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A7V8X - Help me keep this board!

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Breadfan

Inactive Moderator
Joined
Jan 4, 2001
Location
Northern VA
I've got an A7V8x (KT400) board that is having some issues with the video. When I'm nearly done with the Win2k install, the grahpics go nutty and the system (when I can actually still see it) seems to lock.

Here's the deal:

This board is a newegg refurb. It was 30 bucks, and has firewire, usb2, gigabit lan, SATA RAid/IDE raid, and 6ch sound. So, for 30 bucks, it's quite a steal.

I'm trying to test the board, verify it works before the 15 day period is up.

I've tried twice now to install win2k with the same problem as above.

With a GF2MX, the screen would turn into a pattern of verticle lines.

With an 8500DV the screen turned pink/black/and grey, kinda like if you had set "high contrast" in your display themes in windows.

I'm too tired right now to set the board back up, but I plan to test with a different PSU and a PCI grahpics card, as well as actually mounting the board in a case.

Doing this I should be able to eliminate the following:

AGP slot is bad (if pci works fine)
Board needs proper grounding in case (if mounting helps)
Cheesy PSU I was using could take it (if other cheesy PSU helps!)
or...the board is defective. :(

I'm posting here because until then I'd like to know if this is a common problem with these boards. The board runs perfectly aside from this. It boots right up, detects everything, but has trouble during the Win2k install.

I'm just wondering if anyone with this board has experienced anything similar and if they were able to fix the problem.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to spend more time with it. The thing is, I don't wanna give up on this board too quickly because it was such a good deal...sure I could get my money back, but I'd not have the board!

The bad news is, most of my "good" hardware is in use...between my main rig, 2 servers, and handing down many things to my little sister, I'm kinda limited on what I can toss at this thing without downtime or digging into functional systems. As a result, I probably won't have much of a chance to try a different CPU or RAM. (Currently using a 1.4 tbird and 256mb Crucial PC2100)

So, I'll cross my fingers this weekend. But in the meantime, if anyone has experienced something simliar with this board, please let me know!
 
I've got the same board, for the same price... From the same place.... But mine works.


Try manually changing the APG settings from auto to 1x, 2x and 4x.
 
What PSU are you using? I might just buy another Fortron...

I'll give that a shot this weekend, I'm gonna spend the time and explore all avenues...if this board is capable or working properly...I'll make it! :)
 
I actually have one of these boards, and I had a strange problem in the BIOS. A few things to keep in mind, never use the Plug & Play OS option. It's almost disturbing what happens when you do, and everything can mess up. Also, make sure it is configured to be on an AGP or PCI graphics card. Although an AGP would work while set to PCI, it causes problems. I don't see the AGP slot being bad, as for the video BIOS would either know, or not work. If all else doesn't work, it was worth the $30 try.
 
Ok, here's and update. I still had issues installing Win2k, so I decided to try XP pro.

The XP pro install went much better, but on the final reboot it hung with funky colors at the XP splash screen.

I rebooted, and it went into Windows fine. The install seems ok, but the board is still finnicky.

At this point I'm willing to assume it's a PSU problem.

In the BIOS, voltages were pretty crummy...

3.3v was 3.18-3.20
5v was 4.83 - 4.89

My guess is this is a psu related problem. I tried two cheesy 300w jobbers, both with similar results. (and voltages)

I didn't feel like removing a psu from another machine since things are routed and tied down in those boxes. I am in need of quality spare psu's anyway, so I'm gonna just order 1 or 2 sparkles.

Not sure if it'll reach me by the 15 day period, so I may end up keeping the board and hoping it's psu related.

One of those PSU's had worked fine with another board, but I'm gonna assume the A7V8X with all it's addon peices is just more power hungry.
 
a few questions:
1. Do you have APIC or PIC set?

2. Are there any other cards in the pci slots during the install?
If so, have you tried just the mb + video card on the instillation?

3. Have you tried disabling all of the onboard devices when you install the os?
 
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