Issues with (I think) graphics card driver
Discussion
Been having all sorts of problems recently with my machine. The specs are as follows
Motherboard A7N8X-X
Chip AMD Athlon XP 130nm 3000
GFXcard Nvidia 6800GT with 256MB memory.
512MB Corsair DRR RAM
Running WIndows XP with SP2
First of all I had an issue with the RAM, it kept failing it's initial memory test and the PC wouldn't go any further. Changed the RAM and got it booting up OK.
While I was fixing that problem it was bought to my attention that the BIOS settings were only running the processor at 1050MHz, so I tried changing the settings (after researching what settings were required) to get the processor speed up to the correct level. Had a lot of issues here, blue screens, failure to boot, but I eventually got some settings that would boot OK. Then it kept giving me a blue screen error, same one every time, which I looked up on the net and tracked it down to being due to an out-of-date graphics card driver (I was running Nvidia forceware 67.xx). I reset the BIOS to it's original settings (1050MHz) so the system wasstable again, and I could get on the net to get the latest drivers.
Got the latest drivers, installed them properly (deleted the old drivers, restarted and reinstalled the new drivers etc, followed the proper procedures). I think the latest ones are 84.29 or something similar.
First restart was fine, but subsequent restarts just give me a whole load of mangled characters on the monitor, lots of strange purple and green splodges etc, and an eventual blue screen error saying that there was a problem with the driver (no shit!). After four or five tries I managed to get the system to boot and run perfectly, no graphics issues at all.
Uninstalled the new driver, reinstalled the old one, so the system is exactly as it was a month ago (when it was perfectly stable until the RAM issue). Now I have continued problems, same as described above with the updated graphics card driver, even though the system is exactly as it was (low processor speed, old GFX driver).
About 1 time out of ten it will start up and perform all the initial tests perfectly, the rest of the time it gives completley mangled black and white blocks of colour where each character on the monitor should be, and all overlaid with pink/green "static". If I keep powering it off and powering it on again repeatedly, eventually it will run normally. I have tried a few different version of the graphics card driver, none of them make any difference at all. If I run it with no graphics card drivers the system is stable, but obviously it looks like crap.
My question is - what the hell do I do now? Someone suggested it could be a motherboard problem - is swapping all my stuff onto a new motherboard a good idea? Unfortunately I don't have any Windows CDs or anything so I can't reinstall XP, but the problem is occurring before it gets that far. All the hardware was fine until I started changing the settings on things though, so would buying new MoBo/GFX card/ram achieve anything?
Motherboard A7N8X-X
Chip AMD Athlon XP 130nm 3000
GFXcard Nvidia 6800GT with 256MB memory.
512MB Corsair DRR RAM
Running WIndows XP with SP2
First of all I had an issue with the RAM, it kept failing it's initial memory test and the PC wouldn't go any further. Changed the RAM and got it booting up OK.
While I was fixing that problem it was bought to my attention that the BIOS settings were only running the processor at 1050MHz, so I tried changing the settings (after researching what settings were required) to get the processor speed up to the correct level. Had a lot of issues here, blue screens, failure to boot, but I eventually got some settings that would boot OK. Then it kept giving me a blue screen error, same one every time, which I looked up on the net and tracked it down to being due to an out-of-date graphics card driver (I was running Nvidia forceware 67.xx). I reset the BIOS to it's original settings (1050MHz) so the system wasstable again, and I could get on the net to get the latest drivers.
Got the latest drivers, installed them properly (deleted the old drivers, restarted and reinstalled the new drivers etc, followed the proper procedures). I think the latest ones are 84.29 or something similar.
First restart was fine, but subsequent restarts just give me a whole load of mangled characters on the monitor, lots of strange purple and green splodges etc, and an eventual blue screen error saying that there was a problem with the driver (no shit!). After four or five tries I managed to get the system to boot and run perfectly, no graphics issues at all.
Uninstalled the new driver, reinstalled the old one, so the system is exactly as it was a month ago (when it was perfectly stable until the RAM issue). Now I have continued problems, same as described above with the updated graphics card driver, even though the system is exactly as it was (low processor speed, old GFX driver).
About 1 time out of ten it will start up and perform all the initial tests perfectly, the rest of the time it gives completley mangled black and white blocks of colour where each character on the monitor should be, and all overlaid with pink/green "static". If I keep powering it off and powering it on again repeatedly, eventually it will run normally. I have tried a few different version of the graphics card driver, none of them make any difference at all. If I run it with no graphics card drivers the system is stable, but obviously it looks like crap.
