XFX 260 GTX gives no monitor display - 1 second beep

[Foxboxx]

Ok, I have posted this problem on multiple forums and have been in contact with XFX and EVGA. This seems to be a very obscure problem and I can't really think of anything else to try. Here's a link to my topic on eggxpert.com, in case I left anything out: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/517538.aspx

I have been using the same setup for over a year and have been using the XFX 8800 GTS 320mb. I decided to upgrade to the 260 GTX and purchased one from newegg.com about a week ago. While the Radeon X300 and XFX 260 GTX will not work, my XFX 8800 GTS 320mb works in both this computer and my older one.

When I put the XFX 260 GTX into my EVGA 680i SLI, I get a 1 or 2 second long beep and no monitor display. The 260 GTX's fan then starts up and everything sounds normal. It will continue to not give a monitor display and restart after about a minute. I have an old Radeon X300 that encounters this exact same problem with this motherboard. Both graphics cards work fine in my old computer's nForce Gigabyte 4 Series SLI. I have tested the 260 GTX in computer using this computer's PSU, and it works just fine. I have tried using the 260 GTX in this computer with only the CPU, motherboard, and the 260 GTX connected to the PSU, but still encounter the same problem.

When I put either the Radeon X300 or the 260 GTX in one of the SLI slots, it will give a monitor display. It will not get past the first screen, and it will tell me to place the graphics card into the single card slot.

XFX recommended I update my BIOS, so I am now on version P33 and noticed no change with my problem. EVGA recommended I fiddle with the 4-pin connector that is supposed to supply extra power for SLI setups, in an attempt to get the 260 GTX detected, but it didn't help any.



Specs:

Antec Trio Truepower 650watt

EVGA 680i SLI

Q6600 2.40GHz

4GB of DDR2 RAM (I can't remember the brand/details and am not sure how to check. I can do some digging if it's important)

I did the Microsoft memory test about a week ago when trying to figure out why I get screen tearing on some things. Did the normal test, and then did the extended test and left it on overnight. It found no problems.

Any help is very, very appreciated. I don't really know what else to try. I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to all this. If there's something wrong with this motherboard itself, why will the XFX 8800 GTS 320mb work? Could it possibly be a voltage problem? Somehow it's too much for the X300 and too little for the 260 GTX? I suppose that wouldn't give the exact same problem, though.

I'm just mumbling now.

Again, I greatly appreciate any help. I just can't figure this out.

 

[Foxboxx]

Ahh, why did I have to get such an obscure problem .

Alright, does anyone think it's at least safe to assume the problem lies with the motherboard?

 

[Proximon]

The quality of your help at eggxpert is lacking.

You do not add the amperage limits on your rails to calculate total 12V amperage.

Your PSU supplies 624 watts to the 12V, max. That is 52A, far more than is needed.
So, put any concerns you have there to rest.

I wonder what could be the difference in your cards? The only thing I could think is that your motherboard is claiming some memory addresses or interrupts that your cards need, but none of that is supposed to conflict.

You have flashed your BIOS so I would guess all the settings are default.

Do try with just one stick of RAM installed. Just a shot in the dark. We are looking for hardware level conflicts though. Take out any sound card. Disable any motherboard devices you are not using, such as serial ports, audio, etc. Disable wake-on-LAN. Every hardware device you can get away with, whether separate or part of your board.

You don't need a HD or optical to test for video signal, disconnect those.

Finally, one last idea:
Not all PCBs are created equal. Two cards MIGHT stress your PCI-E slot enough to cause a loss of connection, while the other card fits better and so the problem does not occur.

Physically inspect the slot and make sure the cards are all getting fully seated.

Here's another interesting thing. Your 8800GTS actually pulls more wattage at idle than the other two cards, although the GTX 260 pulls far more under full load.

Those are all the thoughts I have at the moment. somewhat random, but that's what works for me on the tough problems.

 

[Foxboxx]

Thanks for the response.

I've tried with a single stick of RAM connected and my audio card disconnected After I tested it in my other computer, I tried it in this one with pretty much everything disconnected except for the motherboard, CPU, and the 260 GTX. Two sticks of RAM and my audio card were in at the time, but since I've tried it with no audio card a single stick of RAM with both RAM sticks and encountered the same problem, I would assume that having the audio card out and a single stick of RAM in at the time I had everything disconnected wouldn't have changed anything?

I'm not sure what wake-on-LAN is. Do I disable it in the BIOS?

