Hi, All!

I want to upgrade my AGP card while they're still available. I got a NV 7600 GT Superclocked 512 mb AGP (350w min.) for my Dell 530 MT Precision Workstation---1.8 ghz (2 cpu), 1 gig ram, 460w psu.

I uninstalled NV drivers and installed the 7600 but as the title says, no joy in Windoz loading, it goes immediately into display of "entering sleep mode" and the screen goes black.

I checked the card seating, etc. several times but no go. AGP aperture set at 256. No other AGP settings were apparent. Searched this forum but nothing similar found.

I reinstalled my NV 6800 XT 256 mb 500w card and all is okay with 84.26 drivers. I run in perfect with water=1, lower settings mostly in conf.ini all round but have some occasional 2-3 sec. pauses in the usual places.

Dell Support (nice tech guy, by the way), suggested either:
1)Remove card, remove cmos battery for 30 sec's which resets bios to factory spec's, replace battery, install card.
2)Go to bios, set caps lock, number lock and scroll lock to on, hit Alt+E, Alt=F, Alt+B to clear the bios.

Any ideas on this?

Any other ideas on why Windoz won't load/ the rig goes directly into sleep mode?

Thanks for any assistance with this nag!

Strider1

I don't think the rig is going to sleep, the monitor is not getting a signal and is going to sleep. Does the pc beep when it starts up? The most important thing to figure out right now is if the pc is starting up but nothing is displaying, or if the pc is not booting up at all, big difference. Is there a power plug on the videocard? What kind of monitor do you have and how is it connected to the card? Have you tried the other output?

Thanks for your interest, Urufu.

When I power up, the Bios screen displays and loads. I get a message "Previous voltage failure, press f1 to continue, press F2 to enter setup utility". This has occurred since I installed the 6800 XT card but simply pressing F1 lets the Windows load screen appear and it loads.

There is a power plug on the vid card---I checked it several times to make sure it was firmly seated. The card came with a 4 pin "Y" power cable. The same source plug powers my 6800 XT so the juice is getting through.

The monitor is a Fujitsu Seimens 19" flat panel connected to the DVI output with a VGA adapter. I have not tried other outputs as I have no other adapter plug.

When I powered up, the rig gave out a continuous high-pitched annoying tone that says (to me) somethings not right here but not each time I powered up after shutting down to check seating of card and power plug.

Since the box was open, I took the opportunity to clean out the crud and dust on the grates and inside, being very careful not to damage anything. Like I said, I reinstalled the old card and driver and it works as before.

Thanks again for any assistance you can offer. I've been in touch with Dell and EVGA support but got only as described in my 1st post and to check the amps on the 12v rail which appears to be 17.0.

Thanks again for your time, sir.

Strider1

At first it sounded to me like a common problem with these cards, NVidia claims that there latest drivers also work for the 7 series cards but i seriously doubt they really tested that.

With the latest XP drivers a lot of these cards show a black screen right after windows boots up, especialy wen you also have NTune installed.

Last perfectly working driver is 93.71, after that some cards get problems like the Fan constanly being reset to 0% so the card over heats after a few minutes, and with the latest drivers the computer gives a black screen right after windows boots up.

I dont think this is your problem but you can try with the old card or by using Safe Mode to boot up to uninstall the Videocard drivers NTune if you got that, trhan Install the 93.71 driver and see what happens.


But reading your last post i suspect a Defective Mainboard or Powersuply since it was giving problems also before with the 6800XT.

Use the HWMonitor tool here: www.cpuid.com to see Voltages and Temps, but keep in mind that if its a Mainboard problem the displayed voltages and tempratures can be way off from what its reading.

There are also other tools that are verry usefull in detecting a problem like CPU-Z and PC Wizard on that site.

17A on the 12v may be a little low. Any chance of borrowing a beefier powersupply and testing? Or do you have a friend so you can take the new card to his pc and see if it works? With all the beeping and bios messages even with the 6800 you may have a problem with the system anyway that isn't manifesting until you put in the 7600. I don't envy your position, this might be hard to diagnose, although I learn toward psu.

Just some fyi. The case I purchased for my initial build of my current rig came with a 500watt PSU. It had 19amps on its' 12v rail, or at least that is what the sticker on its' side touted. Yet it wouldn't even power up with a 9800Pro installed. I had a PCI Rage graphics card here at the time and with it installed in a plain PCI slot the computer powered up normally. But as soon as I reinstalled the 9800Pro and its' 4-pin power supply connection, the computer would not load at all. So it may very well be that there aren't enough amps on the 12v rail as Urufu suggested.

WOW! I really lucked out, getting replies from 3 of the most knowledgable guys here, let alone the most helpful. Thanks, m8's!

