MSI Ti4200/Gigabyte GA-7VRXP problem...can't run video card at 4x AGP

[RoninRXN]

...is there any reason this is happening?

Whenever I try to boot at 4x AGP, I get tons of artifacts...and eventually a lock-up or the infinite loop. I have the latest 4 in 1 drivers from VIA and the latest Detonators from nVidia...

...so WTF?! Do I have a faulty board or something?

 

[bunker]

The only way to find out is to run tests. Find another board that supports 4x agp and put the vid card in it.

Find another 4x AGP vid card and put that in your board.

 

[RoninRXN]

Well, other cards seem to work fine at 4x AGP...

...but the thing is...THIS card works fine in 4x AGP in another system...

...could it be an incompatiblity?

 

[bunker]

Which revision of the board do you have? It's stamped on the board between the processor and memory. Either 1.0 or 1.1

 

[RoninRXN]

Rev. 1.1

 

[bunker]

Well, that blew my theory. I was going to say there have been a lot of problems w/ the 1.0. Try emailing gigabyte and ask them about it. I'm looking at the box my motherboard came in and there's a sticker on it that says, "Fully Compatible with nVidia GeForce4"

 

[Whitney]

There's been a lot of people with this problem, and what has worked for many is increasing the voltage to the card.

Some have flashed to the F7 BIOS and said that helped too.

The new G4's take a lot of power, and you have to give them a little bump apparently

 

[RoninRXN]

I have the F7 BIOS installed.

I tried bumping it to 1.6V and 1.7V but nothing....

 

[RedMane]

I?m having an identical problem with a MSI Ti4600 card & Gigabyte 7VRXP mbd. I have already RMA?d one?the second one is no better.

Perhaps a power AND IRQ issue? Haven?t had enough time to play around with the h/w combinations yet, but this problem seems pretty f%@#ng common. Is it just MSI cards, or GeF4 in general?

-RM

 

[RoninRXN]

I took my whole box to the shop...I'll be testing it with them so I'll let you guys know if we find any totally weird problems.

 

[RoninRXN]

We got a reply from Gigabyte today...and apparently the first batch of GA-7VRXPs (they ran my serial number...) has problems with GF4s and PC2700 RAM.

It's a BIOS problem so there's physically nothing wrong with the board...therefore, it may take up to 2 weeks for them to decide if they give me another board or if they flash my BIOS to a new, soon-to-be-released version.

Goddamit! A very, very angry and heavily armed man is going to pay the Gigabyte offices a visit if something isn't fixed....

If you have the same problem, call Gigabyte and give them your serial number. You might be in the same situation...and at least you know it's a known issue that they're working on.

 

[OldHawk]

RoninRXN,

Do you have the phone number for Gigabyte? I can't RMA because it has been to long since I bought it. My reseller wants to "test" my MB (for a $10 fee of course) for warrenty replacement. I'm afraid that when they "test" it they'll see that it boots and runs Windows and will say "This works ok" and ship it back.

Here is my setup.

GA-7VRXP r1.1
Athlon 1800+ w/Zaltman 5500-CU & SS3
512k Crucial PC2100 CAS 2.5
Radeon 8500 64MB
Enermax 365-FA (300W) PSU
WD 80GB
Plextor 12/10/32 CD-RW
Integrated sound/ LAN on, RAID off

My system is only stable if I set my chipset/memory settings very conservatively. 266Mz, SPD settings, 2T command rate, Normal, AGP 1x, etc. Bumpping up the voltages has not helped me however nor has BIOS F6 or F7 (F4 original). I have not tried the new VIA 4-in-1 drivers yet.

Depending on settings I range anywhere from Bluescreens (WXP & agressive settings) to hangs in open GL games or direct X games (backed off).

One person on amdmb.com has done a great deal of compairison between a friends working system and his hosed system and has come up with a lot code (per Gigabyte)! The sticker on the top of the paralel port has this info. His friend has a sticker that ends with a B (good) and his ends with an E (bad). Guess what, my version 1.1 board is a Lot E!!! My guess is you probably have an E too.

Does anyone else out there with these problems have an E lot? How about lot numbers of working units?

 

[doodah]

I have the same mb/video card combo. I can't get my msi card to go past 1x agp. I tried the latest f7 bios for the mb but it wouldn't even boot into Windows. I've flashed down to the f4 bios and everythings running again. I emailed Gigabyte, hope to hear something by Monday....Sigh, I was hoping I was doing something wrong.. that would've been easier to handle.

 

[RoninRXN]

Originally posted by: OldHawk
RoninRXN,

Do you have the phone number for Gigabyte? I can't RMA because it has been to long since I bought it. My reseller wants to "test" my MB (for a $10 fee of course) for warrenty replacement. I'm afraid that when they "test" it they'll see that it boots and runs Windows and will say "This works ok" and ship it back.

