New ASUS Mobo comes with weird Error

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

Okay, I’ve been wanting to upgrade to the new Pentium 775 Series of processors for the additional power for a couple months now so I took the link and went to the TigerDirect store and purchase this mobo:

PFGD2 Premium.

It seemed like a solid motherboard, and after SEVERAL more trips to get additional components such as DDR2 Ram, a better Power Supply, I have worked out several kinks, but a big one or two small ones keep throwing me for a loop.

Basically something involving my graphics is preventing me from enjoying my new improved system. At launch I get a bunch of bits and random text ocvering most of the screen, I can still read all the information it’s just much harder. Upon entering windows (when that works, read on) I get a screen similar to this :

http://www.filepub.com/files/4_1118873030.jpg

I am not sure if the compressed image shows it, but their are basically scan lines coming down my screen at varying intensities. At first I thought it was the graphics driver for my GeForce 6600 PCI/E since I was also getting refresh errors and such. However upon installing that all of my other graphics issues were resolved, but I still get the scan lines.

The confusing thing is I get those at launch too, before the Graphics Drivers even kick in. Would a damaged videocard perhaps cause this? I can’t check that since its a PCI/E card and I dont have one to swap for it, and I have no onboard video.

The other main issue that I get is upon Windows arriving at the loading screen, things are a bit blurry and I get graphics issues at which points Windows Crashes and goes into checking the Fat32 partition. Upon completing that everything goes to crap. I reboot into the last known good system configuration and all is fine, leading me to believe it could be related to the graphics drivers SINCE at one point windows was telling me the problem file was a file involved with my Geforce drivers. Although I removed the drivers including the old ones, and reinstalled with just the new files which cleared that particular error message up. Now it just crashed.

Last known system config & safe mode boot up fine. Everything in the system seems to be working and graphics are fine except for the scanlines which I find strange.

All help is greatly appreciated. I’ve heard that not enough power could be the issue, but right now I am running way abvoe the suggested specs for my particular ASUS board. I’ve got:

400 Watt PSU (ASUS Min is 300 Watt)
3.3 = 28A
5.0 = 30A
12.0 = 25A (ASUS Min is 15A)

Only powering a Mobo, (1) IDE Drive, CD-Rom, and Geforce Card. Don’t even have my flopping powered up, nor any PCI cards.

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

It sounds like there’s some overheating going on somewhere, and likely, it’s the video card. I would try a regular PCI card (those can be easily picked up for cheap if you don’t have a spare lying around), since finding a low-end PCIe card might be harder to come by in some places.

A few other things to try to check for stability: [google]Memtest[/google] to test the RAM, and [google]Prime 95[/google] to test for system stability. If you can run memtest for 8+ hours (24 is best) and Prime 95 for 24+ hours, you can be pretty sure that the rest of the system isn’t an issue.

3

Okay, I ran Memtest and everything checks out thus far although I will run it for longer if needed. Now the symptons I am getting right now sound very much like overheating ones that I’ve heard about, but my current system has fans out the wazoo, and with the exception of the HD everything is cool.

What I think I may do is what you suggested and switch out the cards.

4

The symptoms sound an awful lot like one I came across some months back involving an AGP card — the AGP slot was loose. Sometimes contact was good, at other times, not so. After doing waht Big B suggested, I think you’ll find the PCI card working fine. If that’s the case, check your mobo’s PCIe slot. That could well be the culprit. Good luck.

5

Yah, it was the PCI/E Card. I changed out to another Geforce 6600 GT card (Upgraded since wasnt that expensive) and works fine. The card I picked up is for SLI systems, but it is working GREAT.

This new system is pretty solid, although I am finding that it isnt much faster then my old one. Does turning hyper threading on help significantly?