Yeah, I was a little disconcerted when I saw that 12v rail rating, having read some on the subject. Just wasn't thinking of it when I considered that card. Quazi, I passed you a couple of links to power supply guides some time ago.

Not that my present candy is too hard on the eyes


Being a proprietary rig, upgrading the power supply is unlikely but I'll check. Lot easier to RMA the card and be happy until I get a new rig---going to build, just a matter of budget for the foreseeable future.

Thanks again for your time, gents. I have learned a lot from reading your respective posts in this and other threads and I'm sure everyone here appreciates that you take the time to help so much.

~S~ and Cheers!

Strider1

Looking at the rest of the rig you would probably be cpu limited with the new card anyway. The 6800XT is probably just about perfectly balance with the rest of the system. Check about the psu if you curious but I would RMA the card and put that money away for a new rig.

Thanks Urufu!

Already got a Return Authorization and have it packed up.

I got the HWMonitor and get with the 6800XT:
vid card: Idle---71C
Load---80C
Hdd: Idle---37C
Load---38C

I considered the cpu limitation but thought I would try it anyway. Best to do it right in the 1st place.

Here's a ranking of brand name psu's with recommendations:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088
No punches pulled here!

Thanks again for all your help!

~S~ and Cheers!

Strider1

Could you take a screenshot of the HWMonitor window after leaving it run for atleast 10 minutes.

Also wen you mesure the Amp's you should do so under full load, like with 3Dmarks06 running to really push the card/system.
Only under full load the card will pull its max Amps's, at idle it should be a lot lower.

Your 7600GT card needs 12volt 18Amp's atleast from the PSU.

Keep in mind that your problem can be caused by a defect on the Motherboard before you buy a new PSU.

The best PSU currently on the market are the ones from Be-Quiet, both the Straight and Dark power versions.

www.be-quiet.net

Also a great tool there to see what kind of Powersuply you need.

I agrea though that building a new rig would be the best solution, a good rig doesnt have to cost that much anymore if you build it your self.

Last one i build for my self was about 300 Euro's and i played Crysis on that Online because my favorit servers where using PunkBuster wich doesnt work with Vista 64 bit wich my other rig runs on.

So a good performing machine doesnt have to cost that much aslong as you dont demand to play the latest games at there maximum settings.

Shortly after that i was able to get a new Mobo for my old system so i rebuild and upgraded that system and sold the new one for 300 Euro's

Thanks NDS_Camp.!

The saga goes on.

As I said, reinstalled the 6800 XT and drivers from cd, sim played as before. Still got the "voltage failure, etc." message on reboot.

I changed to the 93.71 drivers with proper procedure, including a driver cleaner from Guru3d, and on reboot, no display on monitor.

After hours of trying, I took it to my Vendor's shop. He called to advise that my 6800 XT had bit the dust, fried, gone to the vid card heaven ! I had him install a bigger hard drive while there with a fresh install of XP Pro. I had my entire C:/ drive backed up on an external so it wasn't too long to get back in business. He "lent" me a MX4 card until I get a replacement. It won't run the sim except at less the slideshow speed and even the mouse cursor is jerky. No "voltage failure, etc." message on reboot.

I was to do my final exam for Advanced Fighter School 2 (Wingman Tactics) at Joint-ops Virtual Combat Schooltomorrow morning. Oh well, I've got the course down pat and improved immeasurably from the excellent instruction and help from the friendly folks there. Shameless endorsement but anyone could benefit from their sequence of courses. Ready for online!

No sense doing a HW test since the card changed.

If you don't mind, would you kindly advise the components you used for your rig and where you purchased them? I repeat my budget comment...

My Vendor has offered me his cost at $1100 Can. as a favor for past services, on a 3.6 ghz, 4 gb ram machine. I want to see a detailed parts list before I commit but it sounds like too good to turn down. I would do some pro bono work for him to show my appreciation.

I'll be back in the skies soon!

~S~ and Cheers!

Strider1

A: Get the old card back because probably nothings wrong with it at all.
Way more likly your Mobo or PSU are defective.

B: Run HWMonitor for 10 minutes or more and take a screenshot.
Doesnt matter you changed the cards, it looks at the whole system.


Got 2 machines here.. but if i would build an other one now i go for these parts:

AMD X2 6400 Dual Core or X4 9850 Quad Core
AMD 790X Crossfire Mobo
AMD/ATI HD3870X2 x2 in Crossfire

Or

Intel E8500 Dual Core
NForce 780i SLI Mobo
GeForce 9800GTX x2 in SLI

Personaly i would go for the AMD machine.

Keep in mind that a XP or Vista 32bit can only asign 2GB memory to a aplication, and can only use 3GB effectivly, so best thing to do on a OS like that is to stick 2x 1GB in Dual Channel in there.
Vista 64bit doesnt have that limitation.

I can't offer much help but I have the same Vcard. Nothing but trouble, even after I installed the latest drivers.

