G400Max DOA?

[billharris]

I would appreciate any advice I get could get on this. My system: Dell PII450, 128 megs ram, SB Live!, Kenwood 52x. In the last year, I've used both a G200/V2 SLI combo and the V3 with no problems. I finally got my G400 max and installed (uninstalled my V3 first before shutting down). System boots up, the card's fan kicks in, then the dreaded beep codes. No video. Remove the card and reseat it. Same problem. Two more tries--same. Take out the card, put my V3 back in, installs, works fine. I swap components in my system on a regular basis, so I am careful with static electricity, etc. Does anyone have any idea of what I could do besides reseating the card (and sending it back)? Thanks.

[rickn]

Sounds like it is dead. Did you make sure your FSB ratio was set correctly? Generally those beeps mean 1. the card needs to be reseated or 2. the card is dead. Do you have 1 long beep followed by 3 short ones?

[Lucid]

Go to BIOS and load default settings and save. Let the system boot sequency continue, then put power off. Replace the old card with the G400.

That did it for me, at least. (One long beep followed by two short beeps.)

[billharris]

Someone responded to me privately and suggested I check the AGP aperture in my bios settings. There were two options: 64meg and 256 meg. I was defaulted to 64 meg, so I changed to 256, reinstalled the card, and everything works great! So thanks for the help and if anyone has a Phoenix Bios, this might work for you if you're having problems installing.

[rickn]

billharris: you need to start being more clear on what you type. I will quote what you said

System boots up, the card's fan kicks in, then the dreaded beep codes. No video

No video? How did you get into your bios then?

[mragsdale]

I think he has another video card. He probably put his V3 in to make the changes.

Rags

[tish]

I can't understand why an AGP aperture size change would do anything about his problem. I belive it's more likely the G400 didn't get squeezed in tight enough.

This problem has bothered other Maxers too, and they solved it by twisting the card a little.
So what I think is, the second time he inserted the G400 (after changing the AP size) it fastened correctly in it's slot.


Cheers,
Fish.

[armyworm]

Hi,

There was a posting that the G400 (actually all cards that are 32 megs) does not work on pheonix BIOS (DELL is one of them) if the aperture size was at 64. Change it to 256 and I garantee you that it will work.

Ciao

Ben

[ManojM]

I have 128megs of ram in my system. So by increasing my VGA aperature size from 64 to 128 help in any way? Any speed increase?

Regards,
Manoj Mahtani

[This message has been edited by ManojM (edited 08-15-1999).]

[mragsdale]

you should set it to 256, I believe.

Rags

[ManojM]

Why 256?

Regards,
Manoj Mahtani

[billharris]

To clarify: I put my V3 card back in the system to allow me access to my system bios to change the AGP aperture size. I had physically installed and uninstalled the card six times and it was not working, so I do not believe it was a question of the card not being fully inserted. Thanks.

[armyworm]

You should usualy set the aperture size to about 1/2 of your total memory (unless you don't have any choice since the card doesn't work at 64 ! If that limit is too high, it will slow down your system... so higher is not always better

Ben

[Kruzin]

No, there is a known issue with certain BIOSes, where the aperture size does make a difference...

[rickn]

my g400 works with 64, 128, 256 aperature size on my P2B-F