9800GTX problem

extra-ordinary_

Long story short - everthing going OK until half-way through the driver insallation wizard when I start getting bands of horizontal lines on my display.
Click 'Restart' at the end of the wizard and PC reboots but first BIOS splash screen at startup has all horizontal lines.
Second screen is OK but PC just stays at a blinking cursor after 'DMI Data Pool.... Update success!' message.

I checked the card was seated OK and then I started doing things like swapping the two six-pin connectors around, changing to the other DVI output, clearing the CMOS, contemplated flashing the mobo to the latest 'beta' BIOS. Eventually I got to windows startup but get BSOD. Widows loads OK in safe mode - definitely seems to be an issue with drivers or card.

I tried installing drivers in safe mode but still BSOD.
I'm running XP with one SATA HDD, one DVD, one floppy/card reader combo, one 120mm fan and Antec 500W PSU.

My motherboard manual says I have one x16 PCI-Ex slot that can run up to x4 mode - WTF?

Anyone have a clue?

RoyalMarine

temps? although it wouldnt heat that fast to screw up the bios splash.

how old is it? or is it new?

extra-ordinary_

Brand new EVGA out of the box. Don't think it's temps. F*ck it - I'll have to take it all out of the case to see if it makes any difference.

Does anyone know what x16 PCI-ex up to mode x4 means? This card needs a 16 slot working at x16 I think. I think this might be my problem. My board is a Gigabyte G33M-S2H.

extra-ordinary_

Uninstalled all previous nvidia drivers from the PC. Put in the 9800GTX again to install the drivers afresh, but I've got display corruption at the very first screen at system startup - At this stage there are no drivers installed. Does this mean it's hardware?
If there's anyone around Dublin 6 who has a compatible mobo for this card and could spare 10 minutes to test it - I would be very grateful.

TerrorFirmer

Normally would be a sign of the card being defective if its artifacting at post unfortunately.

extra-ordinary_

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Normally would be a sign of the card being defective if its artifacting at post unfortunately.

Yes, this is what I thought but I still wanted to try it in another system to make sure. RMA applied for but it's a pain in the ass.

TonyM.

did you plug it into the psu?

christophicus

TonyM. wrote: »

did you plug it into the psu?

Lol classic Tech support ,

" is it plugged in ??......"
"try turning it off and on again "

Gotta love it .

TonyM.

I forgot to connect the two 6 pin connectors myself finally figured it out, working ok now I was watching the game at the same time .

If your thinking of buying one you will need plenty of room in your case its really long.

extra-ordinary_

Anyone around the South Dublin/city centre area spare 10 minutes to test my card?

TonyM. wrote: »

IIf your thinking of buying one you will need plenty of room in your case its really long.

WHS:)

DanGerMus

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

Does anyone know what x16 PCI-ex up to mode x4 means? This card needs a 16 slot working at x16 I think. I think this might be my problem. My board is a Gigabyte G33M-S2H.

You've already hit the nail on the head man 9800gtx only works on full x16 that board has a by 16 slot but it's electrically only a x4, if you look at the slot when its empty you'll see that the contacts/pins only go some of the way along, the rest is blank. You could pick up a new board for small enough money i'd say.

TerrorFirmer

But does it actually need that 16x lane? I know the BFG boxes for the 8800 series said the cards required a full 16x lane, but they - at least the GTS - work regardless of the 'requirement' in 4 and 8x.

9800GTX and 4x lane = bad idea though, if if it does work...you're looking at 50% performance in certain games.

DanGerMus

AFAIK th 9 series require full electrically x16 slots to work.

extra-ordinary_

I had a Point Of View 8800GTX in there before but obviously - different card/chip.


Board says:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot supporting PCI Express x4 mode.

Card says:
PCI Express or PCI Express 2.0-compliant motherboard with one dual-width x16 graphics slot.

I contacted Gigabyte who answered my compatiblity query with 'PCI Express is backwards compatible'. I got back onto them again abot the 16 lanes issue but they haven't answered.
This issue was the reason I wanted to test the card on another board. I know I could get another board for ~ €60 but if the card is fried , then I'd obviously rather not bother with the extra expense. Anyway, how are you meant to know what you're buying? They're all advertised as x16 slot boards.

