, i guess my 9800GTX is DOA

[V3LCR0]

I recently just sold my X1800XT which was working just fine in my computer, i then recieved my new step up evga 9800GTX yesterday, and decided to put it in my case and give it a shot. I out the video card in, made sure both the power connectors were plugged in correctly and turned the computer on. Nothing shows up on the monitor, no post at all. I checked to make sure nothing was wrong by doing these steps:

1. I reset the bios to make sure everything is back to normal
2. I moved my video card to a different pic express slot, and there was still no post.
3. I called the guy that orginally ordered my X1800XT to see if it would still work in my case after i had put in my 9800GTX, and yes the X1800XT works just fine.
4. Later on today i am going to a buddies house and putting my 9800GTX in his computer to make sure the problem really is the video card.

This is my rig so far

Amd Opteron 165 (CPU)
Dfi Lanparty Ultra-D NF4 (Motherboard)
OCZ Gamestream 750W (Power supply)
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit (RAM)
Razer Deathadder (Mouse)
Samsung 226BW (Monitor)
9800GTX (which i believe is DOA)
Steelseries 5H (headset)
Antec P160 (Case)
Thermaltake Big Typhoon (Heatsink)

So basically i called up evga, talked with their customer support for their video cards. I told them what i had done to try and troubleshoot the problem, basically i told them what they would have asked me to do. The question is, do you guys have any input as what the problem seems to be? If anything is unclear please let me know, thanks.

 

[v8envy]

It would really suck if the 9800GTX (PCIe 2.0 compliant card) fails to work with older board like yours. Plugging it into your buddy's machine may help if he's got a fresher chipset and/or BIOS. But if his board&BIOS is from 2006 as well you may be out of luck.

I'd offer the use of my P35 DS3L if you're anywhere near the Denver area, but 1. kids and pets and 2. I'm ashamed of my cable management.

 

[chizow]

Few things to try:

1) Try different DVI outputs. Seems simple enough but its shocking to see how many problems involve DVI outputs and POSTing.

2) Look to see if your board has problems with PCIe 2.0 cards. You may need to update your board's BIOS or the video card in order to get them to work properly together.

3) Try connecting different power connectors from your PSU. Some PSU recommend using 2 connectors from the same rail, others recommend using 1x6 and 1x8 from different rails for single cards.

4) Trying the 9800GTX in someone else's machine will certainly go a long way to seeing if the problem lies with the card or your rig.

 

[V3LCR0]

Originally posted by: chizow
Few things to try:

1) Try different DVI outputs. Seems simple enough but its shocking to see how many problems involve DVI outputs and POSTing.

2) Look to see if your board has problems with PCIe 2.0 cards. You may need to update your board's BIOS or the video card in order to get them to work properly together.

3) Try connecting different power connectors from your PSU. Some PSU recommend using 2 connectors from the same rail, others recommend using 1x6 and 1x8 from different rails for single cards.

4) Trying the 9800GTX in someone else's machine will certainly go a long way to seeing if the problem lies with the card or your rig.

Thanks a lot for the info guys, i will try these steps out once i get off work.

 

[V3LCR0]

Originally posted by: v8envy
It would really suck if the 9800GTX (PCIe 2.0 compliant card) fails to work with older board like yours. Plugging it into your buddy's machine may help if he's got a fresher chipset and/or BIOS. But if his board&BIOS is from 2006 as well you may be out of luck.

I'd offer the use of my P35 DS3L if you're anywhere near the Denver area, but 1. kids and pets and 2. I'm ashamed of my cable management.

I live in california, nice of you to offer that though, thanks anyway.

 

[SergeC]

Have you checked for BIOS updates for your MB?

 

[Keysplayr]

Are you getting any beep codes? One long and three short for example? Or are you just getting dead air?
And, do you notice any hard drive activity (as if the OS is actually loading).

 

[Rinaun]

V3lcr0 was just over and tested the card in my rig. the card definitely works, so we're thinking either PSU (guess) or Motherboard. It's just that the board worked fine with an 8800gts, so it shouldn't just _not_ work with that card.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Rinaun
V3lcr0 was just over and tested the card in my rig. the card definitely works, so we're thinking either PSU (guess) or Motherboard. It's just that the board worked fine with an 8800gts, so it shouldn't just _not_ work with that card.

Don't most card beep when they don't get enough juice? I know the first time I installed my 3870 X2 I didn't insert the 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe adapter enough into the line coming from the PSU, and the card (or system) started beeping like crazy.

