edge of the card will lift out of the slot when you screw the bracket into the case causing the machine to fail to POST.

And uh - you have the six-pin power plug connected, right?

 

[JeffTex42]

Yes ... it's installed correctly and the 6-pin PCIe power cable is plugged in. There's definately an incompatibility or a failure thing going on.

There's an extra 1x4 pin female connector on the motherboard (Intel 915PBLL) that the Intel tech spec (on p. 64) says isn't necessary if you use a 2x12 pin main power connector - which both of the PSU's I've tried have. They say to use the 1x4 if you've got a 2x10 main, but I've had it plugged in since I built the box ~1-1/2 yr ago without issue.

I tried the X1900GT tonight again without the 1x4 plugged into the motherboard, but it didn't work. I also tried my X600XT without the 1x4 and it didn't work either. When I plugged the 1x4 back in, I started getting the same POST failure with the X600XT. I'm afraid I've woke a sleeping monster.

I've got another motherboard on the way. I thought this X1900GT was a great deal (and it was for $150 with free Rainbow 6: LV). But so far I've bought a new PSU and now a new motherboard to try to make it work. Expensive upgrade.