Gateway PIII500 and Inno MX440

[ozrica]

I have just tried to upgrade a Gateway PIII500 machine with an 64MB Inno Nvidia MX440 graphics card. The original card is a 16MB 3DFX Voodoo 3000.

When powering up there are various beeps indicating a problem with the graphics card and there is no output to the monitor.

I've tested the card on a PIII600 and everything boots up OK.

There is obviously a compatability problem with the gateway motherboard and the new card but what?

I obviously need to buy a card for the machine but can't really afford to just buy another one and hope for the best!

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Just had a thought........could it be that the Gateway's AGP slot is NOT 2.0 compliant? I don't know how to check this!!!!!

[underfunded]

All of Gateways P3 motherboards are AGP 2.0 compatable but I can look it up if you PM me with your serial number. As for other things to check, make sure the ram is seated properly. Try removing all your other cards and unhooking the ide cables and see if you get any video. Then if you do rehook things one at a time until you are done. I have not heard of any particular video cards not working with Gateway systems as long as you meet the requirements for the vid card.

good luck,
Underfunded.

[Ebu]

Also, a bios update may be the trick also.

[ozrica]

Thanks for your replies. I have just managed to get my hands on the machine.

The original BIOS was:
4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10

I have managed to update this to:
4W4SB0X0.15A.0019.P14 (I think this is the last release)

The Inno card still posts with three error beeps.

The original Voodoo3 still functions correctly.

Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks in advance once again.

[NooNoo]

another inno card... or put that inno in another machine... could be faulty.

[ozrica]

I have already tested the card in a PIII600 system and it works fine.

Any other ideas?

[NooNoo]

ooops, sorry... reading too fast between reloads.

Underfunded is probably your best source of info with gateway motherboards... but I am thinking voltage here...

[underfunded]

if you want PM me with the serial number and I can look it up. The serial number is 10 digits and begins 00.

[ozrica]

Thanks to everyone for your help.

I managed to borrow three different MX440 cards. The only one that worked was from MSI.

The computer is now happy for another 6 months.

Thanks once again.