My question is - what the hell do I do now? Someone suggested it could be a motherboard problem - is swapping all my stuff onto a new motherboard a good idea? Unfortunately I don't have any Windows CDs or anything so I can't reinstall XP, but the problem is occurring before it gets that far. All the hardware was fine until I started changing the settings on things though, so would buying new MoBo/GFX card/ram achieve anything?
if you are experiencing this graphical corruption when the BIOS is being displayed at the start of "Boot Up", the driver will have NO effect. Meaning this is a hardware/ BIOS configuration issue.
Out of interest is the AthlonXP a 3000+ with a 333fsb? If so that makes the clock multiplier 9x. This would indicate to achieve 1050MHz your fsb would be running at 116MHz - a very funny default clock speed :strachchin:
Sorry if this sounds patronising
Also you do realise a 3000+ doesn't actually run at 3000MHz, it's actual speed is 2160MHz so if you've set it to run at 3000MHz it's not supprising it's unstable.
If you disconnect the PC from the mains (for at least 30 seconds) after setting the CPU at it's correct speed does it remember this after restoring the power? If not it would mean your BIOS battery is dead or dieing. Just an idea.
Out of interest is the AthlonXP a 3000+ with a 333fsb? If so that makes the clock multiplier 9x. This would indicate to achieve 1050MHz your fsb would be running at 116MHz - a very funny default clock speed :strachchin:
Sorry if this sounds patronising
Also you do realise a 3000+ doesn't actually run at 3000MHz, it's actual speed is 2160MHz so if you've set it to run at 3000MHz it's not supprising it's unstable.
If you disconnect the PC from the mains (for at least 30 seconds) after setting the CPU at it's correct speed does it remember this after restoring the power? If not it would mean your BIOS battery is dead or dieing. Just an idea.
The system was OK running at 1050Mhz - 100Mhz speed and a 10.5x multiplier. It's been like that for about two years, since I've had. I then changed the BIOS settings to try and get the chip speed up to what it should be, I think it was 166Mhz and 13.5x multiplier but I can't remember. I looked at the part number on the chip itself, and then looked up the correct BIOS settings on the web. There were a choice of two. One failed to boot at all, not even a mem check, so I had to clear the BIOS using a jumper on the mobo, then tried the other setting that was listed for my chip and that got as far as a blue screen which (after researching it) looked to be related to the graphics card driver.
Now the BIOS settings are back to 100MHz and 10.5x again, just as they've been for years, I have reinstalled my original graphics card drivers, and I still get these LSD-like patterns 9 times out of 10 when I power on.
Are there any other BIOS settings (apart from clock speed settings) which I need to look at which might explain the fault? The system boots up every time with no graphics drivers at all.
Now the BIOS settings are back to 100MHz and 10.5x again, just as they've been for years, I have reinstalled my original graphics card drivers, and I still get these LSD-like patterns 9 times out of 10 when I power on.
Are there any other BIOS settings (apart from clock speed settings) which I need to look at which might explain the fault? The system boots up every time with no graphics drivers at all.
Does sound like the mobo is unstable. I had all sorts of grief with a DOA motherboard recently.
Installing another motherboard will mean different chipsets. It'll confuse the hell out of windows and never run right. Here is a link I found with some troubleshooting articles
www.techspot.com/vb/topic7934.html
As to BIOS settings, there is usually an option for 'Select failsafe settings'
Installing another motherboard will mean different chipsets. It'll confuse the hell out of windows and never run right. Here is a link I found with some troubleshooting articles
www.techspot.com/vb/topic7934.html
As to BIOS settings, there is usually an option for 'Select failsafe settings'
Says here you need a certain bios/motherboard version to support that chip:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cp
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cp
Nope, it's still FUBAR. Just taken me 30 mins to get it to boot up at all, sometimes letting it do a check on the hard drive does the trick but often that just loops back to either a BSOD or starts booting again. Tired it with PCi and AGP enabled, seems to make no difference at all which I select. Turned off CPU cacheing level 1 and level 2 but it just made the whole loading process run really slowly and then it froze completely before the windows screen came up.
It's either 1.09 or 10.09 - something 09 anyway! I did some research on BIOS updates and a few people were saying that 10 was really unstable.
Problem seems to be getting worse not better - even when I can get a successful boot occuring, within about 20 mins I get lots of graphics corruption in windows, strange colours of objects and random dots of colour on the screen.
Problem seems to be getting worse not better - even when I can get a successful boot occuring, within about 20 mins I get lots of graphics corruption in windows, strange colours of objects and random dots of colour on the screen.
Might be worth a go with memtest - www.memtest.org. If that will run for 24 hours or so without error it gives you some confidence in the hardware. If it passes it might be worth a clean install of XP, on another disk as a test.
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