 

[Rinaun]

I'm thinking maybe bad voltage on one of his pcie rails, but this is coming from someone who has little experience with voltages and the such. That, or his mobo somehow by fluke doesn't support (currently) that card.

 

[V3LCR0]

Yea i went over to Rinauns house, the card works just fine. I was thinking it was the power supply, but i believe the power supply is just fine. I just believe there is no update for the bios that actually knows the card is existing. There are no beeps coming from the motherboard, only 1 red LED that comes up after the boot has happened for about 5 seconds. The computer is kind of old, and now i will need to probably upgrade my motherboard, cpu, and ram, case, and probably heatsink. I am an overclocker so i believe i would want to get the Q6600 cpu, but i am not sure what motherboard would be great for overclocking a quad core, i havent been looking into motherboards much for intel, so i am not up to date at the moment. As for ram i will most likely getting 4 gigs of ram. Any input on this would be great, thanks.

 

[V3LCR0]

Oh and by the way there was no beeps at all when starting the computer, there is just no post.

 

[daveybrat]

Originally posted by: v8envy
It would really suck if the 9800GTX (PCIe 2.0 compliant card) fails to work with older board like yours. Plugging it into your buddy's machine may help if he's got a fresher chipset and/or BIOS. But if his board&BIOS is from 2006 as well you may be out of luck.

I'd offer the use of my P35 DS3L if you're anywhere near the Denver area, but 1. kids and pets and 2. I'm ashamed of my cable management.

Lol, i'm with you, never been great at cable management either

 

[elected]

I have nearly the same problem as V3LCR0. DFI nf4 Ultra-D + 9800GTX and the system hangs at reboot with three leds without beeps. Works just fine with my previous 7900GTO. I did buy a new PSU but no help =( The system is stable when it boots up but reboots work seldom.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: V3LCR0
Oh and by the way there was no beeps at all when starting the computer, there is just no post.

From my experience the damn things beep when they can not find a video card for any reason.

I had the same problem -- it ended up being a bad DVI cable that, somehow, I kept using it every time I tried the new card. I even had my MB out and was ready to send in an RMA when I gave it one last shot on a different monitor (different cable)

Anyhow, can you bring your rig over to your pals house and plug it into his cable/display?

 

[pakmanis]

Relatively same problem here too. DFI nf4 SLI-d + EVGA 9800GTX = starts boot, runs through initial bios checks, but fails with "no boot device insert boot drive and press enter" (or something like that). Reinstall 7800GT and all is fine.

One thing I noticed with the 9800 installed is the chipset fan doesn't spin up to 7000rpm once hitting the power button like with the 7800gt and the system is real quiet while trying to boot. I'm thinking the 9800 is drawing to much power from the board. These boards are known to be power sensitive.

With DFI "user support" FUBAR (no dfi-street) and most likely DFI nf4 hardcore users have long since moved on to newer chipsets I'm guessing a fix for this won't be easily found.

Time to upgrade I guess.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

When i had got a hold of 9800 GX2 the LED indicator did not go blue they were red all the way it was because of lack of current i had to take out 2 HDD's...

You sure your SMPS is under a heavy load??

 

[pakmanis]

I have a OCZ 600w gamextreme it has 4x 12v rails rated @ 18A. The rest of the rig -
+3700, 2x1GB OCZ DDR 500, XFX 7800GT, 2x Optical drives, 1x 180GB HD, 2x 120mm case fans
all @ stock settings, no other devices connected except keyboard, mouse, monitor. I don't think the PSU is being overloaded.

The 9800GTX EVGA specs 450w PSU with 24Amp and the 8800GTX is 450w @ 30Amp. I've seen C2D rigs OC'd with the 8800GTX and OCZ 600w GXS listed that seem to be running fine.

Anyway, after the failed test last night and the initial "NOOOOOOOOOOO" I found this thread. It gave me some hope that it's not the card but the MB. I'll know for sure if it's the card or not this weekend when my C2D build is done. Assuming I don't run into problems with that .

Once I have that rig stable I'll check into the DFI nf4 + 9800GTX problem and post if I find anything interesting.

 

[Puffnstuff]

While your checking for mb bios updates look for updates for your graphics card as well. eVGA has released several for their g92 cards to make them more compatible with non gen2 pci-e mb's. It's also possible that the increased current draw is beyond what your ps can supply so it never starts. If you can use different pci-e power connectors or just use the adaptor that came with the card and plug it to a different 12v rail to move the load on the ps.