A question for anybody who might have had a problem like this before. I have built a mostly new system(excpet for vid card, CDRW and DVD drive, floppy, NIC, modem). My problem is it won’t boot with my GF3Ti 500 card. It runs but no signal is sent at all. I put it a old 3dfx AGP card in and it boots up fine so it doesn’t look like the AGP slot is flat out broken. Any ideas as what might cause a problem like this? Maybe the AGP slot isn’t quite up to spec enough to run the newer GF3?
It seems like you’re saying you upgraded the MoBo and processor, but then you wonder if the AGP slot might be deficient.
What motherboard and processor did you get? The General Mills CocoBoard?
Seriously though…did the card work in the previous machine?
Is it possible you’re not seating it well enough?
Oh yeah…it’s probably the power supply. How many watts?
[EDIT: Added power supply question]
Does the system beep when it starts up? If so, how many beeps and in what pattern? Check that pattern of beeps against your motherboard manual or your motherboard manufacturers support site.
If you are getting no beeps at all, it’s probably one of 3 things. A flipped IDE cable, a motherboard jumper in the wrong spot, or just defective hardware. Try unplugging your IDE cables from the motherboard and see if it will boot. If you get video output in that case, you had one of the IDE cables plugged in upside down. If you still aren’t getting video, check your motherboard documentation and verify that all jumpers (including CMOS clear jumper) are in the right spots. Try again. If it still doesn’t work, spend a quiet 30 minutes writing down a list of particularly nasty things to say to tech support when they try to get rid of you. Preparation is always important.
The PS is enough is a brand new 400W Antec. I get no beeps when the system starts with the GF card in it. It just runs with no signal. I do get beeps with the 3dfx card but like I said it runs fine with that in, All the way into windows. There’s no documentation on the sounds, but then again they occur when the 3dfx card is installed, and there’s no problem happening then. There’s 4 LED lights that are used for messages for this mobo(MSI KT3 Ultra2). The pattern its on when the GF3 card is in says its at the ‘Testing VGA Bios’ and goes no further.
I have a friend who’s got a GF4 that he’s going to let me put in quick to see if it boots then. Give me a bettr idea if its the slot or just my GF card with this mobo.
It’s almost certainly not the power supply then is it.
Hmm…testing the video card on another motherboard is a good idea as is your idea of testing another (more recent) video card on your motherboard.
Good luck.
Wow, that’s weird. I had a similar problem with my Voodoo 5 card; on those cards you had to plug a power cable into the card (like with a disk drive). If I didn’t plug it in, I got no video, no beeps, no nothing, just like you. I never had a GF3, but think it’s the same era as Voodoo5. Could this be the problem? Also, make sure it’s seated. Sometimes those AGP slots come with a little clip dodad on them so you can lock the card in place. Make sure nothing like that is fouling seating the card.
This is just a stupid problem that you are going to figure out. Using a newer card is a good idea. Also try the Gf3 in your friends machine and see if it’s didn’t give up the ghost immediately after the last time you yanked it out of a working machine.
[size=2]edit: fowl/foul. Squawk![/size]