Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Very strange video card problem (please help)

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
Anonymous
Graphics card Master

ok first off my system is as follows:
Jetway 720 BF motherboard
3 PCI Slots 2 ISA slots
SIS 620 onboard VGA chip
Intel Celeron 366mhz CPU
64 meg pc100 ram
4.3 gig quantum hard disk
Creative Vibra 128 soundcard
14 inch super VGA monitor

i have had this system for a little over a year, and in that time i have been using the onboard VGA chip, with no problems at all.

yesterday i decided to finally get with the times and buy a good fast 2d/3d card. I purchased a "Powercolor - 32 meg nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 PCI video card"

i went for PCI as my motherboard has no AGP slot.

i have disabled the onboard video on the motherboard by closing jumper "J5". as directed in my Mobo manual.

i have installed the Powercolor - nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 PCI video card.

The computer detects the card, and it says "Nvidia riva TNT2 Model 64
32.00 mb" when i boot the computer. A few seconds later my monitor no longer displays anything and goes into suspend mode, then a few seconds later it works again and displays the Windows 98 startup screen, then the signal fails completley and it goes into suspend mode. (windows has booted as if nothing is wrong, i just can't see anything!)

i've tried the new video card in all 3 PCI slots and removed all other cards from the system and the problem remains.


i have tested the card in pure dos mode, by loading up quake 1, the video seems to only fail and go into suspend mode when trying certain screen resolutions:

320 x 240: fails, 640 x 480: fails, 1024 x 768: fails

320 x 200: works, 640 x 400: works, 800 x 600: works


my monitor works perfectly in all resolutions with the old onboard video chip.

i have tested the Powercolor - nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 PCI in a friends computer and it worked with no problems at all.

can anyone help me with this problem?

More about : strange video card problem

Register or log in to remove
Graphics card Expert

sounds like driver issues same problem here a few months back with my sons comp.you MUST remove all old drivers and all old videocard INF. files. you may still be loading old video card drivers which will conflict with your new drivers.
Anonymous
Graphics card Master

Hey,

You have the same problem I had installing the All in wonder on my friends cpu. You MUST have all previous drivers removed. If nothing is working, reformat and go from there.

Timothy Stankus
One of the First AMD Athlon Users =)
Anonymous
Graphics card Master

Hmmm, not sure because he said he tried it on his
friends computer and it worked. It might be a hardware incompatability--but getting rid of all the drivers on
your HD is a very good idea.

Are there any jumpers on the video card itself?

Any additional settings in the BIOS you could change?

i.e.

-Disable ANY power management in your BIOS.
-You may have to have palette snoop ENABLED in your
BIOS (this setting fixes--or tries to fix--compatibility
issues with non-standard VGA cards)
-Are there any additional controls you haven't disabled for your onboard VGA adapter within the BIOS menu itself?
Related ressources
Ask the community

Ok, I had the the same problem, maybe it is the same as mine. Try to boot in Safe mode. If you can see something try lower your screen refresh rate/resolution, maybe your monitor dont support the settings your are trying. Good luck.
Anonymous
Graphics card Master

I am able to post on the forum because i switched back to the onboard video card.

i have played around with bios settings, which didn't help at all.

i am unable to boot in safe mode because 640 x 480 is a resolution that refuses to work,

i am unable to format and start again, becuse i can't even see the windows 98 setup screen, it refuses to work.

when my monitor goes blank, if i turn it off, then on again, i see my windows dekstop, but its flickering, then after 5 seconds the monitor goes into suspend,

this suggests to me thats its a refresh rate problem,

the video card manual says it sends out a signal at 60khz by default which all monitors should be able to handle.

my monitor is very happy to work at 60khz in all resolutions with the old onboard video card.

i have also tested another monitor with my system which had the same flickering problem.

lots of people are telling me its a motherboard problem, i have flash upgraded the motherboard to its latest version. this hasn't helped.

i have also e-mailed the motherboard manufacturer, but received no reply.

if it was a motherboard problem, wouldn't it just refuse to work all together? instead of working perfectly in some resolutions but not others?

if i was to go out and buy a new motherboard what garuntee would i have that the video card would work in the new mobo? i can't really ask to try out my video card in the motherboard before i agree to buy it.

this problem is so frustrating,

i am going to borrow another PCI video card, and test it out, if that flickers also, then i'm 100% sure its a motherboard problem, if it works fine then i have no idea what to do.

i can't really return a working video card just because it doesn't like my system. or can i?


ARGHHH!!!

Alright calm down and take a deep breath. Now that your calm, ask yourself, "Is there anything on this drive that I REALLY need." If the answer is no then go ahead and format your drive and reinstall everything, I bet this works. When you instal the VGA driver only install the PCI card driver. If the answer is yes, then return the vid card. You can return it for compat probs because the vendor is supposed to list any compat probs on their site or the salesman should have told you. Hope it works out for you.

you also may want to try and remove the onboard video in your windows operating system. go to your system properties box (right click on "my computer" and select "properties") then hit the device manager tab. in this section you should be able to find your display adapter and remove it then reboot and you should be in buisness. you may need to reload your new cards drivers afterwards.

hope that helps
Anonymous
Graphics card Master

I think i know what this is.Firstly Jetway mobo oh dear.
It's your mobo the main problem with it is voltage to pci slot.The jetways are renowned for having a 0.4v drop rate and the card in question needs 3.3v to run i belive so therefore even though you disable the on board sis it is still drawing current.Hum new mobo me thinks.
And yes you should be able to take your card back as there is a incompatibilty issue....just be nice and they might give you an alternative say a Matrox G400 which will work on that board I know there old but there still good and Matrox still post drivers for them :) 

MADASAFISH
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Graphics & Displays categories
!