Problems with GeForce 5600 FX 256MB

[brash]

Okay, so I upgraded from a nVidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB to a nVidia GeForce 5600 FX 256MB. I install the card, fire up the computer, install the drivers, and then reboot. Everything seems to be working fine. But then I load up a game (for the record, it was Galactic Battlegrounds), and the monitor goes black. But then, nothing happens. The program has fallen into a not-responding mode. I've tried this with many other games, but with similar results. Many games show black for a few minutes, and then play the music of the intro screen. It makes me think that the game is fully functional, but only displays black, but I'm not sure on that.

Addionally, I cannot play any video files. None at all. Winamp or Windows Media Player or Quicktime just lock up when I try to play a video file.

And here's the kicker. When I'm not trying to play a video or play a game, the computer runs as smooth as you can imagine. I don't get it.

I've installed all the newest drivers, I've turned of all other programs that might interfere (Norton), and tried everything. I can't figure it out. What do I do? Is this a hardware conflict or a driver conflict or something else? Or maybe the card's toast? Please help.

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700
Motherboard: Soyo KT333
RAM: 512MB
OS: Windows XP Home

 

[jiffy]

When I first got my GF4 I had a h3ll of a time getting it to work right with, my mojo was a 266A and I had before the GF4 came out or WinXP (I think). No matter what the problem was I always found the solution in the BIOS. Be it updating the BIOS, or having the BIOS set up right.

The first thing I had to do, just to get some stability was to disable the APIC, not sure how that stands today or your mobo, which you would have to format, but that’s what I had to do. Other things were kill cache, shadowing, fast writes, lower memory timing. And things like that which either made a problem go away or to be much more stable. I don’t know how old your mobo is, but I think it would be safe to say coming from a GF2 is a big step, and gosh darn it you better know your BIOS, because it may be more important to know it now, then say it would be when a mobo comes out after the FX’s been out a while.

I new my BIOS pretty well, but learned more and more, which took a little time. Now I have a P4P800 mobo and didn’t have to do much in the BIOS and my GF4 hasn’t caused me any troubles and my system has hiccup one, since I had it, though it’s only been a week or two, but who knows anything I install from here on out can raise h3ll.

Do you have at least a 300 watt PSU or better? I’d say that and the BIOS is what I would look into, from there I might check my IRQs, try taking out some PCI cards to see if that helps. You could even format and reinstall the OS and not load much of anything to help narrow it down, but like I said one change in the BIOS could be all it is. Also make sure you uninstall the previous driver and extract the downloaded driver with an unzipping program and manually install the driver by updating the driver in devise manager and pointing to the folder where you extracted the driver files. That’s what I would do before I RMA anything.

Good luck!



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When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jiffy on 06/24/03 08:59 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[eden]

You know what my opinion is on this?
Return that POS. A guy here had bought an FX5600 about a week ago, and had nothing but troubles. nVidia's FX line has the worst driver history to date in their line of cards.
Return it, do yourself a favor and get an equivalent less costly more performing Radeon 9600PRO. You will congratulate yourself.
Sounds like you fell to the 256MB hype... :redface:

--
If I could see the Matrix, I'd tell you I am only seeing 0s inside your head! :tongue:

 

[eden]

And you keep bashing ATi's instability.

--
If I could see the Matrix, I'd tell you I am only seeing 0s inside your head! :tongue:

 

[Robc1880]

it's possible that your cards refresh rates are set higher than your monitor can handle. You might want to compare them, this happens to be the case when the screen goes black while launching a game. If it's the case, you might need a new monitor.

Remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

 

[jiffy]

No that was the old me, I stop 2 minutes ago, seriously. One can’t yank one card and expect the other to work just the same, some knowledge is required. Guess that would be true for ATi as well. But like I said I’m getting off everybody back, and it’s everybody choice if they want to keep bashing.

***************************************
When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.

 

[pIII_Man]

One way to check if too high of a refreash rate is a problem, is to look at your monitors power light, if the refresh goes too high then the light will show that the monitor is in standby (by blinking the power light or the light changing colors). What PSU do you have (brand and max output)? You could disable some stuff in your bios, as already stated like fast writes. This was also already stated but the solution may just be a bios update, finally try to reseat the card, and if that doesn't work RMA it. Good luck!

 

[pIII_Man]

I forgot 1, i don't beleive your board has a locked AGP clock theirfore, if you are overclocking, your AGP speed beeing out of spec may be the cause of your problems, try to run back at stock speeds and see how it goes. Disregard if you are running at stock speed.

 

[brash]

Yeah, I guess I did fall for the 256MB hype. I just saw that and was like, "Sweet, this MUST be much better than Radeon!" Goddamn. Freaking FX. I'm going to play around with it a few more days and then I'm just sending the mother trucker back.

It's definately not the refresh rate, because my particular monitor actually displays a message telling me if it's getting a bad or no signal. Plus I can switch back to windows without the monitor readjusting. So the card is actually telling the monitor, "Just display black." Which leads me to believe it's a problem with the driver, not the hardware.

I initially had some problems with the driver, in fact. When installing from the CD, it told me it wasn't windows certified, and that I shouldn't install it. So I downloaded a more recent version from nvidia. It gave me no error message, but apparently it works just as well as the driver on the CD. I'm just going to put in my old card, send the new card back, and buy the Radeon equivilant. That's all I really can do at this point. It seems to be just shitty drivers.

 

[cleeve]

I'm still interested in finding out what this guys Power supply is rated at.

$hitty PSU's are the root of all evil!

------------------
Radeon 9500 w/256 bit memory bus @ 367/310
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3439

 

[GeneticWeapon]

I agree with Cleeve. When I installed my new Nvidia card yesterday, my monitor stayed black when I booted. This is the second GeForce that has done that to me. I pulled my soundcard out and it booted right up. My PS is new, and 350watts, but I'm deffinately having a power issue somewhere. I think the guy who started this thread is too.

"We need fangirls" - dhlucke

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Just a question, what brand PSU is it GW?


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[phial]

a 256meg 5600?


..............



HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

 

[phial]

reminds me of the 128meg MX400 that were for sale a while ago

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<A HREF="http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001355.html" target="_new">*I hate thug gangstas*</A>

 

[flamethrower205]

*cough* ati fanboy thread *cough*

All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Want a Halls/Vicks?

Read my posts a while back (especially the one specifically about the 5600-256). The FX5600-256 is a waste. The FX5600Ultra rev.2 Looks pretty damn good.

*Ack*, *Ack*! Sorry I had a Doonesbury in my throat! :lol:


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[eden]

Thank god you know how to alleviate troublesome threads' hormones man.

--
If I could see the Matrix, I'd tell you I am only seeing 0s inside your head! :tongue: