help - problems installing 8800gt

[daviduk109]

hello. I bought a reasonably priced msi geforce 8800gt today (to replace my ageing 7800gt) and have just spent the last few hours trying to install it, but without any success. The computer manufacturers from where I bought the card are reputable and I have no reason to believe the card is faulty. The card physically installs ok and everything slots into place and plugs into where it should do (including the psu). However when I switch the computer on, the machine hesitates for a few seconds and then lets out a single 'beeeeep' followed by 2 shorter 'beep' 'beep' and thats it. I have now put my old 7800gt card back in, and the machine went therough some routine about 'checking disk integrity' and all the rest of it, but still managed to start up ok and here I am! I suspect the motherboard bios has reset itself, as the clock showed the date and time to be sometime in 2005 (the date of the motherboard bios). This prevented my from signing into msn messenger, but that problem is now resolved.

Could the problem be with my motherboard bios?

The rest of my system spec is:

Athlon 4800x2 (socket 939)
A8N-E (motherboard)
psu 550w
2gb standard ram
windows xp

Do I just need to swallow my pride (and be without a computer for a week) and take the machine to the computer manufacturers from where I bought the card and ask them to install it?

Thanks!

 

[rubix_1011]

Did you check the motherboard manufacturer's manual/site to see what the POST beeps represent?

Maybe the card is stressing your PSU, depending on the model and age. They don't last forever.

 

[daviduk109]

not sure what the beeps mean - it sounded very much like morse code!

 

[wingmaster]

I've got an ASUS A8N-E mobo and a BFG 8800GT OC which installed and ran fine. I'm pretty sure its the revision 2.0 don't know if that would make a differance or not. BIOS version 1010 so that or beyond should be good to go for the 8800GT as mine runs fine.

 

[daviduk109]

this is what it says on the asus site about upgrading bios:

A8N-E Bios version 1013
Please do read the description before updating BIOS
To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For WinXP 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later
For Win2k/2003 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
For Win2003 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later
1- Fixed system hangs on POST while installing some PCI-E x16 VGA cards.

so from this, i guess i need to download and update chipset drivers v6.65 or later, before updgrading the bios to version 1013?

 

[wingmaster]

Was wondering what BIOS version your running now. Hope upgrading helps your problem,post back and let me know. Do you know of anyone or have another computer to test that card in to make sure its not the card?

 

[daviduk109]

decided i'll probably take it to place that i bought card from, they did offer to fit it in the first place. just means i'll be without computer for a few days and it may cost me £30 lol. will be worth it though if it can last me 2 years or until next version of windows is out.

 

[daviduk109]

Just thought to provide an update to this. I took computer and card to the repair place (from where I bought the card in the first place) and left it with them for a week. They told me that the card was faulty and thats why I wasn't able to install it properly. So they fitted a new 8800gt and didn't charge me for it. They said that they also updated the bios. So I got a new 8800gt professionally fitted for £125. The repair place also sorted out a problem with my pc whereby the computer had problems starting up from 'standby' mode, so I'm happy with that as well. Also, all the messing about with it has now unlocked the bios, so that I now have the option of overclocking the Athlon 4800x2, for what its worth (this option wasn't available to me before). The only thing I'm not happy with is that the more modern nvidia graphics cards won't run certain older games, including medieval: total war1, which a few other people are not happy about, judging by the heated discussion going on over at the totar war central forums (moderators had to step in and ban certain people from posting about it - see here: www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=168834&page=4 )

Anyway I just got round to running 3dmark06 with everything set to standard and it scored 8958, so just shy of 9000. I guess the older processor is holding things back.