Graphics card problems round 2 - Quick Answer Needed: Computer keeps freezing after switch on.

Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

....they've been reasonably helpful to be fair, but I think this one's
got them stumped. Note my comment to them at the end - dumbo me
forgot to mention the TFT monitor, but the problem is a puzzling one
all the same. To summarise, the card works, but not with my monitor.
AND my monitor works, but not with my graphics card. The TFT
monitor and the graphics cards are all analogue and not DVI.

Okay, let's see the techys in here get their heads round this...

Ian


[your initial question...] My graphics card (PV-T34K-NT - XFX
GeForceFX 5200 128MB DDR TV)has developed a fault in which my computer
has been freezing as Windows (both XP and 98SE on my dual-boot system)
has been loading (this is a progressive fault that has developed since
a month after purchase). The fault is due to the graphics card (I`ve
been informed it could be a memory error on the card) - my computer
started to work normaly again after the substitution of the card with
an alternative card. Due to the urgency of my work, I had to obtain an
immediate replacement graphics card - I could not wait for a
replacement to be sent to me. I now need the card either replaced or
preferably the value of the card refunded (£69.99 in UK currency) -
what is your retruns policy and how can I either get (preferably) a
refund or a replacement (2nd option, as I had to purchase a
replacement card). Many Regards, Ian A. Inman Advanced Materials
Research Institute Ellison Building E001 Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST England Tel: +44 191 227 3614 Fax: +44 191
227 3598 e-mail:

[XFX - 14/1/2004 15:59:46] Hi, this sort of error can be caused by
many factors, but if you can give us your full system hardware
specification and more details on the problem, we may be able to
suggest possible causes and solutions. We do have a returns policy
whereby we can products in our workshop, faulty products are repaired
or replaced, probably, though not necessarily, with a new product. we
do not offer refunds, only the reseller can do that. Regards Tony

[XFX - 19/1/2004 15:1:23] Hi Ian, now not booting at all with the card
in, ok with another. Now have a returns number for you, RM10515.
Please despatch card to : Propellerhead Support Centre, Langdale, Flag
Lane, Penwortham, Preston, England, PR1 9TP. Please pack correctly for
the journey, modified or damaged itmes may be refused. Please also put
the RMA number on the outside. Regards Tony

[you - 19/1/2004 17:4:8] Obviously it won`t be in it`s original
packaging (I chucked the packaging out a month after purchasing - most
faults show by then - and prior to the fault developing - this card
being exception to th rule), but I`ll ensure it gets there safely. I
know where there`s a suitable box plus packing. Thanks very much, Ian

[you - 27/1/2004 14:14:46] Okay, I`ve got the card back now - I see
you`ve tested it and found nothing wrong. However, the error as
described above still persists with my TFT monitor (Phillips 17"), I`m
afraid. I have therefore conducted a few more tests of my own. 1) I
rechecked my PC with three alternative video cards (ATI Rage Pro, ATI
Radeon 9200SE, Geforce 4 MX440) - no problems with the display
whatsoever. 2) I have inserted the `faulty` Geforce FX5200 card in
another PC and found that it does work. So I have the following
situation. a) The card works, but not with my monitor. b) The monitor
works, but not with the card. I`m beat, can you suggest anything? Ian

Ian wrote:
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

...they've been reasonably helpful to be fair, but I think this one's
got them stumped. Note my comment to them at the end - dumbo me
forgot to mention the TFT monitor, but the problem is a puzzling one
all the same. To summarise, the card works, but not with my monitor.
AND my monitor works, but not with my graphics card. The TFT
monitor and the graphics cards are all analogue and not DVI.

snip

Have you deduced whether the card works with your TFT monitor, if the
card is placed in another system and you try your monitor with that?

Since the problem is directly related to the monitor and your system,
then maybe the monitor is generating electrical noise
or causing some kind of ground loop, which the other cards you tried are
not sensitive to?

If the card works with your monitor in another system, then the other
system may be shielding it against the effects somehow. If you can work
out what's different about the system it works in, with your monitor,
you may be able to sort it

Lee

--
To reply use lee.blaver and ntlworld.com

"Ian" wrote in message
om...
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

...they've been reasonably helpful to be fair, but I think this one's
got them stumped. Note my comment to them at the end - dumbo me
forgot to mention the TFT monitor, but the problem is a puzzling one
all the same. To summarise, the card works, but not with my monitor.
AND my monitor works, but not with my graphics card. The TFT
monitor and the graphics cards are all analogue and not DVI.

Maybe your AGP voltage is a bit on the low side (prob. bad mobo
or PSU)?
You don't seem to mention which mobo you have (some are known
to have problems), but many will allow you to monitor/change AGP
voltage. Worth trying some monitoring software to check this, such
as aida32 etc., but best to use one from the mobo manufacturer that's
specific to your particular mobo. That's all I can think of, off hand.
HTH
--
Rob

In ,
Ian wrote:

To summarise, the card works, but not with my monitor.
AND my monitor works, but not with my graphics card. The TFT
monitor and the graphics cards are all analogue and not DVI.

[Snip]

2) I have inserted the `faulty` Geforce FX5200 card in
another PC and found that it does work. So I have the following
situation. a) The card works, but not with my monitor. b) The monitor
works, but not with the card. I`m beat, can you suggest anything? Ian

So have you tried it in the other PC with your monitor or in your PC
with another monitor?

--
My real address is in the Reply-To and includes the .nospam.
See http://www.realh.co.uk/contact.html for more reliable contact addresses.

"Ian" wrote in message
om...
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

SNIP!

