Can't enable AGP on my Radeon 9800 Pro

[Sébastien Benoit]

Hi,

I've just installed a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro/128 on my Asus A7N8X-X
motherboard and can't get the AGP acceleration to work. The rest of my
config is Athlon 1800XP with 512 Mb DDR2100 133 Mhz, Win XP SP1, with all
patches/updates and latest Asus BIOS, ATI Catalyst 3.6 drivers.

All the AGP settings seem to be correctly configured in the BIOS, AGP is
automatically set to x4 and no fast write in the ATI Smartgart utility, but
the AGP memory test utility tells me that no AGP memory is found. Could it
be because of the slow RAM?

Any help appreciated.

TIA,

Seb

 

[Skid]

Check your bios settings and make sure you're using the latest AGP drivers
for the Nforce chipset on your motherboard. The card is capable of 8X AGP if
everything is configured properly. Ram shouldn't have anything to do with
it.

Also try going to start/run and type SMARTGART. That will launch an applet
with more tests and options than the tab in display properties.

 

[Sébastien Benoit]

Running the smartgart applet didn't help either, after reboot it always
reverts to deactivated AGP settings.

Where can I download the nforce AGP drivers only? I tried installing the
nforce 3.13 package but it caused a major system crash, so I restored the
previous configuration.

Seb

 

[Skid]

Sorry, I can't help you with NForce drivers. I'm using an Intel board at the
moment.

If you can't find help in this newsgroup, try the forums at www.rage3d.com

There are many helpful 9800 owners there, and several of them have the same
motherboard as you.

You might also want to try running DXDIAG or Sandra Max to see if they also
report AGP disabled. It could be that you are getting a false reading from
SMARTGART.

Finally, if that is the only problem you're having, you might just disable
SMARTGART as an Windows XP service, using the administrative tools.

At that point, enabling 8X AGP in bios should make it work in Windows, even
if SMARTGART doesn't approve ;>)

 

[John Hall]

Aha! I think the major crash you had indicates a hardware setup problem. I
have the same motherboard and the installation of the 3.13 Nforce package
should go smoothly. Make sure that you enable 8XAGP in the bios and fast
writes. Also uninstall any chipset drivers that you currently have
installed. Also make sure that you have the correct bios installed for this
motherboard. There are a couple of bios' floating around depending on what
version of the motherboard that you have. Check the version of mobo and go
find the bios for that version and install it. That should get the mobo
chipset working properly. If you have the right bios installed, and the
proper settings in the bios then you should have no problem installing the
latest Nvidia Nforce drivers. Also make sure that you have the proper
drivers for your operating system. If none of this works, then your mobo,
or at least your chipset, may be toast.

JK

 

[Sébastien Benoit]

Thanks, I'll try that, what is the procedure for a clean uninstall of the
chipset drivers?

Seb

 

[Sébastien Benoit]

The device manager indicates that the Radeon is set on PCI bus 2, is that
right or a hardware problem? Or should it read AGP?

Seb

 

[Ben Pope]

The device manager indicates that the Radeon is set on PCI bus 2, is
that right or a hardware problem? Or should it read AGP?

Thats probably right.

If you view devices by connection you'll see the PCI bus, then the AGP to
PCI Bridge, then the 9800.

Ben

 

[Ed]

The device manager indicates that the Radeon is set on PCI bus 2, is that
right or a hardware problem? Or should it read AGP?

Seb

I just have a plain A7N8X v2.00, running WinXP Pro.

For display adapters/properties it shows
PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0
PCI bus 2, device 0, function 1 (for Secondary).

Card is on IRQ 19.

Cheers,
Ed

 

[Ben Pope]

I just have a plain A7N8X v2.00, running WinXP Pro.

For display adapters/properties it shows
PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0
PCI bus 2, device 0, function 1 (for Secondary).

My Deluxe shows it on PCI bus 3... the 3Com NIC is on it's own PCI bus.

Ben

 

[Ed]

My Deluxe shows it on PCI bus 3... the 3Com NIC is on it's own PCI bus.