Whenever I'm working on my computer, I have an LED mini light that I check everything with before I turn it on. Everything looks to be properly seated.

 

[Kill@dor]

Go back in, make sure everything is mounted and seated properly. Make sure the cards are connected with the right PINS!!

Did you have drivers for the 8800GTS? You may have to uninstall the old driver, install the new ones.

One extra thing...in the BIOS, you might want to double check your power saving options. Your system suspension/standby/hybernation (forgot what its called in BIOS) options may be causing system locks. Reset defaults, save and exit.

 

[Foxboxx]

From what I can tell, everything is mounted and seated correctly.

I am currently on 260 GTX drivers (though, strangely, I haven't encountered any issues with my 8800 GTS, even though I uninstalled the 8800 GTS drivers and am running on the 260 GTX drivers). Before I even tried installing the 260 GTX, I downloaded the latest drivers for my motherboard and the 260 GTX, uninstalled all nVidia drivers (including the motherboard ones), and attempted to install the 260 GTX. I encountered the problem I am currently having.

I installed all the latest drivers and attempted to install the 260 GTX again. Same problem.

My options should be at default from updating my BIOS, correct?

Oh, slightly off-topic question. What does 'Comp on' do in the Advanced Chipset section of BIOS? It was disabled, but the description said I should have it set to auto for current operating systems.

I was in the Advanced Chipset section because someone suggested I set it to 'Halt on no errors' to see if that would do anything about my problem. It didn't, so I changed it back to 'Halt on all but keyboard'.

 

[Kill@dor]

If everything else works, except the 260GTX...i think its safe to assume there is a problem with it. Try double checking with the 8800GTS again, plug it in and see if the pc starts up. If it does turn on with your old card...i suggest you return the 260 for repairs/replacement. Usually when the motherboard beeps, there is something that is not connected. Since you check everything, check it one more time with the 8800GTS just to be sure its not all the other compenents.

Just a few more questions...when you did plug the 260 in, it was the first time of use, right? And it didn't work?

If your PC did turn on with the 260, did you change any settings? If it didn't turn on at all since first install, just ignore that question

 

[Foxboxx]

This PC has never worked with the Radeon X300 or the 260 GTX. They both work just fine in my old PC when powered by my current PSU. My old PC uses an nForce Gigabyte 4 series SLI.

The 8800 GTS is what I am currently using.

 

[Kill@dor]

I'm really starting to think something is wrong with it, but we haven't covered all the angles. I'm also going to go on a limb and suggest your PSU cannot support that card either...if you have another power supply, 700W or above, run it and see if it works. If i were you, i would go to a retail store, get a PSU for testing...or go to a computer store and ask them to plug a higher power PSU with the 260...and see if that works.

 

[Kill@dor]

Is it plugged in a 6-pin or 8-pin? I would get both plugged in to be safe... Try plugging a 8-pin only or a 6-pin only (each separate)...

 

[Foxboxx]

I powered the 260 GTX in my older computer with this PSU and it works fine in that computer. Besides, my Radeon X300 has the exact same problem in this computer and it is an old ATI card that should require very little power.

 

[Proximon]

Seems like it's the board.

Here's a guess, and I don't know anything for sure:

Your X300 needs power from the PCI-E slot.
Your GTX 260 needs power from the PCI-E slot.
Your 8800GTS can be powered from just the PSU directly. (Is that possible? not sure.)

To test my theory, if you could find another (third) PCI-E video card that does NOT use a power connection from the PSU, plug it in and see if it works.

Did you inspect the boards for bulging caps?

 

[Foxboxx]

I do not have another PCI-E card, and I do not notice any bulging caps.

Is there any tweaking you can do in CMOS to allow for it to use a single card in an SLI slot? Any way at all to bypass that dual card check at boot?

If that isn't possible, then dedicating a card to PhysX uses the SLI slots, right? Was just thinking I could maybe dedicate the 8800 GTS to PhysX and attempt to see if I can get past the first screen like that.

 

[Foxboxx]

EVGA tech support seems to think it's a problem with slot 1.

