Problems with GeForceFX 5900 Ultra 256MB and ABIT BE6II v2.0

Greetings:

On my system on a ABIT BE6IIv2.0 Pentium III 1Ghz 133FSB Motherboard using
the Intel 440BX chipset and my display being a SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc)
17.3" 1600x1024 16:10 60hz LCD display via DVI. I had no issues with a PNY
Verto GeForce3 Ti500 64MB. However, with the BFG Technologies Asylum
GeForceFX 5900 Ultra 256MB, what appears to happens is that everything from
the BIOS Power on self testing, bios setup, and DOS would have the text
flickering and blury with streaks between the characters as well as on the
Award BIOS main screen where the Energy Star logo is, part of the yellow on
the right side is on the left side of the screen. The screen is running at
1600x1024 at 63.36Hz. The problem seems to occur with everything before
the Windows XP logo since everything after that is fine. I'm not sure what
the AGP version on the Intel 440BX chipset is but the GeForce3 Ti500
requires a AGP 2.0 port and I did have some issues initially which was
fixed with a newer version of Nvidia firmware for the video card. Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Vince

 

the board has AGP 1.x, not 2.0 or higher. can't say that the AGP revision
is what the issue is though. you have a decent power supply? also, keep in
mind that with that board running a 133 FSB cpu, that the AGP bus is
overclocked. not saying the video card can't do that, just pointing it out.

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Hmmm, so it is AGP 1.x? I always thought even the GF3Ti500 required
atleast AGP 2.0. I have a PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 450ATX which
should be decent since the thing is expensive as we all know. I'm going to
be moving up to a P4-3.2Ghz platform soon anyways but just wanted to know
what could actually cause the problem. I'm just wondering if it could be a
issue where PNY which is basically relabeled MSI has better boards than BFG
which was VisionTek. Yeah, I remembered about the AGP running at 100Mhz
instead of the normal 66Mhz but if something wasn't working, shouldn't it
break inside windows and not in the text mode portion of the machine?
Thanks TomG for the quick reply like always. Has Richard or anyone
released any newer modified BIOSes with a newer HPT? I took the GeForceFX
5900 Ultra 256MB out because before I had my Adaptec AHA2940UW in PCI 1
which the GF FX card now takes away so PCI 2 had my Intel Gigabit NIC and
PCI 3 was empty and PCI 4 had my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum Ex. The
only issue is that as we know, PCI 3 can't be used as it's shared with the
HPT370 and the same with PCI5. PCI 4 and 2 shares the same resources so
when I moved the Intel NIC to PCI 3, it failed in the POST stage as the
Intel NIC BootROM didn't come up, did the same thing in 5. With the
soundcard on PCI 3 or 5, the card worked but the firewire port was detected
in Windows but none of my firewire devices were detected so it only worked
in 4. The Adaptec SCSI controller wouldn't work in any of the other slots
except 4 as it would failed probing any SCSI devices during POST. I just
hope the new mobos don't have the same issue or is it only HighPoint's
implemention of RAID that doesn't allow sharing with anything else?

Cheers,
Vince

 

whew! long paragraph!

I have not seen Richard in the group in a little while. I think there are
bios sets on my server that include all of the newer Highpoint bios inserts
but if not and there is a request, then I can create one.

you cannot use, as you have discovered, any bus mastering device in slot 5
on your board while the Highpoint controller is enabled.

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Thomas Geery
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did you ever go to the Intel site and update the 440BX ? I used to run a BF-6
and updated.

 

If I set the FSB to 100, then the CPU will be slower back to 750Mhz instead
of 1Ghz. The other thing is isn't AGP 1.0 3.3volts? I thought the voltage
for AGP 2.0 and 3.0 were different.

Cheers,
Vince

 

Looks like you do have a 2.34 version now. It wasn't there when I last
checked a bit over a month ago. Dunno if it will do anything though. I'm
using Richard's Z72C with the 2.32 I think. It seems like both PCI slot 3
and slot 5 has the same issue. Is Highpoint the only one with this issue
of not able to share bus mastering devices or do the new P4 i875P
motherboards that has the Promise or Silicon Image Raid have the same
issues?

