Radeon 64ddr 4x agp card in 8x agp slot? (was: Another A7n8x-D won'tpost)

[Randy]

Setup:
A7N8X-D rev 1.04, (ASUS replaced the original board because of a broken
cpu mount handle)
bios 1001G
Antec 450W power supply in Antec server case
Athlon XP 2600 with a Swiftech MCX462 Heatsink bolted through the board
Radeon 9700 Pro video card
WD 80 Gig HD
Sony DVD burner
512 Megs no name pc-2700 memory
Windows XP Pro

Been running the system for 3-4 weeks fine but network (Nvidia lan port)
doesn't see the other XP Pro machine across the room. Then one day that
port didn't work at all so changed to the 3Com prot. Network wizard
still doesn't see the other machine across the room. Will try to fix it
later. Can't network to the HP photosmart printer. Will fix that later

with a dedicated printer cable or usb.

Got ready to button it up and move it to the other desk and remembered
was having sound problems, reinstalled the Nvidia sound drivers. Fine.

Got sound on 2 crappy speakers. Noticed in device manager that SMBus was
not working, yellow exclamation point. Everything SEEMED to work ok for
a week.

Lat Sunday morning no post. Nada. Jiggled cords around. Tried several
times during the day.

Monday morning posted and booted up long enough to get email and
download memtest86. Ran that and the memory passed the first series (23
minutes). Shut down. I will take the memory back to the vendor tomorrow
and have them test it.

Monday night, dead again...no post. Jiggled wires, removed video card,

swapped memory to different slots.

Fans all run and the green board led lights up. The router sees
activity.

I took the "dead" a7n8x-d mobo to the local computer shop and the pc2700
ddr
memory is ok according to the tech. Here's what he did:

1. Since I forgot to take my Radeon 9700 pro video card with me, he
fired
the board up with only my 512M pc2700 DDR333 no-name memory and HIS agp
video card. (I don't know if it was a 4x or 8x). The mobo posted for
him.

2. He fired up the board with his memory and agp video card. The mobo
posted
for him.

3. We thought it might be power supply problem on my end. So I replaced
my
Antec 450w with a HEC 350w. I still have no post.

I'm suspecting my Radeon 9700 Pro video card is bad OR the agp slot is
sloppy, or the mobo just doesn't like my radeon card. But why after 3-4
weeks of running fine?

The only thing I haven't done as yet is try another video card, but the
only
one I have to try is the Radeon 64DDR (4xagp) in the asus a7a266 that
I'm
using to post this message.

Here's the big question: Can I try the Radeon 64ddr 4x agp card in the
a7n8x-d mobo?

Conversly, can I try the Radeon 9700 pro 8x agp card in the a7a266 mobo?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Rodders]

The only thing I haven't done as yet is try another video card, but the
only
one I have to try is the Radeon 64DDR (4xagp) in the asus a7a266 that
I'm
using to post this message.

Here's the big question: Can I try the Radeon 64ddr 4x agp card in the
a7n8x-d mobo?

Conversly, can I try the Radeon 9700 pro 8x agp card in the a7a266 mobo?

Thanks so much for your help.

I'm using a Radeon 8500 with my A7N8X-D - no problems (the 8500 is basically
the same as the 64DDR)

 

[Randy]

I'm using a Radeon 8500 with my A7N8X-D - no problems (the 8500 is basically
the same as the 64DDR)

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't up to taking the a7a266 case off and swapping the
video cards, so I took the radeon 9700 Pro card (that I forgot on Saturday) and
the a7n8x-d card back to the computer shop, Advanced 2000. The tech kindly
tested the combination again, plus put the radeon card in another system. The
Radeon 9700 card is dead. I will rma it later this week.

I bought a cheap Chaintech Geforce 4 MX440 video card (64Meg SDRAM 4agp) to use
in the meantime. It now posts.

Funny how there was no beeping signal telling me there was "no video". I thought
all mobos did that. They should!

Randy

 

[Ed]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't up to taking the a7a266 case off and swapping the
video cards, so I took the radeon 9700 Pro card (that I forgot on Saturday) and
the a7n8x-d card back to the computer shop, Advanced 2000. The tech kindly
tested the combination again, plus put the radeon card in another system. The
Radeon 9700 card is dead. I will rma it later this week.

I bought a cheap Chaintech Geforce 4 MX440 video card (64Meg SDRAM 4agp) to use
in the meantime. It now posts.

Funny how there was no beeping signal telling me there was "no video". I thought
all mobos did that. They should!

Randy

There may be voice coming out of line out instead of beeps from pc
speaker, try a pair of headphones next time.

Ed

 

[Randy]

Ed wrote:

There may be voice coming out of line out instead of beeps from pc
speaker, try a pair of headphones next time.

You're right...I can hear the post reporter through the cheap speakers.

p.s. as to the video problem? lightening storm the night before the mobo
apparently went dead. Only took out the video card.

Randy