[revjake]

This is long and drawn out, but bear with me here...

1) Got a 256mb Geforce 5200fx AGP (Apollo "Bloody Monster 3" replacing a battered Geforce 2MX 440), put it into a system w/Abit KT7 mobo, 768mb RAM, 300w PSU, 1.2ghz Athlon T-bird processor. System boots, either locks up or reboots whenever the card has to do any heavy lifting (pretty much anything with 3d graphics).

2) Card works fine in another system w/Lanparty NFII, 400w PSU, 1 gig RAM, Athlon 2600XP. But then, that system had a 128mb Geforce 5200fx AGP in it before.

3) Replaced PSU in first system with new Thermaltake 420w PSU, added Samsung 120 gig HD. Put the 256mb Geforce back in, system wouldn't boot, monitor said nothing was plugged in.

4) Cursed a lot, thought I had killed the 256mb card, but no, it worked just fine in second system.

5) Put the 128mb Geforce FX into the first system, system booted just fine.

6) Cleared the CMOS, put the 256mb Geforce back into it, still didn't boot.

6a) Tried hooking up another (known working) monitor. No boot.

7) Put the 128mb Geforce back in, reset the CMOS (incl. setting AGP aperture to 256mb, enabling AGP4x, setting driving strength to auto). System reset, no video.

8) Cursed even more, put 256mb card in. No boot.

9) For the heck of it, put in the Geforce 2MX 440. No boot.

10) Cursing lots, put in old Stealth 3d PCI card I had lying around. No boot.

Any help would be quite appreciated. This has me stymied.

 

[Jack Horner]

Second problem first - since you can't boot after changing the PSU, make sure all connections to the MOBO are good. Check CPU fan to MOBO connection. Reseat the memory. If these fail try putting the old PSU back in.
Problem 1 - video card. I also have a geforce 5200 with 256mg RAM. This card was very unstable when I first got it. The only way I could get it to run right was to increase the AGP voltage in the BIOS. Card is now O/C'd from stock 250*333 to 295*365 and never misses a beat.

 

[GoLoGo]

Also you may need to check the manual jumper settings on your motherboard for the AGP multiplier.... set it on auto, or through the bios. Make sure its on 8x. Also you may need to update your bios depending on your motherboard... a few wont take that card.

 

[revjake]

1) The new PSU is good. The system in question worked fine when all I did was switch it out, before messing with the video card.

2) The mobo only does AGP 4x, set by the BIOS (afaik).

3) Put the 128mb Geforce back in and got into Windows XP, but it still looks like it reboots itself when it has to do some heavy work - started up Sims 2, and it died about a second after it started to actually draw the neighborhood.

Still haven't ruled out a mobo/card conflict, but I'm at work right now, so I can't fix things. One thing about flashing the bios - there's no floppy drive on the machine, and the floppy controller has *never* worked on it. Abit has a Windows flashing utility, but it doesn't work for my particular board.

With that in mind, how in the world can I flash the bios without a floppy? I'd guess I could use a bootable CD, but I've no idea how to make one of those.

Jack, when I get home I'll try to up the AGP voltage and see if that helps - don't remember if that's an option in the BIOS, but we'll see.

Thanks for all the advice, guys, and keep it comin'! I've got to get this working before the proverbial "she" kicks my tail for ruining her Sims 2 "legacy" family.