9700 Pro not booting

[~@|?x~]

Ok,

So I bought a "faulty" 9700 pro for cheap in the hope that I would be able
to fix it (the description of the card stated that it would boot OK but
display garbled images and it had started since trying to flash the BIOS)

I had a spare PCI card and I read up on how to flash the bios, and tried to
do it this evening... nothing - the monitor wouldn't display anything with
it plugged into either the faulty 9700 or the PCI card.
The AGP slots fine, as is the PCI card and I've tried setting the default
display adapter to either PCI or AGP in the mobo BIOS but it makes no
difference.
The 9700 is fitted with a Arctic Cooler (by the previous owner) which powers
up fine.

It appears that whenever the 9700 is plugged in then it refuses to show
anything and (to the best of my knowledge) it doesn't go past POSTing.
I don't have a floppy drive and I'm using the floppy power cable so I can't
try a boot disc to see if that kicks in..

Any suggestions to see if I can tell what's going on or can I assume that
the GPU's fried and I was told wrong when I bought it?

I'm running an Athlon 2800+, with a 400W PSU, 512mb of 2700 ram on a cheap
AsRock board that's not caused me any problems in the past. I've unplugged
all unnecessary IDE devices and case fans to save power for the 9700 but it
didn't seem to make any difference.

 

[Paig Chong Woo]

~@|?x~ a écrit :

Ok,

So I bought a "faulty" 9700 pro for cheap in the hope that I would be able
to fix it (the description of the card stated that it would boot OK but
display garbled images and it had started since trying to flash the BIOS)

I had a spare PCI card and I read up on how to flash the bios, and tried to
do it this evening... nothing - the monitor wouldn't display anything with
it plugged into either the faulty 9700 or the PCI card.
The AGP slots fine, as is the PCI card and I've tried setting the default
display adapter to either PCI or AGP in the mobo BIOS but it makes no
difference.
The 9700 is fitted with a Arctic Cooler (by the previous owner) which powers
up fine.

It appears that whenever the 9700 is plugged in then it refuses to show
anything and (to the best of my knowledge) it doesn't go past POSTing.
I don't have a floppy drive and I'm using the floppy power cable so I can't
try a boot disc to see if that kicks in..

Any suggestions to see if I can tell what's going on or can I assume that
the GPU's fried and I was told wrong when I bought it?

I'm running an Athlon 2800+, with a 400W PSU, 512mb of 2700 ram on a cheap
AsRock board that's not caused me any problems in the past. I've unplugged
all unnecessary IDE devices and case fans to save power for the 9700 but it
didn't seem to make any difference.

Did you connect the power connector on the card? I know mine whines if
it isn't.

 

[~@|?x~]

~@|?x~ a écrit :

Did you connect the power connector on the card? I know mine whines if it
isn't.

Yup, power cable's plugged in, can't tell if it's working but the corner on
the top of the card directly above where the power goes in gets really hot
I've noticed when taking the power cable out...
A sign of dodgyness?

 

[NDF]

Yup, power cable's plugged in, can't tell if it's working but the corner
on the top of the card directly above where the power goes in gets really
hot I've noticed when taking the power cable out...
A sign of dodgyness?

Time to get a replacement I would say.

Try to get a refund on the basis that the fault is more serious than that
indicated to you.

 

[Nerdillius Maximus]

Time to get a replacement I would say.

Try to get a refund on the basis that the fault is more serious than that
indicated to you.

You could also find and reflash the original video BIOS...perhaps the P.O.
tried to flash it into something it ain't (like a 9800 pro f'rinstance, or
maybe it's not a "pro" at all, and it's a flashed vanilla beater) and borked
it a little, hopefully not beyond repair...the FCC ID will tell you, and the
memory on the card will provide clues. Also there is a distinct possibility
the P.O. might not have seated the heatsink properly on the GPU: there's a
gap that must be filled (I use Arctic Silver very carefully on refits...)
between the sink and chip top, because of the border around the chip edge.
Or he used too much Arctic Silver and got some where it shouldn't be, and it
spooged all over the SMDs on the surface. You'd have to flash it blind with
a floppy from a batch file (just the command interpreter, msdos.sys and
io.sys, and a custom autoexec.bat file with the flash commands), or using a
PCI video card and reference the proper card using ATIflash...

 

[Nerdillius Maximus]

snip...

spooged all over the SMDs on the surface. You'd have to flash it blind with
a floppy from a batch file (just the command interpreter, msdos.sys and
io.sys, and a custom autoexec.bat file with the flash commands),

....and ATIflash, and the correct BIOS, in case this wasn't clear, because I
neglected to mention it in my typing frenzy...my bad, sorry...


or using a

 

[~@|?x~]

snip...



...and ATIflash, and the correct BIOS, in case this wasn't clear, because
I
neglected to mention it in my typing frenzy...my bad, sorry...


or using a

Indeed, this was my original thinking when I got the card and presumed it
had a corrupt bios; that I could simply boot up with a PCI card in, flash
the bios of the agp card with the standard 9700 bios and it'd all be good...

