computer won't boot with TV card(s) in

[tg]

I got a strange problem with a couple of TV tuner PCI cards.
One is a Videomate TV/PVR/FM, the other is Fly DVB-T Hybrid. If I plug either one of them into any PCI slot on my motherboard the
PC won't boot - the fan and lights come on but the screen is black. If I take the TV card out my PC boots up as normal again. My
motherboard is an Abit IC7 Max3. This board is based on an Intel 875P Chipset and has an Intel Presott 3GHz cpu with 1Gb DDR Ram. I
also have a Pinnacle 300i DVB TV PCI card and my PC boots fine with that in.
What I did notice was that both TV cards have an SAA713X chip. The Videomate has an SAA7130HL chip and the Fly card has an SAA7131E
chip.
Is it because these cards are rubbish? should I be altering something in the BIOS? Thanks for any help.

 

[Dave]

I got a strange problem with a couple of TV tuner PCI cards.
One is a Videomate TV/PVR/FM, the other is Fly DVB-T Hybrid. If I plug
either one of them into any PCI slot on my motherboard the
PC won't boot - the fan and lights come on but the screen is black. If I
take the TV card out my PC boots up as normal again. My
motherboard is an Abit IC7 Max3. This board is based on an Intel 875P
Chipset and has an Intel Presott 3GHz cpu with 1Gb DDR Ram. I
also have a Pinnacle 300i DVB TV PCI card and my PC boots fine with that
in.
What I did notice was that both TV cards have an SAA713X chip. The
Videomate has an SAA7130HL chip and the Fly card has an SAA7131E
chip.
Is it because these cards are rubbish? should I be altering something in
the BIOS? Thanks for any help.

You don't have two tv tuners installed at the same time, do you? That could
easily cause a resource conflict, unless your BIOS is flexible enough to
assign IRQs to specific PCI slots. For that matter, it's probably an IRQ
conflict anyway. Try turning off onboard audio and/or physically removing
your sound card temporarily to see what happens. -Dave

 

[Rod Speed]

You don't have two tv tuners installed at the same time, do you? That could easily cause a
resource conflict, unless your BIOS is
flexible enough to assign IRQs to specific PCI slots. For that
matter, it's probably an IRQ conflict anyway.

That shouldnt produce a black screen on the monitor.

 

[DaveW]

It sounds like the two cards with the same chip on it are trying to share
the same system resources, and thus conflicting.

 

[Ken Maltby]

It sounds like the two cards with the same chip on it are trying to share
the same system resources, and thus conflicting.

The AV Decoder chips on PCI cards wouldn't be accessed
to perform the system start up. Having more than one TV or
capture card in a system is not normally a problem. A good
number of people use several to create Multi-Tuner "TiVo Like"
HTPC setups. In any case, they shouldn't effect booting as you
are seeing, and you appear to have the problem when only one
of the suspect cards are plugged-in. The SAA 7114H is a
very well respected and stable chip. Others in that series should
share most of its good characteristics.

A general conflict with video related resources off the PCI
bus would be a more likely possibility. (Especially with the
black screen.) Do you have another Video Card? The
TV Cards could have a conflict with that or its drivers.

Luck;
Ken

 

[tg]

It sounds like the two cards with the same chip on it are trying to share the same system resources, and thus conflicting.

no I'm only trying one card at a time, not two at once.

 

[tg]

thanks for all the responses here.
I found the solution. I wasn't switching the power completely off when changng the PCI cards.
If the PC was shut down but still plugged in to the power, it would not reboot when I fitted the PCI card.
But if I switched the power off (and the little light on the motherboard went out), and then changed the card the PC would now
boot with the PCI card in.
What a ****ing palava.

 

[Rod Speed]

thanks for all the responses here.
I found the solution. I wasn't switching the power completely off
when changng the PCI cards. If the PC was shut down but still plugged in to the power, it would
not reboot when I fitted the PCI card. But if I switched the power off (and the little light on
the
motherboard went out), and then changed the card the PC would now
boot with the PCI card in.

Urk, that isnt great for the system.