Mobo or Video card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JS
  • Start date Start date
My machine has a Biostar P4M900-M4 (v 6.0) mobo and everything checked out
fine in Device Manager (drivers, etc.) and onboard sound (Realtek Hi-Def
Audio) worked fine until I installed a Gigabyte GeForce 7200 GS PCI x-16
256 NX72G series video card. Then the trouble started. I lost onboard sound
and the PCI slots were disabled, meaning the PCI LAN card and a PCI Firewire
card were no longer listed in Device Manager, and would not work. Audio
Devices are not listed anywhere. I tried downloading and installing drivers
for everything I could think of (mobo, chipset, the vid card, Realtek, etc,
but no joy. I removed the video card and *everything* went back to normal.
Running XP Pro SP2, with *all* updates. Intel P4 3.00 GH hyperthreader, 2 GB
Crucial dual channel RAM, 320 GB C Drive & 750 GB D Drive (both SATA 2) &
JustLink IDE combo drive. I hope this is enough data to help with anybody's
possible analysis. I've Googled every possible way for info with no results.
I'd really appreciate some help here from the resident experts!. TIA
 
JS said:
Did you disable the on-board Video?
Check BIOS settings?

JS
Sure did on both counts, and triple checked them! As a matter of fact, the
onboard video was automatically disabled, as expected.
 
One last thing, did you connect a power cable to the card,
as most new cards require and have separate power input connector?

If you did the above and you still have a problem then
you could have a defective card.

JS
 
JS said:
One last thing, did you connect a power cable to the card,
as most new cards require and have separate power input connector?

If you did the above and you still have a problem then
you could have a defective card.
snip

This model card doesn't have a separate power connector, but since my last
reply I tried it on a friend's computer with the same model and series mobo
and it works fine. BIOS on both machines set identically - I built both
machines.
 
JS said:
Check the connector on the motherboard, look for crud, bent pins, Etc.
snip

Did that - all the basic diagnostic stuff, but didn't expect problems in
that regard - all hardware less than a month old. This thing's really got us
stumped. Even did a Windows reinstall on the problem machine, and the
updates.
 
Did that - all the basic diagnostic stuff, but didn't expect problems in
that regard - all hardware less than a month old. This thing's really got
us stumped. Even did a Windows reinstall on the problem machine, and the
updates.

All of the drivers are dated within the last 6 months.
 
Looks like your motherboard is bad since the card worked on an identical
system. Since it's less than a month old you may be able to get a free
replacement board if you act quickly.

JS
 
Still me, changed handle :-)

JS said:
Looks like your motherboard is bad since the card worked on an identical
system. Since it's less than a month old you may be able to get a free
replacement board if you act quickly.
snip

That's part of what confounds us - one other card of the same brand & model
number but different version number does work on both computers. Guess we'll
just send get an RMA from NewEgg and get the working version.
'preciate the effort to help! It's an otherwise great card - 256 MB, and
allows sharing another 256 if needed.
 
Good luck, not to put any blame on New Egg but it may be hard for them to
indentify a card by version number unless their is some indication with the
part number (xxx-a, xxx-b) on the box.

JS
 
JS said:
Good luck, not to put any blame on New Egg but it may be hard for them to
indentify a card by version number unless their is some indication with
the part number (xxx-a, xxx-b) on the box.
snip

*Never* had any problems with NewEgg, and there have been times I expected
it.
 
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