In actual fact if I have the dodgy card in the AGP slot the pc refuses to
post and just freezes with the HD activity light on for about 2 mins. I've
tried it with a PCI card in, and out, with the mobo bios settings set to PCI
or AGP but it doens't make any difference.
And all the time I've got the power cable plugged in, so it's not that...

I inspected the chip and the cooler and I found goodness knows how much
cooling paste under there along with some suspect black (burn) marks on the
base of the heatsink so I cleaned it up and applied some of my own cooling
paste but it didn't have any effect; still no boot.

I'm gonna gonna chase up the guy who sold it to me and see if I can get a
refund but it not I'll put it down to bad luck, strip the cooler and get a
new card

Thanks for your advice anyway - anyone any further ideas to see if it is the
GPU which is fried? I'm not getting any beeps on startup to indicate that
anything's wrong, just that the monitor's not coming on and Windows is
loading... lol

Cheers,
ALex

 

[Pluvious]

How much did you spend on it? I still have my old 9700 PRO which works
fine. Are you in the USA? I'd be happy to sell ya my old one for
cheap. Its just a waste sitting there not being used. It was such a
great card too.

Pluvious

 

[Nerdillius Maximus]

Indeed, this was my original thinking when I got the card and presumed it
had a corrupt bios; that I could simply boot up with a PCI card in, flash
the bios of the agp card with the standard 9700 bios and it'd all be

good...

Could try it with a floppy, but if the card's toast and she refuses to
POST...

In actual fact if I have the dodgy card in the AGP slot the pc refuses to
post and just freezes with the HD activity light on for about 2 mins. I've
tried it with a PCI card in, and out, with the mobo bios settings set to PCI
or AGP but it doens't make any difference.

Yep, sounds like the card is indeed FUBAR...

And all the time I've got the power cable plugged in, so it's not that...

I inspected the chip and the cooler and I found goodness knows how much
cooling paste under there along with some suspect black (burn) marks on the
base of the heatsink

Hmm, that's not a good sign...lemme guess, paste just about everywhere but
where it was spoto be...I suspect someone tried to overclock it a little
beyond reasonable expectation...

so I cleaned it up and applied some of my own cooling

paste but it didn't have any effect; still no boot.

Sounds like "shutting the barn door after the horse done escaped", but still
worth a try...

I'm gonna gonna chase up the guy who sold it to me and see if I can get a
refund but it not I'll put it down to bad luck, strip the cooler and get a
new card

I'm sure you could waste the time with legal action to get a refund, but if
he was honest about the card being bollixed, I'm not sure what grounds you
have to complain too loudly :-(. That really sucks. Maybe he is a reasonable
sort of fellow and will account for his mistake if approached in a
diplomatic fashion and at least meet you halfway...

(with me, it might eventually come down to this, as I do not tolerate being
fluffed off at all: "Look, d3wd, I don't wanna hafta shove this card up yer
keister sideways and tamp it in with my big work boot, then piss on yer
stinkin' corpse after I'm done-figuratively speaking of course-but if you
leave me little alternative, you have only yourself to blame...your summons
will be delivered in due haste..." but nobody ever accused me of having much
in the way of diplomacy I suppose, as when push comes to shove, I'm a firm
believer in "peace thru superior firepower", and I can be very
intimidatingly razorlike if necessary-bad movie line 101: "Give me what I
want, and I'll go away"-if my normally large, bumbling, peaceful, forgiving
manner is deliberately taken advantage of...so please do not use this as an
example, there are far more proactive, solution-oriented, reasonable means
available...always try being nice first for as far as that gets ya...;-) and
if that fails, I have an excellent attorney, and the magistrate in Small
Claims and I have a good rapport...but if you bought it with the
understanding that it might be "mostly dead", fair's fair I suppose, and I'd
prolly suck it up too...but he did say it would POST ok, which it clearly
doesn't. Perhaps he could get it to POST for ya so you could reflash on his
box, if not, hold out that hand...)

Thanks for your advice anyway - anyone any further ideas to see if it is the
GPU which is fried? I'm not getting any beeps on startup to indicate that
anything's wrong, just that the monitor's not coming on and Windows is
loading... lol

Got another mobo to try it in? Maybe if it at least POSTed with another mobo
+ PCI primary card, you could flash the right video BIOS and see whatcha got
after the dust settles...that scorch-mark however is not terribly
encouraging...

 

[~@|?x~]

How much did you spend on it? I still have my old 9700 PRO which works
fine. Are you in the USA? I'd be happy to sell ya my old one for
cheap. Its just a waste sitting there not being used. It was such a
great card too.

Pluvious

Hiya there, nope not in the US, I'm over in the UK - I might still be
interested though... I've been checking out the Worldwide ones on eBay which
seem to go for less than they do over here but by the time you've added $18
for shipping then it works out about the same...

I spent £40 GBP on this broken one which is a bit stupid, but less than half
what I'd have paid for a working second hand one so I thought it was worth a
shot if I could flash the bios... but otherwise its not worth anything is
it?
Feel free to get in touch via email if you're looking to sell your old 9700,
anythings gotta be better than my radeon 7000 VIVO ;-)

Alex