A Puzzler: video garbled on cold boot

[okra]

Right, first, the specs:

Abit nf7 rev 2.0, bios 18 - Northbridge voltage 1.7
xp 2100+ @ 2365 (215 x 11) - vcore 1.65
Powercolor 9700 non-pro flashed to 9700 pro @ 340/274 (3.6ns mem); AGP voltage @ 1.5 ; connected to Viewsonic 21" P810 monitor, using digital out to 5-BNC connector cable; also regular DIN video cable.
512mb (2x256) Samsung pc2700 DTM @ 215fsb, 3-4-4-8; 2.8 vdimm.
Enermax 350 watt power supply w/ 90mm intake fan, 80mm exhaust fan
2x80mm exhaust, 1x120mm side intake, 1x120mm front intake.

Now, the problem:
When cold booting in the morning (for the past 3 mornings), the PC starts, boots up, and when display comes up the video is totally garbled. I mean - random color blocks, not readable at all. Just garbage. This is with both video cables - either the BNC (which connects to DVI-A out) or the DIN.
The only way to fix it is to power off, turn off the powersupply, let all power drain, turn powersupply back on, turn on PC holding down Insert key. This will pull up POST screen w/ message "cpu unworkable or has been changed", at which point I go into BIOS, make sure everything is set ok (does not change from before), reboot, and video is clear & normal.
Today, however, this was not the case. Went through the steps of shutting it off entirely, turning back on, starting it up holding INS key - still garbled. Sometimes it takes a few tries (invariably after turning off and then back on, gives no POST beep, have to do it a couple times), but no luck today.
When I can get it going, it runs just fine - no artifacts while playing, etc. Can warm reboot no problems as well - seems to just have problems with cold boot.

So, my questions:
1) do you think my powersupply is inadequate, therefore not giving enough voltage for the signal to be clear?
2) do you think the AGP voltage should be upped a notch?

I'm of the opinion that it has to be one of these problems. I did not experience this problem w/ my old board: a KD7-E. Vid card performed flawlessly on that board. So, it rules out a cold boot voltage problem, unless the nf7 voltage requirements are different - considering the onboard LAN, sound, etc, it would seem to need more voltage than the KD7-E, logically.

Anyone have any theories on the cause of the video being scrambled/garbled on cold boot?

 

[UnLoadeD]

I've had that happen from raising my fsb too high and throwing the pci/agp bus too far outta spec. Do you have yours locked to 66mhz? Another sys I had gave me cold booting problems, kinda like you describe, but without the garbled bootup. It would freeze during bootup, I think it was from under sized power supply taking the load of eveything strting at once. I actually think my HDs weren't spinning up in time. Rather than turn everything off like you do, I would just hit Reset button and it would then reboot. If Reset will get yours going, I'd say its PSU issue.
Those are the two things that come to mind maybe one of them will help ya out.

peace.
unloaded

 

[okra]

Naw, unfortunately reset will cause it to either not POST, or will give same garbled video.

so far, the money is on the PSU being underpowered.

 

[Evnas]

First thing that struck out at me was the PSU. Thats quite a hefty system to run off that little PSU. When i had my 350w Fortron (which is a much better quality then Enermax) it couldnt quite handle the system in my sig. You might want to look into a larger PSU

 

[Mustanley]

Unhook some unnecessary components (cd/dvdroms, fans, floppy, etc.) and lower your overclock and vcore. If your cold boot problems disappear, then it's likely the psu.

 

[okra]

roger that.

got it to start up ok, upped the AGP voltage to 1.6

gonna take the 60x25mm fan I have on the 9700 off (1 less fan in the system) and go back to the stock fan - doesn't help on the o/c of the gpu w/ the bigger fan, anyhow.

I'll try lowering the o/c before shutting it off tonight, see if it does the same tommorrow.

 

[okra]

did the same thing this morning, uplugged the CD-RW and the floppy drives, and it cam up ok. Must be the PSU is right at it's limits.

think I'm gonna go w/ an Antec True Power 480 or 550

 

[brywalker]

I am having pretty much the same problem but nothing cures it.

I just built this system with a NF7-S and put my 9700 in it. I had it in a AT7-MAX, so I know the card is good. Built by ATI.

Boots up garbled. I reset and its the same. Took power off everything but the card and board, same. Went into bios and upped the voltage and AGP bus a little. Still not a damn thing.

I have an Antec TruePower 550, so it can't be a power problem. I put in my crappy GeForce 2 MX in and it works no problem.

Not going to toss a $300+ video card. Any other idea what it could be?

I have a component on the board that is chipped. I think its one of the little ceramic caps. I am going to try to replace it and see if thats the problem, but it has always been like that and worked fine.

 

[okra]

hrmmm... that's a real puzzler, for sure!
Does it (nf7-s) just do that to the 9700, or do you have another card you could check it with? <--- thinking mobo might be flaky, if vid worked on other board.

I swapped mine w/ a gf2 I had lying around, and gf2 came right up. Pretty positive it's PSU related on my end.
do you have the spread spectrum AGP stuff disabled?
If you can remember what BIOS settings you're using, that might help diagnose it better.


If you can't figure it out, is your card covered by any kind of warranty? I bought mine refurbished, so no warranty here, but a standard purchase should have some sort of guarantees... so that way you don't necessarily have to toss the card if it's bad.

 

[D2DM]

Sound a lot like a problem I had with a 9700np

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=221147

Rma took 7 weeks.
And end result not even a replacement card. 9700 had vanished.
Refund.

The powersupply ran a vmodded 9500->9700 at 385/330 perfectly but failed every time with the 9700 at 276/270?



Probably the monitor receives a to high / low frequency.
e.g. 28 / 130hz

 

[Oni]

Smells like a power supply problem to me. su root here on the forum had a similar problem. Turned out it was his Enermax PS going buggy.