PCI Radeon dies on boot

**Froghead** · June 7th, 2004, 11:57 PM

Hi all. Just looking for your thoughts on a situation I have with a customer's system that we've tried to upgrade his video card on. Customer's system is a Celeron 400 with CD-ROM, CDRW, 512SDRAM (2x256) hardrive and NIC. Mainboard is AOPEN (don't know the model) with onboard video and sound, no AGP slot and 3 PCI slots. PSU was 250W. System was running fine with Powercolor 7500 RADEON PCI 64MB DDR. Onboard video disabled, set to boot PCI video first.

We installed a new Radeon 9200 128MB PCI card and system failed to post.
No beeps. Put back 7500 card and it posts fine. Thought maybe we were on the borderline with the 250 watt PSU so changed to 300 watt. No success with 9200 card. Tested 9200 in another machine and it's dead.

Ordered a replacement, supplier is out of stock but they have 9200 256MB.

Try the new 9200/256 with 300w psu and alas no post no beeps.
Put back 7500 and all is fine. Test 9200/256 in another machine and it too is dead. Did I get two dead cards in a row???

Or is the mainboard killing the video cards?

Can't find any info at Aopen or Powercolor on compatabilty issues. Is there a voltage problem here? PCI version setting in bios maybe?

Anyways I've ordered another 9200/256 MB card which we will test in another system first to make sure it works but you can see that I'm reluctant to pop another card in this system at this point.

Any ideas?

Thanks folks.

**Spork** · June 10th, 2004, 01:34 PM

Definitely try the 9200 in a different system first. Then once you can confirm that it is working, try putting it in the customer's system again. Also, be sure to check all the jumpers on the system. Perhaps something is set to accomodate the existing video card and not the new one.

I would definitely find out the model number of that motherboard and do some researching on it. Perhaps there is something that needs to be done in order for the new video card to work.

Personally, it sounds like some sort of voltage problem. Perhaps whatever it is set at will only work for the existing video card and when you install the new one, it's getting shorted out.

Hope you find out something.

**confus-ed** · June 10th, 2004, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by Spork

..Personally, it sounds like some sort of voltage problem...

Confus-ed with agp perhaps ?, there's all that agp 1.5 & 3.3v business ('older' 1 & 2x cards are mostly 3.3 & 'newer' 4x & 8x are 1.5v), very often there's a jumper on the board needs setting, but here its pci ..?

Personally here I'm more interested in the wisdom of replacing a 7500 with a 9200 256 when it is pci ! 'cos I thought it was agp when I read it all first time (but whats the point when most of the extra speed & performance will just get bogged down by going at 1/2 agp speed ?)

But however & whatever I'll be interested to see if there's a less obvious cause than 2 duff or fried boards ..

**Froghead** · June 11th, 2004, 12:21 AM

Common sense has prevailed. Customer is upgrading mainboard, CPU, RAM, PSU and going to AGP video. Thank you all for having a look.
Cheers!

**WebHead** · June 11th, 2004, 01:05 AM

I see you got it resolved,.. but just out of curiosity,.. did you notice if there are any spots on teh 9200 video card(s) or mobo that got fried from a possible short or other related issue? Or have you done any continuity checks anywhere on any of the hardware? I'm only asking out of curiosity. Either way, sounds like an el cheapo mobo is the main problem there.

**GrandDad** · June 11th, 2004, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by Froghead

We installed a new Radeon 9200 128MB PCI card and system failed to post.
No beeps. Put back 7500 card and it posts fine. Thought maybe we were on the borderline with the 250 watt PSU so changed to 300 watt. No success with 9200 card. Tested 9200 in another machine and it's dead.

Ordered a replacement, supplier is out of stock but they have 9200 256MB.

Try the new 9200/256 with 300w psu and alas no post no beeps.
Put back 7500 and all is fine. Test 9200/256 in another machine and it too is dead. Did I get two dead cards in a row???

Any ideas?

Thanks folks.

What was the other 'Machine' ? just cur.

**Froghead** · June 12th, 2004, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

What was the other 'Machine' ? just cur.

Other machine was on of our tech boxes we use for testing SDRAM and other cards.We use it to test AGP and PCI video cards and it is a slot PII board. Good question though as maybe it doesn't have enough jam for the Radeon 9200 either.
Hmmm.... perhaps I'll get our RMA guy to test them both in a newer system before sending them back.

Webhead - the Aopen board still works fine with the Radeon 7500 PCI card - no apparent damage and we didn't notice anything on the two 9200 cards we tried either but will look again closer before they go back.

Totally unrelated but I just came home to see my house lit up with flood lights, the trees all toilet papered and "over the hill" signs all over the front yard.
Yahoo I'm 50. Time for bed. G'night

**GrandDad** · June 12th, 2004, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Froghead

Other machine was on of our tech boxes we use for testing SDRAM and other cards.We use it to test AGP and PCI video cards and it is a slot PII board. Good question though as maybe it doesn't have enough jam for the Radeon 9200 either.
Hmmm.... perhaps I'll get our RMA guy to test them both in a newer system before sending them back.

Webhead - the Aopen board still works fine with the Radeon 7500 PCI card - no apparent damage and we didn't notice anything on the two 9200 cards we tried either but will look again closer before they go back.

Totally unrelated but I just came home to see my house lit up with flood lights, the trees all toilet papered and "over the hill" signs all over the front yard.
Yahoo I'm 50. Time for bed. G'night

Hey somebody older than me , not by much tho .