How to Turn off AGP Fast Write on P4P800-VM

I'm assembling an HTPC setup with, amongst other things, a Silverstone LC11, ASUS P4P800-VM and FX5200 (AGP).

On first boot after MCE2005 installation a whole load of artifacts appear followed by a reboot a few seconds later. When I use a GF2MX or the onboard graphics this is no issue, however when I insert a different FX5200, that is definately ok, the problem is back.

Looking at the Q&A on silverstonetek.com I noticed that there is a known issue with the AGP fast write functionality. They recommend to turn this of in the motherboard's BIOS when using the LC11's riser card, however no such option is visible in the (somewhat limited) AMI BIOS, I've tried several versions.

I can't find anywhere whether Fast Write is turned on by default though as it is quite a recent mobo (i865-based), I presume it must be.

Has any1 got any idea if this is likely to be at the base of this problem and, if so, whether there is a workaround that I'm overlooking. Does your Google find a modded BIOS that mine doesn't? Or am I completely on the wrong track and is this caused by something completely diffferent that you are familiar with. Thx in advance!

you can do it in riva tuner, other than that there is no way to do it through our limited bios :/

one mroe question, ive got the same mobo as you, and i have no cpu voltage optinons, or fsb options, do you have any of those in yours? or is it just the bios ?

with the nivida drivers, I can disable fast writes in advanced display properties under aGP settings.

brakezone said:

with the nivida drivers, I can disable fast writes in advanced display properties under aGP settings.

Click to expand...

I've had a look on a different system and (after applying coolbits) have fount the panel you mean. The problem is however that on the HTPC, with the FX5200 installed, I don't even make it to the desktop in order to be able to change this setting (not even in safe mode (unreadable and obviously doesn't show all options).

Does any1 know a way in which I can for example use a registry patch in safe mode that will do the same thing as unticking the box in ForceWare?