What the hell? You shouldn't have to pay that $10. If you're under waranty then it's their responsiblity.

My system is only stable if I set my chipset/memory settings very conservatively. 266Mz, SPD settings, 2T command rate, Normal, AGP 1x, etc. Bumpping up the voltages has not helped me however nor has BIOS F6 or F7 (F4 original). I have not tried the new VIA 4-in-1 drivers yet.

My problems were with a Ti4200...not a 8500. Your RAM should be set at 266MHz.

One person on amdmb.com has done a great deal of compairison between a friends working system and his hosed system and has come up with a lot code (per Gigabyte)! The sticker on the top of the paralel port has this info. His friend has a sticker that ends with a B (good) and his ends with an E (bad). Guess what, my version 1.1 board is a Lot E!!! My guess is you probably have an E too.

Does anyone else out there with these problems have an E lot? How about lot numbers of working units?

I have no idea. I don't have the board in front of me right now.

Anyways, I do not have the number for Gigabyte but I will ask my buddy that's doing it for me for it on Tuesday (as Monday is Canada Day)

 

[OldHawk]

Originally posted by: RoninRXN

My problems were with a Ti4200...not a 8500. Your RAM should be set at 266MHz.

I was just saying that this is not limited to GF4s only. As far as the 266MHz goes I just thru that in so no one thought I was trying to run PC2100 @ 333MHz. Allmost all of my BIOS settings are below what anyone should expect from a high quality board.

Thanks just the same and happy Canada Day!

 

[doodah]

BUMP

Any new news? I emailed Gigabyte last week and still no reply

 

[RoninRXN]

Not yet. The GF4 is flawless...no problems whatsoever so it HAS to be the mobo.

 

[RoninRXN]

Those morons still haven't given me any reply.

They refuse to let me RMA the board or get a new one from the guys that I bought it from...and they won't give me a refund (as there is nothing physically wrong with the board...in fact, I don't even know what's wrong...). This is piss poor support, if you ask me. Just telling the customer "We're working on it...give us a couple weeks." is f**king unacceptable. I'm without my PC for that long, dumbasses...I shouldn't have to pay for their idiocy.

 

[OldHawk]

No response here either. I even tried emailing their Sales Dept. to let them know that all of these posts on dozens of forums are hurting their sales, but I guess they're to busy posting all of the great reviews their getting.

I would like to see one of these forum owners use their inside contacts talk to Gigabyte and find out the real skinny. (hint, hint)

 

[Koy]

Well....sounds better than the support I got from Abit......"Use another video card" I gave my card to my friend, his Asus board didn't fare much better. Flashing, random color problems and artifacts on regular settings. I am starting to think that these cards are having a much wider range of compatibility issues than there should be for this kind of product.

 

[RoninRXN]

Everyone is always talking about ATI and nVidia cheating through their drivers...heh...I'm starting to think the same thing about the hardware that vendors provide to websites and magazines.

Hand-built, tested 1000 times...

 

[Koy]

I certainly don't have a good answer. I'm very annoyed with the "that's your problem" kind of answer I got from Abit. My only recourse is to go spend $60-$90 on a power supply just to see if maybe that's what's causing the issue. I am having a hard time believing that it is, but it's the only thing left aside from a compatibility issue. You'd think a company like that would know by now FOR SURE if there is a compatibility issue, especially since they produce GeForce 4 Ti cards themselves, but it was obviously a cop out answer. It's a sad day when you can't even simply stop purchasing products from companies like that when your only alternative is another company who does the same exact sort of crap, so you end up picking the products that historically require the least amount of customer support. I also find it sort of ironic that I avoided purchasing an nVidia product this long and now that I have, it doesn't work for me. Perhaps I'll keep my little cheapy 8500LE I got to test with and wait for their new monster card.

 

[RoninRXN]

After purusing the VIARENA forums, apparently, our problems with the GA-7VRXP stem for one of many possible causes.

1.) The absense of the C139 capacitor.
2.) Power management problems
3.) AGP slot heat...

From what I hear from Gigabyte, they have a BIOS fix coming out which SHOULD solve these problems but this is STUPID regardless. If I didn't have to pay extra to get another mobo, I would've returned this thing immediately.

Anyways, try it yourself. Possible fixes include upping the vcore +7.5% and getting a better power supply. If you're missing the C139 capacitor, you're more likely to have problems running high end video cards. This is why when the stores test the board with their crapalicious GF2MXes, they have no problems at all. Ti4600s and 8500s suck up a lot of power.

 

[doodah]

Well that's crappy.
How do I know if I have that capacitor?

 

[RoninRXN]

...you look for it.

Screw it. I'm getting a MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU instead.