Did my Asus EN6600LE die as well?

[el_loco_avs]

I recently had my asrock mobo die on me and replaced it yesterday with an asus a8v-vm se. I had some issues reinstalling windows xp, but that was solved by removing everything but the main hdd and dvd.
Now when I try to put in my geforce 6600 card xp reboots after flashing a quick (i think) bsod during startup. The weird thing is that this is a clean install, i never put any drivers for the onboard videocard. And the reboot ALSO happens when I turn on the onboard videocard but leave the gfx card in.

I'm pretty stumped. It shouldn't be the psu cause it ran fine for almost two years with the old mobo. Drivers shouldn't be it. I installed the mobo drivers except the videocard ones.

What could be causing this?

My system:
Asus A8V-VM SE mobo
Athlon 64 3200+
1gb mem
Asus EN6600LE geforce
Samsung 250gb hdd

Any suggestions on where to look would be appreciated.
(i'm currently using memtest to check my memory)

 

[el_loco_avs]

Some additional info:

memory checks out good. no problem there.

the reboot also happens when you try to boot into safe mode. it doesn't seem to flash a blue screen but reboots regardless.

Is this almost surely a hardware issue? I had been thinking about replacing the gfx card anyway but a new PSU would also be needed. Kinda steep.

Anyone at least have an idea on which direction to look in?
Thanks in advance. I'm desperate.

 

[cleeve]

So you're sayiung the system runs fine using the onboard video when your 6600 is not installed?

 

[el_loco_avs]

So you're sayiung the system runs fine using the onboard video when your 6600 is not installed?

Indeed. That (awfully slow) onboard video works perfectly fine. It boots like a breeze!

 

[cleeve]

Check the BIOS... sometimes there is a setting you have to enable for Nvidia AGP cards that use a PCIe bridge (like the 6600).

I had an SiS chipset that wouldn't boot an Nvidia card unless I enabled it...

 

[F34R1355]

Start at the basics:
We can assume the card is not dead as it starts, shows video, and gets to windows. This would therefore indicate a software error.
In between the BIOS screen and the Windows XP press F8 and disable reboot on crash, not exact wording, should be similar. If it is indeed blue screening, then send the stop code, along with reason (if stated, should be near the top) and we can go from there.

Also make sure you have power enough to run it. Just because it worked fine in your old PC does not mean it will be fine in this one. Motherboards do differ in power draw. Also the old motherboard may have damaged the power supply when it did go.

If you do not wish to write back, or you want to make another attempt at fixing this before you write back. I would recommend that you start windows with the onboard video, and remove the drivers that you installed. Put the video card back in and start windows.

You may even try doing a repair install of windows with the card in the computer. To do a repair install of Windows, put the disc in. When you get to the point where it asks if you want to Install Windows, Enter Recovery console, or Quit, choose Install windows. It should then ask you to agree with the End User License Agreement, press F8 to continue. It should then scan for any existing versions of Windows, and in that list it should find your current install. Make sure that it is highlighted and press "R". From there it is just like a regular installation of Windows.

If you still have no luck then consider reinstalling Windows completely. The repair install does not uninstall any drivers.

If you feel that you will lose too much from reinstalling Windows then you can go a more advanced route and enter the recovery console and check what services are booting. Use the command "listsvc" at the recovery console prompt. If you are near another computer google search the name of all of the booting processes. If you are not near another computer then you may need to break out the old pen and paper. If you find a process that people are reporting as bad use the command "Disable {commandname}" to disable it. Or you could just copy all of the files that you want to keep to DVDs, flash drives, or portable harddrives.

If you still need some more advanced options I can provide them. I would not recommend going to a computer shop and having them look at it, unless you know that the store has some clue what they are talking about. A lot of the workers at computer shops would just install a new video card, not looking at the required specs. They would do this because they can charge you more, and not have to work to find the problem. Most of the stuff I get from people when the stores claim it is dead, are actually error free. I have actually got a customer who took there computer to BesyBuy after 2 hours of tech support from Dell. Both Dell and BestBuy claimed the harddrive was dead. It booted and said ntdlr corrupted or missing. Looked at the floppy drive, found a floppy disk, removed it started fine. I told him it was a free fix. I could have charged him a bench charge, but I would have felt guilty. He already paid $500 for nothing.
Public note to self: End ranting.

 

[el_loco_avs]

Alright thanks. I'll try this when I have some time tomorrow!

 

[el_loco_avs]

Okay. I get a stop message with the following numbers:

0x0000007b (0xf7a0a528, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Possible conflict somewere I guess. But I'm not sure what bios setting might be relevant.

Man I feel like a noob. Thanks for helping guys.

 

[el_loco_avs]

Start at the basics:
You may even try doing a repair install of windows with the card in the computer. To do a repair install of Windows, put the disc in. When you get to the point where it asks if you want to Install Windows, Enter Recovery console, or Quit, choose Install windows. It should then ask you to agree with the End User License Agreement, press F8 to continue. It should then scan for any existing versions of Windows, and in that list it should find your current install. Make sure that it is highlighted and press "R". From there it is just like a regular installation of Windows.

If you still have no luck then consider reinstalling Windows completely. The repair install does not uninstall any drivers.

I already reinstalled windows. no videocard drivers were installed. I also deinstalled the generic vga thing it loads before putting in the card and had no luck.

 

[el_loco_avs]

One more note,

the system also bsod'd while when booting from winxp cd when I tried to reinstall XP. It installed normally when I removed the videocard.

 

[F34R1355]

Stop 0x0000007b usually means I/O error or an IRQ conflict, both of which are resolvable. There are cases that raid devices will cause this error. Few cases the CPU is not functioning correctly, due to heat or damage. Fewer cases it is actually the video card.
Things to try based on the stop message: (Don't do all at once, you won't know what the problem was)

1. If you have an onboard raid controller and you don't use it disable it first. (I don't see this feature listed in the specs on your mobo)
2. If you have boot sector virus scan enabled in BIOS disable it. (Again, did not see this in specs.)
3. Load Fail Safe Defaults (In BIOS goto EXIT -> Load Setup Defaults -> Fail Safe Defaults)
4. Disable onboard non-essentials (BIOS -> Advanced -> SouthBridge Configuration -> ...)
Lan, HD Audio and USB should be non-essential
5. Enable PNP OS in BIOS (BIOS -> Advanced -> PCI PnP -> Plug And Play O/S = Yes)
-----------------------------------------

Still no luck, time to check hardware.
Take the video card out and try it in another machine. Maybe a friends?
Try a different PCI Express card.
If it works try a different processor. Perhaps a friend may have one.
-----------------------------------------

If this is still unsuccessful then try to update the BIOS.
-----------------------------------------

Please write back with your findings.

 

[el_loco_avs]

I will write back later this afternoon. Thanks a bunch!

 

[el_loco_avs]

*chuckle*

I tried turning off all the non-essentials. Turned the sata controller off. Enabled pnp os to no avail.

But loading setup defaults (there was no fail-safe sub-option) seemed to work! It just booted all the way!

I'm going to find the right nvidia drivers to install and such now.

I'm so happy! Thanks so much!

 

[F34R1355]

Glad to hear that it works. You are welcome.