HD4650 upgrade not working with GA7N400Pro2

[graham]

Hi,

I have decided uo upgrade an aging GA7N400Pro2 motherboard which has FK bios, Athlon 3200+ processor and 2Gb RAM, which has been running XP Pro SP3 quite happily with an NVidia GeForce 4 card (8x AGP).

As a last gasp before changing mobo etc., I fitted an HD4560 AGP card.

The machine will go through all of the POST tests and the hardware discovery (the DOS-like part of the boot) but on reaching the grahics part of the boot, it freezes.

Anybody got any ideas, please?

[Dark Mantis]

Chances are that your PSU isn't up to the task. Please list all your hardware and we will have a better idea of the problem.

[graham]

PSU = 520W badged as TRUST
Soundblaster audio
SATA 4-port i/f card supporting 2 x 1Tb mirrored and 2 x 250Gb striped
also 2 x 250Gb mirrored on mobo ITE raid port
This lot is sitting in a Full-Tower Server case to ensure plenty of air around things.

That's the bulk of it so I guess PSU is up to the job.

[graham]

I'm a bit desperate to solve this.  Really would like to get it going BUT distance selling regs mean that I need to return the board in 2-days if I'm to get my money back.

Alternative is the mobo, processor, RAM, etc route but I really don't need that sort of expenditure at the moment.

[oggmonster]

When you say the 'graphics part of the boot' do you mean the Windows loading screen? Did you try doing a repair install of windows first?

If you still have your old graphics card, you could pop that back in, remove all traces of nvidia drivers. Then try using your 4650 again.

[graham]

I have put the NVidia card back in and am using it now.

Have only just finished rebuilding the system with the NVidia board in but have NOT conciously removed the NVidia drivers in case I hit this sort of problem.

From this, you may deduce that I have not done a 'repair' installation.  In 30 years of working (professionally) with computers, I have never had to do this but I'm always willing to listen to experience.  

Do you really feel that this is necessary?

By 'graphics part' of the boot I am referring towhere it goes looking fot a system drive, be it hard drive or CD etc.

That's a point.  I have bootable CD's and I haven't tried any of those.

[Dark Mantis]

You may even need to clear the CMOS first. But you should certainly remove the nVidia drivers.

[graham]

Ok.  I'll but the board back in and try again ... but I won't hold my breath.

Does the card normally work with this mobo?

[Dark Mantis]

There's no reason why it shouldn't.

[graham]

Ok ... will report back shortly.

Thanks for the support.

[oggmonster]

Aslong as the AGP on the card is compatable with the AGP on the board there should be no reason it shouldnt. Try removing the nvidia drivers first, then if not try a repair install.

[graham]

Hi Guys.  Apologies for the delay in replying but I have been system-less.

Removed all NVidia drivers in 'SAFE' mode and changed over to the new graphics card - Would not boot - symptoms as before

Commenced an 'Installation Repair'.  Initially thought that the machine had hung on booting fron CD but - NO - it was just going ULTRA-SLOWLY, i.e. 40 mins to initial reboot.  At which point, as the reboot was ultra-slow, I left it to run overnight.

Six hours later, it had not finished its' reboot.  Time to pull the plug.

Rest of the day has been spent, initially trying to rebuild the systen with the NVidia card and eventually getting brain into gear and restoring from a backup - simpler, quicker and easier (should have been obvious).

So there we have it.  It seems that the Gigabyte AGP grahics cards (HD4650) do not seem to want to work with their own motherboards (GA7N400Pro2) ... unless, of course you know better and can suggest something.

Thanks again for your previous suggestions.  Worth a try even though they were VERY time consuming.

[oggmonster]

Is the machine a branded one? Or one you've assembled yourself? The CD you tried to use was that a microsoft OEM?

If you have an entire back up then a full install might be worth a try? Other than than there is a chance your graphics card is faulty OR possibly some of the rails on the PSU arent quite upto it? (not sure how power hungry the 4650 is tbh??)

[graham]

As mentioned above, CD boot is rediculously slow (40 mins to 1st reboot on windows install).  That in itself cannot be right.  My gut feel is that cracking the slowwness problem might well solve other problems, but I just don't know where to start.

The PSU should be well up to the job abd it works well with the NVidia board fitted.  I find it difficult to believe that a small increase in loading could cause this sort of problem.

CD is pre-Noah i.e. before SP1.  I should have another at SP1a but can't find it at the moment.

Machine is professionally custom-built.

[Dark Mantis]

PSU = 520W badged as TRUST
Soundblaster audio
SATA 4-port i/f card supporting 2 x 1Tb mirrored and 2 x 250Gb striped
also 2 x 250Gb mirrored on mobo ITE raid port
This lot is sitting in a Full-Tower Server case to ensure plenty of air around things.

That's the bulk of it so I guess PSU is up to the job.

I think that to go back to our previous query about your hardware it is quite possible that your PSU isn't really up to it. A "520w" rebadged PSU is probably nowhere near as powerful as the stated wattage and I don't know how long you have had it but if it isn't new then you have to take capacitor droop etc into consideration.