I have an FX5200 that came with my pc (bought it used) and am thinking of putting that in since I don't have any games at the moment.

Fritz

Too bad my 8600GT is PCIe, I'd give it to you.

Kind thought Mort.

I just switched cards and found I have the same problems anyway. I think my monitor is on the blink.

But I did notice something. The card has a tag that says NX7600GS-TD256. That helped me to find an exact driver. I'll have to see how that goes.

Best XP drivers for a 7600 PCI-E or AGP card are the 93.71, the later drivers are not optimized for these cards and can give some weird probems like discribed here, or cause the card to overheat by setting the fanspeed much to low, or even off in some cases.

Thanks NDS, I'll try it.

Thanks for the continuing info, m8's!

Thanks also, mortoma, for your generous thought and taking the time to express it! See PM, pls.

@ NDS_Camp.---Thanks for your level 1 input, sir. I re-d/l'd HWMonitor 3 times but only get a temp read on the hd, not for the card nor any voltages. That certainly lends more emphasis to your psu/motherboard thesis. Do you think a combination of factors may be at work here---not enough amps on the 12v rail, straining the limit trying the excessive draw 7600, etc.? A voltage read-out would sure help decide.

Bottom line---no flying for 3 days with hours of getting sorted and updated on a new hd. I studied and did the written part of my exam this a.m. and stayed on coms to hear my most excellent classmates go through their flight testing. They all offered to do a "reunion" to wing with me for my flight testing when I get my rig together. Great people, all, especially our lady instructor who can hand anyone their ___ in short order.

Right now, considering my options and budget, trying to find a friend who has a rig that I can test the 6800 XT on. I won't put it back in this rig but if usuable, can trade or give it to someone. Mortoma wisdom.

All this on top of a family funeral yesterday. Think I'll go to bed now.

~S~ and Cheers!

Strider1

As i said before, 17 Amp's doesnt sound bad at all, if your card isnt under full load its not gonna pull the max number of Amp's so 17 Amp's should be ok', and even if its only able to put out a max of 17 Amp's on the 12Volt line than the card shouldnt be acting like it is.
Your card uses a max of 18Amp's wich is the same as my "stock" 7600GT wich i had running on a 14Amp's 300Watt PSU for a while with out serious problems.

If your HWMonitor only displays the temps of the HD, and no System Voltages, Tempratures and Fanspeeds, i would really suspect the Mainboard being defective.
Can you add a screenshot of what it does look like?

Anyway get the 6800XT card back because im 95% sure its not broken and perfectly fine if you stick it in an other rig like you sugested your self, should qwork fine than, unless it did get fried by a defect in the mainboard, but that means every other card you stick in there awaits the same fait after a while.

If you do buy an other 7600GT AGP card again, dont buy the EVGA, Buy a Leadtek or even better a Palit/XpertVision 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 AGP card, those are a lot cheaper than the EVGA and outperform it easly especialy if you overclock them a little bit.

The Leadtek can be overclocked really far with out becoming unstable, how ever it will get pretty hot after a while.
Stock the Palit/XpertVision is much faster and more reliable wen you overclock it due to its big 2 slot cooler wich keeps it cool even wen its overclocked to its maximum.

CPUID Hardware Monitor 1.0.9.0
-----------------------------------------------------

Mainboard Vendor Dell Computer Corporation
Mainboard Model Precision WorkStation 530 MT (0x9CA - 0x327C3840)

LPCIO
-----------------------------------------------------
Vendor NS
Model PC87365
Vendor ID 0xFF02
Chip ID 0xE5
Revision ID 0x8
Config Mode I/O address 0x2E

Dump config mode register space, LDN = 0x9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
20 E5 11 1C 03 05 01 10 08 C2 00 C8 24 38 78 00 00
30 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
60 0C 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
70 02 01 00 00 04 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

WDC WD2500AAJB-00WGA0 hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 37°C (98°F) [0x25] (HDD)

Dump hardware monitor


Processors Map
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors 1
Number of threads 1

Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0


Processors Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 1 (max 1)
Number of threads 1 (max 2)
Name Intel Xeon
Codename Prestonia
Specification Intel(R) XEON(TM) CPU 1.80GHz
Package Socket 604 mPGA (platform ID = 1h)
CPUID F.2.4
Extended CPUID F.2
Brand ID 11
Core Stepping B0
Technology 0.13 um
Core Speed 1794.6 MHz (18.0 x 99.7 MHz)
Rated Bus speed 398.8 MHz
Stock frequency 1800 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 Data cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Trace cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control no
Features


Thread dumps
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Thread 0
APIC ID 0
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 0, Thread ID 0
Type 01001007h
Max CPUID level 00000002h
Max CPUID ext. level 80000004h