Ben

Only have the Nvidia LAN on mine, properties show,
PCI bus 0, device 4, function 0
Never paid attention to that part, maybe you could clue me in on what it
means. ;p

I've always just looked at the IRQ/DMA lists.

Ed
--
IRQ Usage Summary:
(ISA) 0 System timer
(ISA) 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
(ISA) 4 Communications Port (COM1)
(ISA) 6 Standard floppy disk controller
(ISA) 8 System CMOS/real time clock
(ISA) 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
(PCI) 10 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management
(ISA) 13 Numeric data processor
(ISA) 14 Primary IDE Channel
(ISA) 15 Secondary IDE Channel
(PCI) 16 Creative SB Audigy
(PCI) 17 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
(PCI) 19 RADEON 9800 PRO
(PCI) 20 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
(PCI) 21 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
(PCI) 22 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
(PCI) 22 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Controller

DMA Usage Summary:
2 Standard floppy disk controller
4 Direct memory access controller

 

[Ben Pope]

Only have the Nvidia LAN on mine, properties show,
PCI bus 0, device 4, function 0
Never paid attention to that part, maybe you could clue me in on what
it means. ;p

If you view devices by connection it'll show you how it works (sort of).
Basically there are multiple PCI buses in the system, with multiple devices
hanging of of each and with multiple functions per device. They all need
numbering in order to be accessed.

In terms of the PCI bus and it's hierarchy, your 9800 Pro (PCI bus 2, device
0, function 0,1) has two functions (it's basically two seperate cards in
one), is the first PCI device on the 3rd PCI bus (the AGP bus is connected
to a PCI bus via a "bridge", logically, at least)

I've always just looked at the IRQ/DMA lists.

Depends what you want to know really. The actual numbers on the PCI bus are
fairly arbitrary and matter little to the end user... the most interesting
aspect is which devices share a PCI bus.

Ben

 

[Sébastien Benoit]

If you view devices by connection you'll see the PCI bus, then the AGP to
PCI Bridge, then the 9800.

Well, I see PCI to PCI Standard PCI Bridge above the 9800..

Seb

 

[Ben Pope]

Well, I see PCI to PCI Standard PCI Bridge above the 9800..

Weird. I take it that the card IS AGP?

Do you have *any* PCI to AGP Bridge?

If not, remove said PCI bridge and let Windows redetect. Or just force the
nVidia GART driver for it. Which nForce package you got installed, 2.45?

I recommend fixing your 3.13 install problems, but if not, the 2.45 GART
driver should be fine.

Ben

 

[John Hall]

The more I look at these messages, the more I think that you either need to
update the bios for your motherboard, or, you have the wrong bios installed
and need to install the correct one. Once the underpinnings of your PC are
set right, you should have no problem having the video card detected
correctly including AGP settings. Then all you have to do is update the
Nforce drivers and the video drivers, and probably DirectX 9.

JK

 

[Ben Pope]

The more I look at these messages, the more I think that you either
need to update the bios for your motherboard, or, you have the wrong
bios installed and need to install the correct one. Once the
underpinnings of your PC are set right, you should have no problem
having the video card detected correctly including AGP settings.
Then all you have to do is update the Nforce drivers and the video
drivers, and probably DirectX 9.

The problem looks like it is merely a lack of correct driver for AGP, i.e.,
no GART driver.

If he had an incorrect BIOS I'm sure he would have more significant
problems, he has also said he has the latest BIOS. That lack of AGP driver
has not rendered his video card useless... merely without features.

Ben

 

[John Hall]

The thing that started me thinking bios was that he could not successfully
install the nforce drivers, including the AGP driver, without the machine
crashing. So I suspect either wrong bios, or problem with bios setup. If
it's setup all he has to do is go to setup defaults and that should fix it.

I have the same motherboard, version 1.04. Starting with version 2, Asus
started issuing different bios' for the board while at the same time
updating the other bios for the older version boards. I actually downloaded
and almost installed the bios for the version 2 board by mistake. And it is
a mistake that others have made and has been discussed in the Asus
newsgroup.

Anyhow, I hope he can sort this out because he does have a major video
problem. It's all I can suggest for now.

JK