"I have been speaking with my other technicians on this and we do honestly believe the motherboard is bad. There will be only 3 real factors here: The cards themselves. They work on other computers fine, but some don't work on this board, and some of the ones you tried are brand new. The power supply. It can be a problem with the initial voltage on the power supply, but it doesn't seem to be a problem with only high end cards like the GTX260 as the X300 also does not work. The motherboard. For this you can use the other slots to test and do things like reduce the amount of other hardware in the computer to find conflicts and update the BIOS. The problem seems to be the #1 pci-e slot. The second and third do not show any symptoms correct? Only the top has issues? The second two should turn on but tell you to put it in slot #1. If the other two work like that and the top one works only with certain cards unfortunately the #1 slot is probably having problems. EVGA Technical Support"

If it is, I guess that would explain the screen tearing and stuttering I sometimes get on things I shouldn't, like videos and games with a low resolution (I'll sometimes get tearing on low resolutions in games and not higher ones).

Only problem with this, though, is I didn't remember to register within the first 30 days of my purchase, so I didn't get an extended warranty and my 1 year warranty expired on September, 2008 .

Bah, this stinks. I could just buy another 260 GTX and run in SLI, but I wouldn't feel very safe doing that on a motherboard that might be failing...

If I do have to buy a new motherboard, anyone have any recommendations on a good upgrade to the 680i for under $200?

 

[Proximon]

We don't really do Nvidia chipsets here because they tend to be problematic. If someone wants to SLI, we normally recommend an X58 board with an i7.
If you don't need SLI, grab a nice P45 board.

 

[Foxboxx]

Can you link me to some quality mid-range boards (that are a pretty good upgrade to my 680i) that I can use as a reference point, please? I honestly don't even know where to start.

Thanks for all your help with trying to figure out my problem. I really appreciate it.

It's a shame that it is most likely a hardware failure. I wasn't planning to upgrade this board for a long time.

 

[Proximon]

Do you intend to SLI or not?

 

[Foxboxx]

Probably never. I'm not really a performance enthusiast (though I do like seeing games on ultra, a single card can handle that well enough for me), and my current PSU only has 2 6-pin connectors anyway.

 

[Proximon]

Gigabyte UD3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

Very stable board. Good overclocker.

 

[Foxboxx]

I have never overclocked anything before.

So, based off its default settings, is it a good upgrade to the 680i? I am willing to spend up to about $180 (I believe that's what's left on the gift card I plan to purchase this with). Just wanting to make sure I'm getting something that will last me a while, and will not become a bottleneck too quickly.

Sorry if the questions sound a bit stupid. I know next to nothing about motherboards.

 

[Proximon]

I could give you a short answer, and I will, but you should take the time to read up on chipsets in my guide. It's linked in my sig or you can find it at the top of the new build forum.

The P45 is the latest, and last chipset for LGA 775. There will not be more, as there are no more LGA 775 CPUs planned.

Gigabyte released two boards that are second generation P45. By this it's meant that they were released after Gigabyte learned from the minor mistakes of the first gen.

The UD3P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358
Is the crossfire version.

The UD3R which I linked above is the non-crossfire version.

Here is a review of the UD3P
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3508

If you read my guide, and that link, I think you can decide for yourself.

 

[Foxboxx]

Nice guide. I'll give those boards some thought. Thanks

Seems there is one more thing I can try before being forced to buy a new board. EVGA says I can use my card in any slot (not just slot 1) if I flash to P31. I think that's what it says, anyway. Might be referring to my PhysX question.

"Yeah, all the cards function in the SLI slots. It tells me to put them into slot 1. Is there any way to bypass this? Like putting the 260 GTX and the 8800 GTS into the SLI slots and dedicating the 8800 GTS to PhsyX?
Answered By Shannon R (5/8/2009 11:59:54 AM): if you flash to the P31 bios you can use whichever slot you like. but as for the setup you require, you can put the 260 in slot 1 and the 8800 gts in the 3rd slot then in the nvidia control panel set teh target for physx as the 8800 card"

Switching from a newer version of BIOS to an older one shouldn't be a problem, right?

 

[Foxboxx]

Flashing to P31 and placing it into the PCI-E Expansion slot (the blue one) fixed the problem. The other SLI slot worked (I tested the slots using the Radeon X300, since it's smaller and doesn't require any rearranging to fit into place), too, but I couldn't fit my 260 GTX into it.

The blue slot works just as well as the black ones, correct?

 

[Proximon]

I think the blue slot is X8, so it might not be ideal. On a newer board, PCI-E 2.0 x8 is no big drop in performance. But this is PCI-E 1.0 x8.... so I'm not sure. I doubt you can really know without benchmarking yourself.

 

[Foxboxx]

Ugg, that's a problem though. The single slot doesn't work and I can't fit it into the bottom one .

I'm still in contact with EVGA, so I asked them. Hopefully it's x16.