P4P800 SE and ATI Radeon 9600XT

[SF Hacker]

I just completed a new build, installing a Sapphire
ATI Radeon 9600 XT AGP 8X 256MB video card
on an Asus P4P800 SE. The OS is Windows XP
Professional. The CPU is a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
Prescott. 1024MB of DDR PC3200 dual-channel
RAM. No overclocking or other monkey business -
a straight-ahead, by-the-book build.

There is no video display at all when I turn the computer
on. If I install an old VideoTek TI4400 AGP 4X in the new
computer, it works just fine. If I install the new card in my
old computer, it also works fine.

Has anyone had the same problem? Any suggestions?

 

[-]

Has anyone had the same problem? Any suggestions?

I had a nVidia FX5200 from Leadtek for the same MB that would not work no
matter what I tried. I then tried an MSI FX5200 and it worked perfectly
from the start. Sometimes parts just are not going to work together. I
would try another brand of card if you want to stay with the same video
chipset.

Doug

 

[timmy]

Well, considering the card works, are your bios settings on auto ?
Perhaps the psu may not be adequate, especially if your running
several drives or raid. Does the old computer support agp 8x ? If so,
I would assume the card is fine, so that leaves psu or the voltage
requirments of the board. The card or board cannot function at 8x for
some reason ...swap the psu and try it...try to swap another 8x card,
if you can. If there is no change, it just may be the board. I had to
rma a P4P800-d cause I blew 2 video cards and the board wouldn't run
the third one very well at all...all 8x cards.
I have the 9600 aiw pro on the P4P800e deluxe with an antec 350watt
psu raid-0 (2 drives), 1 ide hdd and 2 optical drives, np. And yes,
it's my warranty video and warranty asus board as well. Seems things
are working properly now.

 

[SF Hacker]

Thank you for posting a response - I appreciate your helpfulness.

I know what you mean about componenets just not working together - no
one can explain why and you just have to bite the bullet and swap stuff out
until you find something that does the job.

I was hoping to avoid the morass of trying a bunch of different video cards
until I found one that worked. That's why I posted this message in the hopes
that someone had discovered the root of this problem and had a solution!

Asus offers a number of video cards for sale with the ATI Radeon 9600XT -
I thought I might try one of theirs and see if it works any better. Not that
I'm
assuming Asus has actually *tested* these cards in their own MBs . . .

 

[SF Hacker]

Thanks for sharing your experiences - this is just the kind of thing I
was hoping to get when I posted my message.

My power supply is a brand new Ultra 500W - I thinks it's up to the
job. I don't have a RAID - just two Hitachi ATA100 IDE drives and
a Sony CD-ROM/DVD burner.

The old mobo only supports 4X. You may have a point that the card
just can't function at 8X. I'll put the arm on my local community of
builders and get another 8X card to try.

What about the voltage to the AGP slot? This can be adjusted via the
BIOS, but I have no idea as to what the correct setting would be. I
don't want to inadvertently destroy the card - or the mobo, for that
matter.

I went to the Sapphire web site, but I couldn't find anything about the
voltage for the card. I saw lots and lots of other info, but nothing about
voltages.

Have you ever tried this? If so, what setting did you use? What happened?

 

[Jim Gibson]

Could be the monitor..
When you first turn on the sytsem and you see nothing.....have you tried
turning OFF the monitor then back on again?
Happens to me on occasion. Especially with the LCD's


JG

 

[BigJim]

there is a note in the manual about certain video cards, wait I will look,
at the bottom of page 2-18 read it. But it implies that it is just for
overclocking stability.

 

[SF Hacker]

Jim, thanks for your suggestion.

I *think* I did actually try this when the problem first occurred, but I'm
not 100% certain. I'll be sure to give it a shot.

 

[SF Hacker]

Thanks for the tip, "BigJim".

I read the note in the manual, but it only refers to ATI 9500 and 9700
series
cards. Since mine is a 9600, it didn't seem to apply.

On that same page in the manual, it mentions the different voltages that
video cards may run on. I tried to find my card's voltage on the Sapphire
web site, but I wasn't successful. It occurred to me that I might have to
adjust the AGP voltage in the BIOS to match the card's voltage.

 

[timmy]

CHOP

I went to the Sapphire web site, but I couldn't find anything about the
voltage for the card. I saw lots and lots of other info, but nothing about
voltages.

Have you ever tried this? If so, what setting did you use? What happened?

CHOP

No, I have always left it on the default voltage or auto...But agp
4x cards run on 1.5v and the 8x cards do also, but that voltage is
devided into ".8v x 2"(I think...). Now I'm not that technical as to
where or how this proccess occurs, but it is specific to the agp slot
on the mobo and of course, what the card is trying to get from it(the
slot).
Because most of the cards I had trouble with were capable of
running in various agp slots (2x/4, 4x/8x etc...), I can only assume
that Asus released an incompatible agp slot, or possibly there was
just something wrong with the components involved with the agp 8x slot
function. This is just my theory, there are other variables involved
with the cards as well, but as far as I know, the Asus motherboard agp
slots are universal or backward compatible...
On a sidenote, I'm running a sapphire 9600(budget version) in a
soltek(p4/agp8x/ddr etc...) mini system and have had np since I built
it for my folks. I think it's a year now...!

Here's a link which may help to determine if your hardware should
work. I think your psu is quite adaquate and your mobo and card should
both be agp 3 spec. It should work. Why would the card work in the
older board ? It's a different slot with a different voltage(1.5 vrs
..8 or 4x vrs 8x).

http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/agpcompatibility.html

 

[deus maximus]

I just completed a new build, installing a Sapphire
ATI Radeon 9600 XT AGP 8X 256MB video card
on an Asus P4P800 SE. The OS is Windows XP
Professional. The CPU is a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
Prescott. 1024MB of DDR PC3200 dual-channel
RAM. No overclocking or other monkey business -
a straight-ahead, by-the-book build.

There is no video display at all when I turn the computer
on. If I install an old VideoTek TI4400 AGP 4X in the new
computer, it works just fine. If I install the new card in my
old computer, it also works fine.

The monitor
Try another one

 

[Bay Area Bi Guy]

Just to let everyone know the outcome of this little problem . . .

I sent an e-mail to the tech support address shown on the Sapphire
web site. (Would you believe I received a reply within 24 hours? If
I'm lyin', I'm dyin' !) They recommended that I RMA the video card
back to NewEgg.

NewEgg sent me a new card (really fast, too!) and it worked perfectly!
I'm one happy computer builder!

Thanks again to everyone who posted a reply.

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