Will it boot into safe mode?

Tony

"TMack" wrote in message ...
"Ian" wrote in message
om...
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

SNIP!

Will it boot into safe mode?

Tony

It will 'sometimes' boot into safe mode (98SE and XP). However, the
screen corrupts sometimes before Windows is even reached.

Ian

SNIP

To add to what I said, the alternative system I installed the XFX
Geforce FX5200 card into, it's now done a wobbler with that as well.

The motherboard on my home machine is a ASROCK K7S8X, with an Athlon
2600XP 333 MHz bus processor and PC3200 400 MHz memory running at 333
MHz (might the downclock on the memory affect things - doubt it
myself).

The alternative system I tried the card in is a museum piece, with an
MS6119 BX2 motherboard, Pentium III 450MHz processor and memory
running at only 100 MHz (and according to some around here, not
supposed to be able to run XP, but does very well). Translated to
English, it should take anything and the abuse it's had would make
most machines explode into 1,000 bits.

Ian

In article ,
says...
SNIP

To add to what I said, the alternative system I installed the XFX
Geforce FX5200 card into, it's now done a wobbler with that as well.


The alternative system I tried the card in is a museum piece, with an
MS6119 BX2 motherboard, Pentium III 450MHz processor and memory
running at only 100 MHz (and according to some around here, not
supposed to be able to run XP, but does very well). Translated to
English, it should take anything and the abuse it's had would make
most machines explode into 1,000 bits.

Err, the second machine will kill the card as its only an AGP 2x socket
WHICH SUPPLIES THE WRONG VOLTAGE.

--
Conor

"The vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world.
And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."
- George Bush

"Ian" wrote in message
om...
"TMack" wrote in message
...
"Ian" wrote in message
om...
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

SNIP!

Will it boot into safe mode?

Tony

It will 'sometimes' boot into safe mode (98SE and XP). However, the
screen corrupts sometimes before Windows is even reached.

OK - have you tried it with all other cards and peripheral removed?
Soundcards and other devices sometimes cause problems. Has your motherboard
bios got adjustments for AGP voltage and/or drive strength? If possible try
upping the voltage and increasing AGP drive strength. It may also be
possible to flash the card with a different bios from another manufacturer -
I had to do this to get my Sapphire Radeon 9500 stable (it had entech memory
chips unlike many other 9500s and the sapphire bios wasn't quite right for
it). You might also find that another PSU would sort it - worked for me
with another AGP card problem. You may also find that your motherboard has
a bios update available - again, worth a try. If all else fails ebay it
with a clear description of the problem - XFX say card has no faults but it
seems to be incompatible with your system so sold without guarantee.
Somebody will buy it and there will be no comeback if the buyer has a
problem because it was fairly described and not guaranteed - better than the
bin and a good possibility that it will work OK on another system.

Good luck

Tony

"TMack" wrote in message



"Ian" wrote in message
om...
"TMack" wrote in message
...
"Ian" wrote in message
om...
Right, to follow up on all the other messages about my XFX Geforce
FX5200 card in this thread (or broken thread on Google), they've sent
the card back, saying it was okay. The following are the messages
exchanged between myself and Propellerhead, the agent for Pine / XFX
Force in the UK...

SNIP!

Will it boot into safe mode?

Tony

It will 'sometimes' boot into safe mode (98SE and XP). However, the
screen corrupts sometimes before Windows is even reached.

OK - have you tried it with all other cards and peripheral removed?
Soundcards and other devices sometimes cause problems. Has your motherboard
bios got adjustments for AGP voltage and/or drive strength? If possible try
upping the voltage and increasing AGP drive strength. It may also be
possible to flash the card with a different bios from another manufacturer -
I had to do this to get my Sapphire Radeon 9500 stable (it had entech memory
chips unlike many other 9500s and the sapphire bios wasn't quite right for
it). You might also find that another PSU would sort it - worked for me
with another AGP card problem. You may also find that your motherboard has
a bios update available - again, worth a try. If all else fails ebay it
with a clear description of the problem - XFX say card has no faults but it
seems to be incompatible with your system so sold without guarantee.
Somebody will buy it and there will be no comeback if the buyer has a
problem because it was fairly described and not guaranteed - better than the
bin and a good possibility that it will work OK on another system.

Good luck

Tony


Been on the phone to XFX / Pine and subsequent to their tests, they
just don't want to know. They seem to hinting there may be a problem
with my motherboard (ASROCK K7S8X with an Athlon XP2600 sitting on it)
as regards my card (their tests were done with XFX motherboards -
hmm). The card has now been tested on two different systems with the
same fault showing up (the Pentium III / MS 6119 board combo. making
up the second config. does take 1.5/1.6 V cards, despite only being
APG 2X - later revision???), thus on the face of it dismissing their
incompatability comment. To be sure, I tested an old ATI Rage Pro,
an XFX Gefore MX440 and my new card (Sapphire Radeon 9200 SX) on both
without problems - XFX still won't budge.

I've used two different power supplies (300W then 400W), so I've
eliminated that possibility. The card is faulty, that's clear - I
think I'm beat and it looks as though I'll have to write off the £70 I
spent on it. XFX / Pine will not be receiving any more of my custom
(what I really want them to do I'll not repeat).

The replacement card is a Sapphire Radeon 9200SX card (128 MByte) and
has given trouble free performance on my system - curiously (and this
shouldn't happen to the degree it has), the performance of the entire
system is now noticable better / faster than it was with the Gefore
FX5200 card in (when it did decide to get out of bed). Then again I
may have just got lucky with the Radeon card...

Ian