I had a look in the slot - pins go from start of the slot (short section) all along to about 1/3 of the way into the main section - anyone know what this means?

DanGerMus

Basically that board has a slot that can physically accomodate a x16 card ie. it will fit in it, but it will only ever work at x4 mode (hence the lack of connectors in the slot) It does mention this in the spec on the gigabyte website.

It is a bit of a balls as i'd imagine alot of etailers fail to add this information to there sites. But the manufacturer site will have it.

By backwards compatible they mean that a full x16 slot will accomodate x8 and x4 cards. also it means a pci-e2.0 slot will work with pci-e1 cards. unfortunatley it doesn't work both ways a x16 card will not nessacarily work in x8 or x4 slots. The 8800 cards do afaik, but i am 99.99% that the 9800 cards will only work in x16 mode. I have definately read that they require dual x16 slots for SLI to work so this leads me to believe that they need x16 even on there own.

Just to be sure though get on to the card makers they should tell you clearly, also try the manual it will probably say it in there somewhere.

Hope i've made it clear enough.

extra-ordinary_

Yeh, I have read that twelve of the sixteen lanes are being used by the onboard DVI and HDMI outputs. I just don't have it down that this 9800GTX card will not run in the x4slot I've got.
There is no doubt - the 8800GTX runs OK in this slot. Googled '9800GTX+16 lanes' and can't see anyone else having this issue where you'd think there would be a few. There must be loads of people with boards like this and also with x8 slots.
I'm not convinced until I try it in another board - or EVGA get back to me and confirm.

TerrorFirmer

Thought I saw someone with the same issue on HardForum, but on second reading looks like it's you again.

DanGerMus

It is odd for a board to have it's primary pci-e slot only function as a x4. The only time you ever see a x16 slot with only x8 or x4 functionality is the second slot on a crossfire compatible board. From looking at that board it seems to have been designed for a HTPC build coming with on board gfx and hdmi. To me it looks like it was never really intended to take high end graphics. This is probably why you can't find many people with the same problem as you.

astrofool

For the 8800 series they have the answer in the knowledge base:
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2008&p_created=1168273396&p_sid=Gnc6M72j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Niw2JnBfcHJvZHM9MiZwX2NhdHM9NTgmcF9wdj0xLjImcF9jdj0xLjU4JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD14MTY*&p_li=&p_topview=1

The 9800GTX undoubtedly has the same requirement (try and email nVidia directly, or post on their forums), which means that your x16 electrical, x4 data PCI-E slot is not supported.

TerrorFirmer

Yeah but the 8 series does work in a 4x slot...

Guy running 9800GTX in 8x here

DanGerMus

well looking at that there is a distinct possibility he's getting his x16 mixed up with his x8. The x16 slot is not always the one on top ( closest to the processor) He was probably using the x8 slot before and wouldn't have know til now. I think antis old DFI was like this i'm sure there are more with the same layout.

extra-ordinary_

EVGA confirm that their 9800GTX will run in a 4x PCI-Ex slot - my card is faulty.

Cunny-Funt

What is this x4 slot x16 slot about? In other words, I'm thinking of bagging a 9800GTX.

Will it be ok on my Gigabyte P35C-DS3R?

DanGerMus

^^ Yes it will.

son.of.jimi

I installed one of these cards 2 days ago, first installation was messy to say the least, windows kept crasing 5 mins into reboot after drivers were installed. I restored windows to an earlier date, deleted the old drivers and tried again... Hey presto everything running extremly smoothly, loving the dualview display too. Cryisis one one screen, media player/messenger/boards on the other!

I'll post pics later of the new setup

And yes the card is Really Really Really long..... just fits my case snugly!

Anti

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

EVGA confirm that their 9800GTX will run in a 4x PCI-Ex slot - my card is faulty.

I thought we came to that conslusion when you tried it in that pc in my house with a full 16x lane

We tried everythign to get this card working, even modified a driver but no luck. Send it back to Evga.