Cheers,
Vince

 

Ummmmm...another possible reason for your problems........

I believe that the Be6-II V2.0 only supports 3.3Volt AGP 1x and 2x.
Check the motherboard manual specification page.

Hopefully, the GF Fx 5900 is dual 1.5/3.3volt AGP. Many of the latest
AGP boards are 1.5 volt only. Check the GF Fx5900 AGP specs.

Using a 1.5volt-only AGP board in a 3.3V only AGP socket will court
irreversible damage of either the video board or the motherboard
or BOTH and/or result in flaky operation.

John Lewis

 

the whole point about setting the FSB back was just to test and see if the
video card acted any different when the AGP bus was no longer overclocked.

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Thomas Geery
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As Tom said, I suggested this as a way to check if it was a AGP overclocking
problem....By all means mess about with other stuff untill you are blue in
the face, but personnaly if I had a problem I would make sure everything was
running within spec before I started to look for other causes.

 

(John Lewis) wrote in

That was what I can't find is the voltage of the AGP since I can't find
it anywhere.

All the GF FX 5900 Ultra boards are manufactured by Nvidia for Quality
Control purposes.

I couldn't find the specs anywhere on the voltage requirement but wouldn't
the board not work in Windows too if this was the case?

Cheers,
Vince

 

I tried putting my NIC in slot 3 and the NIC's Bootrom doesn't come up
during POST so it's conflicting. It's a Intel Gigabit PCI NIC. Richard's
Z72C is 2.32 but I updated to 234 BIOS anyways from your site with 2.34
drivers since might as well make sure the board has the latest stuff if I
needed it later.

Cheers,
Vince

 

True. But due to the not being able to use PCI1, I just put my GF3Ti500
back in instead. I'll leave the GF FX 5900 Ultra when the Zalman 7000-Cu
HSF arrives for the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe mobo.

Cheers,
Vince

 

Good point though. Sorry BigBadger, I guess I'll just use the GF FX on the
new system when I upgrade it sometime next week since even if this card
works fine in this motherboard, either my SCSI devices or my firewire
devices will not be working.

Cheers,
Vince

 

Got a question, anyone know if the BE6II v2.0 supports I/O APIC and the
other question is, SMART monitoring software in Windows thinks Smart is
disabled because the BIOS doesn't seem to have a setting for Smart, is
there a way to get SMART to work for HDD's? Thanks.

Cheers,
Vince

 

See the BE6-II manual, section 1-2. Says clearly AGP 1x and 2x mode
3.3volt............

( The BE6-II V2.0 just uses the HPT370 instead of the
HPT366............. )

Maybe, maybe not...............better phone nVidia Technical support
and ask whether the FX5900 will safely/properly work in a 3.3v AGP 1x
or 2x socket. Could be quietly melting down..........

John Lewis

 

(John Lewis) wrote in

Found that earlier but the NVidia site and BFG doesn't list what the
voltage is for the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra.

Nvidia doesn't provide support to end-users though from what I remembered.
I know AGP 2.0 is the minimum requirement but the voltage specs are not
listed anywhere.

Cheers,
Vince

 

why do you need the NIC boot rom? are you trying to boot off your LAN?
chances are, one of the other ROM's is stepping on the NIC as we have
sometimes seen with certain AGP cards installed. check also for the USB
support being set to BIOS as that will frequently stop certain ROM's from
showing, including the Highpoint ROM. Set USB support to OS.

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Thomas Geery
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no one says that you *cannot* use slot 1. it is just recommended that you
keep that for last and use other slots first. also, high bandwidth devices
in slot one may experience issues.

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Thomas Geery
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APIC is not supported on the BE6-II boards. that did not come along until
later chipsets. I was able to get Motherboard Monitor to see SMART
monitoring with a BE6-II.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 113,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^