nVidia nForce2 not supporting Radeon 9800 Pro

I am starting a new thread because I am unable to post to the "Rebooting computer" thread. :sad:
Here is the original post and a brief description of the problem:

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I suspect the problem may be overheating, but my CPU temp is 44 C and the motherboard temp is 33 C. They dont' seem excessively high to me.

While I play Far Cry, the computer just reboots. It also happens when I leave the computer on all night (it rebooted around 3 am). The same issue occurs when I use any graphic-intensive applications.

Could it be the graphics card overheating? I do have power supplied to the graphics card (Radeon 9800 Pro) from the PSU.

It would be ironic that I bought this computer to play games, but end up not being able to play any high-end games on it. Any suggestions?

I found this posted somewhere from the nVidia discussion forum:

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In the end, updating my motherboard chipset drivers solved the issue. These are drivers that can be obscure to discover. In my case, the asus.com site was entirely the wrong place to look for my Asus A7N8X. Since my motherboard uses the NForce2 chipset, I eventually found what I was looking for at nvidia.com not asus.com.

At any rate, my AGP GART driver was the problem. I was still using the original MB chipset drivers that came on the CD (created before the Radeon 9800 pro was even released). The old driver simply didnt know how to handle the more advanced video card. Things have been smooth as silk since updating them.

Again, motherboard chipset drivers are kind of an obscure concept. If you right click My Computer --> Properties --> Device Manager --> System devices and look for the date on the AGP (GART) Driver, you may be surprised to find that it has never been updated but yet is supposed to handle the high speed AGP 8x devices that werent even around when the driver was written.

Cruise on over to the motherboard chipset maker's website (not MB maker but chipset) and see what you can find...

No. it supports it. I mean you see video and such.

What's your motherboard make/model? I'll just post a link to the drivers you need and I'd be able to find any issues with that chipset and 9800 Pros. But I don't think you've divulged that information yet.

Nevermind, I went back and found the board you have, thus the chipset. nVidia nforce 2 ultra 400Gb.
There's a control center under the drivers which allow you to have control over the chipset without going into bios (however, most changes require you to restart)

I couldn't find many issues with the chipset. However, a lot of people said they got their cards working after turning off fast write.

Also, a lot of people seem to have a problem with the A7N8X board :\ (some worse then yours. Such as "green bars" right from boot)

Let's hope the chipset update and turning off of fast write will help :smile:

Thanks, Crono. I'll try that.

Do I turn off the fast write from BIOS setup?

I also found this somewhere on a tech forum:

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I had the same issues as the rest of you.

I've finally got my problem solved.

The issue with me was that when I formatted and reinstalled windows,
windows used their own drivers for the mobo. Then I installed the video
drivers. The win mobo drivers werent any good, and my vid card and mobo
werent working together very well.

I uninstalled the vid drivers and mobo drivers, then installed the latest mobo drivers from nvidia and vid drivers from ATI.

Everything has been working great since then!

Besides the "uninstall windows" part, that's what I suggested before.

It's frustrating that I've already updated the nVidia chipset GART driver for the motherboard and the ATI driver, but I haven't had a chance to test it. I've been working so much that I barely have time to sleep and eat.

I'll have to wait until tonight (after 10 pm) to test it. I can't stand the suspense anymore.

I had the very same problem as you (except the blue screen bit). I just
re-installed and updated my mobo drivers and it worked. Cant remember
reading if you said that you had done that or not.

EDIT: Im running a 9800pro on an NF7-S, which is nForce2 chipset based.

I just updated my motherboard drivers, but the same problem recurred.

So I am giving up. There is no hope. There is no purpose in
life without Half-Life 2. I might as well go eat my sweaty socks
now.

I've also got an NForce2 + 9800 Pro combo with no issues. Did you
download the 5.10 or greater Forceware drivers? The best operation when
installing a new computer is OS -> Motherboard Drivers ->
Videocard -> Soundcard -> Anything else.

Clutching at straws here, but make sure the atx and the 12v power cables are in properly.

Yep, I updated the nForce2 chipset drivers for the motherboard, and the
problem is still there. I turned off 8X AGP and AGP fastwrite,
but the problem persisted.

In fact, I just got off the phone with ASUS tech support (by the way,
is usually very helpful), but they told me to buy a new PSU. I
think that's ridiculous, because I already have a brand new VANTEC with
430 W of power.

The power cable is inserted properly, or else no application would
run. But the tricky and mysterious thing is that the computer
only reboots while playing Far Cry and any other 3D game.

a suggestion:

will your other PC use this card?

if so, put it in there long enough to establish that the card is not at fault.

new stuff breaks too, believe me i drive a new bus every time i leave the house, and about 5% of the break before i reach destination.

I might have found a possible solution. Of course, I am still at work and I haven't had a chance to test it out.

I read that adjusting the BIOS AGP voltage from 1.5 V to 1.6 or 1.7 V might solve the rebooting problem. I can't wait to try it.

If anyone is interested, here is a thread from another website that provided me with the solution. It's a long thread, and it took me all day to read it (it goes back to 2003) http://www.techspot.com/redir?target=http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/15646/?o=40

Nope. Adjusting the AGP voltage setting in BIOS did not solve the problem. But instead of rebooting, the game simply freezes now. It's not much better, but at least I get to stare at the last screenshot for as long as I want before I have to hit a hard reboot.

No more 3D games for me from now on. I'll still stick around at the Pit, for the interesting discussions.

you did establish that the card is not defective, right?

might pay for you to send it back before your warranty runs out. get an nVidia equivalent, or pay a bit more for the next better ATI card..

I haven't, but it takes an arm and a leg to get through the tech support maze ATI has set up. It seems like they're doing everything possible to make the process as painful as possible.

