Radeon 9000 AGP and Intel motherboard not compatible?

[mscdex]

Ok here's the situation, I'm hoping someone can shed some light on a possible solution as ATI customer support hasn't been of much help.

I have a Micron PC that has an Intel D845HV motherboard inside. According to what I read from Intel's site, it only accepts AGP 4X cards. Also, according to ATI's website the Radeon 9000 should be compatible with AGP 2/4/8X slots. However, when I try to use this card in the Micron PC, I get no video signal, and just some bios beeps that probably mean something like no video card installed. I can verify this as another AGP card, an nVidia TNT2 m64 card works fine, as well as a PCI SiS 4mb video card works.

But here's something else that's interesting. I know the Radeon 9000 card works because I have another PC that was custom built and has a Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 motherboard inside, which apparently only supports up to AGP 2X (according to the manual and what SMARTGART allows me to go up to for the highest AGP setting).

So with that all in mind, any ideas as to why this card won't work with the Intel motherboard? Shouldn't the card automatically detect which of the AGP speeds the motherboard supports and use one of them? Neither of the PCs have any of the special AGP settings in the BIOS setup either, aside from AGP aperature size.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sharkfood]

The BIOS beeps are probably more along the lines of an address conflict... and likely the real problem.

Do you have any PCI devices in the PC? Many of those Intel motherboards have shared resources between the AGP slot and the first AGP slot. I''d suggest removing all PCI devices for a test, as well as disabling any PCI address space devices in the BIOS(such as USB, on-board audio, serial, etc.etc.) then save/exit and try the swap once more.

If your system suddenly posts with all hardware disabled and PCI slots empty, it'll then be a simple process of re-enabling to find the culprit... which should lead to a work-around to reallocated it somewhere else (or different PCI slot if its a card).

 

[mscdex]

I don't have anything in any of the PCI slots. I disabled all the onboard peripherals and things, and put the Radeon back in, but with no such luck. The nvidia tnt2 m64 agp card works fine so I'm not sure what the difference is.

The beep code I'm getting is like this: 1 long 2 short (5 second pause or so) then 2 short (2 second pause or so) then 1 short. However, if I do a quick power cycle after I get that beep code I get this: 1 long 2 short (5 second pause or so) then 3 short.

 

[mscdex]

I'd also like to note that I have tried the Radeon in two other PCs (Both Compaqs, but from different product lines, one Evo and one Deskpro, both are Pentium 4 1.5GHz PCs) and the same basic thing happens, no video signal, just bios beep codes.

 

[Sharkfood]

One long, followed by 2 short beeps is the first error code, which means a display adapter problem. The other codes aren't important as they'll likely go away once we figure out the problem (2 shorts later means POST failure- obviously as there is no display adapter hehe).

Is this a true-blue Built-By ATI Radeon? While ATI's cards are compatible with AGP 2x, 4x and 8x systems, it's not assured if 3rd party models are.

You should also ensure you have the latest BIOS, which you can get at:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go!

An IRQ is needed for Radeon cards to initialize properly so you should also ensure your BIOS has such an option and it's set to "Yes" (Assign IRQ to AGP VGA or similiar). Other BIOS options to look for:
a) Ordering in the BIOS is set to order AGP over PCI VGA..
b) Palette snooping is disabled
c) AGP Aperture (set to 64MB for default)
d) Spread Spectrum off
e) Driving Strength AUTO or disabled
f) PCI Latency 64

You may or may not have the above settings available to change in your BIOS, but if you do, set them as above with the tnt2, then save/exit, power off and swap the card.

Lastly, the step-down to lower AGP speeds also changes the voltage. It's possible your mainboard has a bad voltage regulator (small caps on the motherboard) or power supply that cannot provide clean/adequate power at the different AGP speed. There are a number of hardware issues that can cause this.

Good luck!

 

[mscdex]

I was under the impression it was a built by ATI radeon. Not sure how to tell exactly. The silver heatsink says "Powered By ATI" on it, and there's a white sticker on the back of the card with "Radeon 9000 64M DDR TVO", two barcodes, a P/N, a S/N, a PCB# and "Made In China." I can take pictures if needed.

I upgraded the BIOS the first day I started trying to get the card to work (last week) but didn't help any. I just checked the link you provided and it lists a newer one than I had installed (I have P14 I think, which I thought was the latest when I last went to their site). I will try updating to this bios revision and see if it helps any.

As far as the BIOS settings you listed, the only one I was able to find was the PCI Latency, and that I had to access with the motherboard in "configuration mode" (switching a jumper on the motherboard gives you access to extra options, not many more though). I set it to 64, but still no go.

As far as power supplies go, I don't have many spare P4 PSUs (ones with the extra 12v connector or whatnot), one was a 300w and the other was a 150w, didn't plug in anything except the two connectors onto the motherboard. Still got the same bios beep code I mentioned above.

Let me know if you think of anything else. Your help is very much appreciated!

Also, is it possible that the fault is somehow in the card itself? Like it somehow is unable to use AGP 4X?

 

[Sharkfood]

I was under the impression it was a built by ATI radeon. Not sure how to tell exactly. The silver heatsink says "Powered By ATI" on it

"Powered by.." means, quite specifically, it is NOT a "Built By ATI" card... so it's anyone's guess if the 3rd party maker decided to support AGP 2x, 4x and 8x or provided proper handling for the voltage difference in their design.

ATI cards come in those two flavors: "Built By ATI" (BBA) and "Powered By ATI" (PBA). This is a non-ATI card, where the 3rd party can vary the design from the reference design as far as they choose.

Also, is it possible that the fault is somehow in the card itself? Like it somehow is unable to use AGP 4X?

It's quite possible given it's an unknown PBA vs. BBA board. It could also be AGP 4x compatible, but savings in chip/support may only have a limited compatibility by the 3rd party hardware manufacturer for 4x speeds/voltage.