MSI GF4 Ti4600 malfunction?

[Preacher 0]

The card is running great under Win2k, but causes problems during the installation of the OS:

 

the first DOS part which is done in the normal DOS resolution where Setup is loading various drivers works flawlessly.

 

Then, the 2nd DOS part, as soon as Setup raises the resolution to 720x400 the screen goes black with some horizontal red stripes.

I tried switching my screen from normal D-SUB to DVI and DVI -> D-SUB converter, but as soon as Setup raises the resolution, the screen goes completely black, nothing at all, not even red stripes.

 

Is this a typical boomerang case or is there something I can do myself?

[thewizard75 0]

I could be wrong, but you have an awful lot running on that 300W power supply. I know that SOME (not all) vendors of GF4 Ti cards stated ON THE BOX (!!) that at least a 350W power supply was needed. The fact that you have 1GB of RAM drains a lot of power, as does the CPU & GPU.

 

See if you can borrow a bigger PS from a friend, or try the card in a different machine and see what happens.

 

It could be a hardware defect in the card itself too, but try these things first.

[Preacher 0]

I always thought a 300W power supply is more than enough... I´ll give it a try anyways, just to make sure. Thx!

[Brian Frank 0]

Sometimes, if it's a good one, it'd probably work. However, with your system specs, it's probably not gonna fly.

[Dirty Harry 0]

Easy to test, isn't it? Take out half of your RAM, all extra HD:s, any other "extra" stuff and see if it works.

 

H.

[Admiral LSD 0]

Hmmm... He mentions that once he gets the OS installed the card will work fine, that wouldn't strike me as a power supply issue since if it were wouldn't it screw up in the OS too? More likely is that the generic video driver loaded by 2k setup isn't fully compatible with the GF4.

[Preacher 0]

I took the card back to my dealer and let him check it on another PC, where it worked just fine. I wouldn´t have believed it if I hadn´t seen it with my own eyes.

 

I´ve also taken everything out of the system except the graphics card, reset the BIOS and still this error will occur. Maybe it´s an issue with the mainboard. I hope not, since I don´t want to lay another €1000 on the counter for new a mainboard and RAM.

 

I never came across an error that was so "strange", hard to find and fix... I´m beginning to doubt myself

[sapiens74 0]

It is a Via chipset. You need to get at least a 400w PS for your system.

[JP- 0]

Dunno how you work that out sapiens.

[Dirty Harry 0]

We are all guessing here, but I doubt that its a power supply problem.

 

You write "I´ve also taken everything out of the system except the graphics card, reset the BIOS and still this error will occur.".

 

If a 300W PSU cannot handle this, I would think (or rather test) twice before forking up the cash for a new PSU just because of this problem. After all, everything works (worked) fine when you get it installed.

 

You could try this in BIOS setup:

- disable AGP 4x, video mem & bios cahing

- lower your memory timings (normal settuing instead of turbo/ultra)

- increase all your voltages one notch

 

H.

[Preacher 0]

I just tested the card on my CD burning rig which consists of the following:

 

Intel Celeron 300a @ 450 MHZ

Asus P2B Mainboard

200 W PSU

256 MB RAM

1x IBM 4GB

1x IBM 10GB

Adaptec 2940 SCSI Controller

Yamaha 4416 SCSI Burner

TEAC CD-540E CD-ROM

3c905c-TX NIC

Soundblaster 16 ASP

 

No problems found, the MSI Ti4600 worked flawlessly. I´m more and more convinced that the troublemaker is the mainboard...

 

 

@ Dirty Harry

 

Quote:

If a 300W PSU cannot handle this, I would think (...) twice before forking up the cash for a new PSU just because of this problem.

 

I understand your point, but plugging in my old Matrox Millennium everytime I have to reinstall WinXP or 2k (which happens alot because of all the software testing I´m doing) soon will not be an option anymore, since I´m going to use it in my Linux proxy/firewall system.

 

 

Quote:

You could try this in BIOS setup:

- disable AGP 4x, video mem & bios cahing

- lower your memory timings (normal settuing instead of turbo/ultra)

- increase all your voltages one notch

 

I already tried the first two suggestions, but not yet the third one. Will do so tomorrow; don´t have the time for my machine today.