Function eax ebx ecx edx
0x00000000 0x00000002 0x756E6547 0x6C65746E 0x49656E69
0x00000001 0x00000F24 0x0002080B 0x00000000 0x3FEBFBFF
0x00000002 0x665B5001 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x007B7040
0x80000000 0x80000004 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
0x80000001 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
0x80000002 0x20202020 0x20202020 0x20202020 0x20202020
0x80000003 0x6E492020 0x286C6574 0x58202952 0x284E4F45
0x80000004 0x20294D54 0x20555043 0x30382E31 0x007A4847

Cache descriptor Level 1 D 8 KB 2 threads
Cache descriptor Level 1 T 12 KB 2 threads
Cache descriptor Level 2 U 512 KB 2 threads

MSR 0x0000001B edx = 0x00000000 eax = 0xFEE00900
MSR 0x00000017 edx = 0x00060000 eax = 0x00000000
MSR 0x0000002C edx = 0x00000000 eax = 0x12000212
MSR 0x000001A0 edx = 0x00000000 eax = 0x00000089



Drive
-----------------------------------------------------
Name WDC WD2500AAJB-00WGA0

Drive
-----------------------------------------------------
Name WDC WD16 00AAJB-00PVA0


ACPI
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACPI Tree

_GPE
_L00
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_L04
_L0B
_L08
_PR_
CPU0
CPU1
CPU2
CPU3
_SB_
VBTN
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_INI
MEM_
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_UID
_CRS
PCI0
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_ADR
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_S1D
_S3D
PIC0
API0
_PRT
USB0
_ADR
_UID
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UPC1
[ ]
LEGK
_INI
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USB1
_ADR
_UID
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UPC1
[ ]
LEGK
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_STA
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PCI1
_S1D
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_UID
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PIC1
API1
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PCI2
_S1D
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_S4D
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PIC2
API2
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PCI3
_S1D
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PIC3
API3
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_CRS
ISA_
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_UID
P40C
P41C
DMA_
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FPU_
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SPK_
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RTC_
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TMR_
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NTAB
NSIO
[ ]
INDX
DATA
[ ]
[ ]
CFG_
[ ]
LDN_
[ ]
SIID
[ ]
ACTR
[ ]
IOAH
IOAL
[ ]
INTR
[ ]
DMCH
[ ]
GP40
[ ]
OPT1
OPT2
OPT3
COM_
[ ]
NSCA
[ ]
NSCB
[ ]
FDPA
[ ]
LPTO
[ ]
FDDC
[ ]
SIOD
FDC_
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KBD_
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COMA
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PRT_
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MBIO
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[ ]
PRQ0
PRQ1
PRQ2
PRQ3
[ ]
PRQ4
PRQ5
PRQ6
PRQ7
LNKA
_HID
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_PRS
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LNKB
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LNKC
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LNKE
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LNKF
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LNKG
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LNKH
_HID
_UID
_PRS
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_CRS
_SRS
_SI_
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_TZ_
_REV
_OS_
_OSI
_GL_
DBIN
SSTS
[ ]
TSTS
SACT
[ ]
[ ]
TPOL
MSOS
MTX_
CMRD
CMWR
GCKB
GCMS
GCON
GCUC
GCS1
GCS2
GCFD
GCPP
HACK
CMS_
[ ]
CMSI
CMSD
SMIR
[ ]
SMIC
SMID
PM1R
[ ]
PMS1
PMS2
PME1
PME2
GLBC
[ ]
THRP
GLBT
EOS_
LIDP
PXY0
[ ]
[ ]
CHAS
[ ]
GPOZ
[ ]
BLNK
GPO_
SIO_
[ ]
SIOI
SIOD
SWC_
[ ]
SWC0
SWC1
SWC2
SWC3
SWC4
SWCX
[ ]
WER0
WER1
WER2
WER3
WER4
WER5
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WER7
WER8
WER9
SMIM
SMI2
SMI4
GTMR
GTML
GTMH
GTOM
GPEF
SSTX
_PTS
_WAK
PICF
_PIC
USES
_S0_
_S1_
_S3_
_S4_
_S5_

Would a dxdiag tell if the motherboard is defective?

In the end, I have a 1.8 ghz Dell machine. Can it be upgraded with the cpu/motherboard suggestions you made above (I thought Dell was a proprietary rig and had to use Dell components, at least the older ones)? Hmm... a search at the Dell site shows only vid cards, displays, external drives for this model, so probably not. But I also found this:
Won't boot=probable failed motherboard .

What about a cpu bottleneck with a 7600 GT card, even if I can get away with replacing the motherboard and VRM modules?

The whole idea behind this was to upgrade the only game I play. Sounds like a new machine is the answer, whether new or refurbished.

I appreciate the time and info you have provided and thank you again. An educational experience, to say the least!

~S~ and Cheers!

Strider1