GA-MA790X-UD3P GFX problem

[sofa]

i have a GA-MA790X-UD3P with an athlon 64 x2 my problem is i can't get any GFX card to function properly.
I've tried a 9800GT with win xp and win 7 both times the system will not boot up with the drivers installed .. windows stalls at loading screen but boots  fine in safe mode.. tried both X16 and X8 the X8 pcie slot starts with a blank screen after the windows loading screen.

A Radeaon 5750 installs fine on win 7 but is unstable constantly crashing with driver errors in X16 slot .. in X8 slot boots to a blank screen after windows loading screen.
both cards have been tested and work 100% in other systems and both have been tested buy the supplier and passed.
I've tested my corsair XMS ddr2 800mhz memory and it passed and i have a brand new corsair 650W PSU.
Motherboard has been updated with new bios with no results and the cpu is new.

I've tried various drivers for the GFX cards and nothing works except for the default win 7 drivers for the 9800 but you can't play games on that lol
Does this sound like a mainboard problem ?

[Dark Mantis]

Please can you list all your hardware?

The first thing that springs to mind when you say it runs fine in safe mode but not in ordinary is a driver issue.
Anyway let's just check the obvious like have you got any other cards installed? Have you made sure that the GFX card has the power lead attached? Have you inserted the ATX 12v power lead near the CPU?

One more thing make sure you set the "Init Display First" in the "Advanced BIOS Features" to "PEG".

[sofa]

Athlon 64 X2 3gb
GA-MA790X-UD3P (latest bios 7a i think)
corsair XMS ddr2 800 mhz
9800GT or ATi5750
creative xfi gamer
WD raptor 150gb
WD raptor 300gb
corsair 650w PSU

I thought it was drivers but for the 9800 i've tried every single driver from 180 to latest ..ALL of them stop windows (XP and win 7) booting.
The only one that works is win 7 default WDM driver.
The 6 pin plug is plugged in.
8pin is plugged in near CPU

errors from trying the 9800 on a fresh win7 install then the 5750

[Dark Mantis]

It all looks alright from your specs. It is the latest BIOS update and even though it's a beta version once it makes it to the website it is usually stable. Have you changed the setting in the BIOS to set the "Init Display First" in the "Advanced BIOS Features" to "PEG"?
Are you running 32 or 64bit Windows?

[sofa]

Yep Bios is on PEG first and i'm running win 7 ultimate 64bit

[Dark Mantis]

Don't take this the wrong way but you are using the 64bit drivers? 

[sofa]

lol oh yes 

[Dark Mantis]

Good!
Only other thing I can think of for now is to make sure that the PSU is giving enough power to the card. Try unplugging anything that isn't strictly essential eg 2nd HDD, optical drive, etc and see if it makes a difference.

[sofa]

Nope no joy
system hangs at windows loading screen with the 9800 in
DVD,2HDD and alot of fans are disconnected (Antec 900 case btw)

[sofa]

i did a bare bones selective start earlier with no windows services started and it still wouldn't boot so it doesn't seem like its a win7 problem

[Dark Mantis]

Sorry can't think of anything else at the moment but absic will be looking in the morning and he might know something I don't he's the genious on the AMD platform.

i did a bare bones selective start earlier with no windows services started and it still wouldn't boot so it doesn't seem like its a win7 problem

No I would have to agree.

[sofa]

well thanks for the assitance Dark 

[sofa]

oh my the win 7 just booted with the 9800 in the X8 slot with peg1 set in bios and the drivers crash right off the bat but system booted

[sofa]

display is crashing like mad and its running slow but its booting.

[LPDad]

Just going to jump in here with a suggestion.  Try using a different power supply-- If you have another computer that has a working psu swap it and see if that helps.
I just went through 2 weeks of trouble shooting a very similar problem.  Everything checked out, but had problems getting past the boot screen.  On some occasions I got so far as starting windows (XP) before things would crash or lock up.   I have a power supply tester (it tested working).  Long, long (2 weeks long) story, the short version is: after trying multiple mobos, and a couple of cpus, it ended up being that the fairly new PSU was at fault...literally.  Turns out it would power up, then (I believe a heating problem in the psu was the prob)..then basically faulted and could not supply full power to the mobo.

Even if you can find a 450 watt psu to try out, it should be enough to power one harddrive, a vid card and the processor safely into win7 without all of the error messages you are getting.

It really sounds like you are having a hardware problem, and it could either be the mobo or the PSU. 
The PSU should be fairly easy to rule out.

good luck
-LP