I will look into that this week. It doesn't hurt to try, despite the pain.

It's sad that we have such a different standard for computer hardware makers. If it were an auto manufacturer, no one would put up with all this crap with such faulty products. When I buy a car, I expect it to be 100% drivable. But we have such a low expectation for a new computer to work on arrival.

you know, there are multiple versions of the 9800.. have you established which you have?

perhaps, swapping it for another may help.

like mine, it says 9800 pro, but its actually an R98E

I haven't checked which one I have, but I will when I get home tonight. Thanks Orph.

I haven't, but it takes an arm and a leg to get through the tech support maze ATI has set up. It seems like they're doing everything possible to make the process as painful as possible.
I will look into that this week. It doesn't hurt to try, despite the pain.
It's sad that we have such a different standard for computer hardware makers. If it were an auto manufacturer, no one would put up with all this crap with such faulty products. When I buy a car, I expect it to be 100% drivable. But we have such a low expectation for a new computer to work on arrival.

That's so true. However, it's even worse for software!

I'm sorry none of the suggestions work. I think in this case, Orph is right. The card may be screwed up.

I remember the first time I brought home my GF4 ... the metal on the back and heatsync and fan like lobbed off. I took it back to the store and they were all "WTF! Did you do this?" and I was all, "Yeah, that's right, I broke the card so I could come back and get another one ..."

Anyway, good luck with the warrenty.

discounting the 9800XT, there are 4 distinct 9800 cards. the distinction visually are,

1) the power connector location and shape/size.
2) the ram location.

the processors are all R350 (the XT is a 360) some are pro's and the rest are SE. the problem is, you cannot see the difference for the cooling fans.

http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/sapphire-4/r9800-scan-front.jpg



the 9800 pro/R9800 has the R350 pro chip

note: the location of the ram is in an "L" pattern and the power connector is the big one used on hard drives.



the 98se

note, ram in same pattern as pro card. the processor is R350se however. power connector is also the big one.



the 9800se. ram in in a straight line across the top, and power connector is the big one. it has the R350se chip.



the R98E. this is my card. the ram is straight across, it has the small A-Drive power connector and uses the R350se processor.

the other major distinction is the available pipelines. the pro cards have 8, where the se cards have only 4.. and the last difference is some cards are 256 bit and some only 128.

these four cards mix and match the good with the bad i am afraid. my card is a pro, it has 8 pipes, but is only 128 bit. where a normal pro card has 8 pipes with 256 bit.

the true SE cards have 4 pipes, and 128 bit.

hope these tid-bits help.

Thanks for all the input. Someone at TechSpot refuses to give up on me also. I am glad I have so many persistent online friends who sympathize with my plight. I am sure you all can relate to the frustration I am going through.

I'll try and play around with the driver one more time. This time, I am going to completely remove the old drivers before installing the new version. Someone thinks that might be the problem. They still think it's a software problem.

I really hope it's not a hardware issue, because shipping things back and forth really isn't fun.

? quote:Thanks for all the input. Someone at TechSpot refuses to give up on me also. I am glad I have so many persistent online friends who sympathize with my plight. I am sure you all can relate to the frustration I am going through.
I'll try and play around with the driver one more time. This time, I am going to completely remove the old drivers before installing the new version. Someone thinks that might be the problem. They still think it's a software problem.
I really hope it's not a hardware issue, because shipping things back and forth really isn't fun.

I told you to try that like a week ago.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Crono</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

I told you to try that like a week ago. </DIV></DIV>
i told YOU, you din't tell him :razz:

Great! Now my computer just reboots all the time, even when I am not playing games. This really sucks.

I was just surfing the web, and it rebooted again. I was just typing! Now I can't even use it as a word processor.

Maybe a paperweight would be useful on my desk.

Are you sure the fan is working on the card, and if it's rebooting, are you sure your memory is okay?

I just re-checked all the fans with a flashlight, and I can confirm
that everything (including the Radeon fan) is working properly.

I reset the AGP voltage back to 1.5 V on the BIOS (the default), and
things have been okay so far. I've been surfing for ten minutes,
and nothing crashed (yet).

At this point, I am not asking for a mean gaming machine anymore.
All I want is a computer that can run notepad without crashing.

That's not asking too much for an Athlon XP with 1 GB of memory, isn't it?

my dads pc rebooted constantly.

he had a trojan.. he was online less than 5 minutes when he acquired it.

i am afraid to ask, but you did update to ALL the newest updates .. right?

Yep, all the updates. And I have a hardware firewall. So nothing can come in through the DSL connection.

Hardware firewalls still let stuff through. I have one on my cable modem AND my router and I still get some pretty pissy viruses. Good idea to have a decent anti-virus running on your computer as well.

But, this sounds funked up ... and the thing is you shouldn't settle for your computer being a word processor (many people get too frustrated to fix their computer and end up spending thousands of dollars.)... I'm not even sure what you've done up to this point exactly.

With a firewall a trojan can easily get through, a worm generally
can't. They're different things. You can easily get a trojan bacause
it's using the same principle as regular internet surfing. So you'll
most likely be getting it from a download, which I'm almost 100% you
won't disable, or else why would you have the internet?

Worms search for un-stealthed ports and depending on their methods then
butt-in. It's always good to have some form of Anti-virus (there are
plenty of good free ones for personal use that don't hog memory.) This
is especially true if you ever visit any sites remotely dealing with
warez or porn because they are known to drop trojans in automatically
just by visiting the site.

A hardware firewall is great, but when you get a trojan you're
technically accepting the incoming file (through an .exe, .pif, .scr
etc. etc.) And then running it...how would your firewall distinguish
this fact? It can't. (In the sense of good/bad)