FX 5500 = dead PC ???

In article , andrew@the-woodward-
family.co.uk says...
Andrew Woodward wrote:

Hi,

hope someone can shed some light on this problem:

When I try to install a Leadtek LR2969 (nVidia FX 5500) AGP 256Mb in my
PC, it won't boot at all - disks spin up, fans run, CD & DVD drive lights
flash, but no BIOS beep and the monitor never seems to receive a signal
(screen stays blank and yellow standby light never goes green). The PC
can't be rebooted with the keyboard nor the reset button; it needs to be
powered off.

Assuming it may have been a power problem I took out power leads to CD,
DVD, 2nd hard disk and DAT tape drive, and removed PCI SCSI card, PCI
network card, PCI sound card then tried again, but the result was the
same.

Put it all back together with my old Inno3D nVidia MX2/400 and it booted
up fine.

It looked like the card was dead, but when I put the FX5500 into a 2nd PC
it booted up - at least as far as starting to load windows; I didn't go
any further. This is a very similar setup, with the same PSU.

My PC spec: (ie. the "dead" one)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe/Gold-UAY
AMD Athlon/XP 2500+
512Mb memory
480W PSU; +3.3V=28A +5V=35A +12V=25A -5V=0.5A -12V=0.8A +5VSB=2.5A
Sharp LL-T17D3-B TFT flatscreen monitor

2nd PC spec: (the one in which it worked)
Asus A7N8X-X
AMD Athlon/XP 3000+
512Mb memory
480W PSU; +3.3V=28A +5V=35A +12V=25A -5V=0.5A -12V=0.8A +5VSB=2.5A
Samsung SyncMaster 710s CRT monitor

I have tried the card several times, checking seated correctly, cables in
tight etc. Results are always the same. The card is obviously good, the
rest of the PC is fine, but the two just won't work together. I can't see
any BIOS options different in the PCs that may be the cause. What have I
missed?

Thanks to all who took the time to reply. I've had zero success Time to
give up, I think, and play with my ATI Radeon 96000SE again ... I've
installed PCLinuxOS 2007 (and love it :-) - best Linux distro ever IMHO! )
I tried the ATI card but couldn't get the 3D drivers to work properly - I
read that nVidia Linux support is better than ATI, which is why I bought
the FX5500 in the first place - oh well sigh back to square one; guess
I'll be posting soon in the ATI newsgroup, ;-) ...


Reading the above, did you try the crt on the failing mb+video card
combo? It may be the card doesn't like LCDs but does like CRTs.

Also, Leadtek's website has no mention that I can find for your card,
though they do/did make a FX5500 under the Winfast name WinFast A340
PRO TD . Is that what you have, or is it somewthing else?

Bill

Bill wrote:

In article , andrew@the-woodward-
family.co.uk says...
Andrew Woodward wrote:

Hi,

hope someone can shed some light on this problem:

When I try to install a Leadtek LR2969 (nVidia FX 5500) AGP 256Mb in my
PC, it won't boot at all - disks spin up, fans run, CD & DVD drive
lights flash, but no BIOS beep and the monitor never seems to receive a
signal (screen stays blank and yellow standby light never goes green).
The PC can't be rebooted with the keyboard nor the reset button; it
needs to be powered off.

Assuming it may have been a power problem I took out power leads to CD,
DVD, 2nd hard disk and DAT tape drive, and removed PCI SCSI card, PCI
network card, PCI sound card then tried again, but the result was the
same.

Put it all back together with my old Inno3D nVidia MX2/400 and it
booted up fine.

It looked like the card was dead, but when I put the FX5500 into a 2nd
PC it booted up - at least as far as starting to load windows; I didn't
go any further. This is a very similar setup, with the same PSU.

My PC spec: (ie. the "dead" one)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe/Gold-UAY
AMD Athlon/XP 2500+
512Mb memory
480W PSU; +3.3V=28A +5V=35A +12V=25A -5V=0.5A -12V=0.8A +5VSB=2.5A
Sharp LL-T17D3-B TFT flatscreen monitor

2nd PC spec: (the one in which it worked)
Asus A7N8X-X
AMD Athlon/XP 3000+
512Mb memory
480W PSU; +3.3V=28A +5V=35A +12V=25A -5V=0.5A -12V=0.8A +5VSB=2.5A
Samsung SyncMaster 710s CRT monitor

I have tried the card several times, checking seated correctly, cables
in tight etc. Results are always the same. The card is obviously good,
the rest of the PC is fine, but the two just won't work together. I
can't see any BIOS options different in the PCs that may be the cause.
What have I missed?

Thanks to all who took the time to reply. I've had zero success Time
to give up, I think, and play with my ATI Radeon 96000SE again ... I've
installed PCLinuxOS 2007 (and love it :-) - best Linux distro ever IMHO!
) I tried the ATI card but couldn't get the 3D drivers to work properly -
I read that nVidia Linux support is better than ATI, which is why I
bought the FX5500 in the first place - oh well sigh back to square one;
guess I'll be posting soon in the ATI newsgroup, ;-) ...


Reading the above, did you try the crt on the failing mb+video card
combo? It may be the card doesn't like LCDs but does like CRTs.


Yep, tried that; swapped the CRT from the "working" PC, but still dead.
Even, as a last resort, tried hauling the TV into my study and connecting
it to the s-video output of the card - still dead

Also, Leadtek's website has no mention that I can find for your card,
though they do/did make a FX5500 under the Winfast name WinFast A340
PRO TD . Is that what you have, or is it somewthing else?


Mmmmm, I found that strange too, but there is a sticker on the card next to
the heatsink which says:

Leadtek LR2969
NVIDIA FX5500
PCB Rev:E BIOS Rev:4.34.20.69

There was no manual or documentation that came with the card, so that's all
I've got.

Bill

In article , andrew@the-woodward-
family.co.uk says...


snip

Mmmmm, I found that strange too, but there is a sticker on the card next to
the heatsink which says:

Leadtek LR2969
NVIDIA FX5500
PCB Rev:E BIOS Rev:4.34.20.69

There was no manual or documentation that came with the card, so that's all
I've got.

Bill




In that case, you may have an OEM card especially built for somebody
like Dell. An Ebay purchase? It's things like this that keep me from
purchasing hardware from anybody that doesn't have a really good
reputation for taking back merchandise.

By now I'd be using the card for target practice if I couldn't return
it and be looking at something like example only :

http://www.ballicom.co.uk/product_in...ucts_id=297490

or

http://www.ballicom.co.uk/index.php?...8_48&BalliCom=
3233ef18b809b1d4268b73d180e5218d

http://tinyurl.com/2zqoa3

for something cheaper.

Bill

Bill wrote:

In article , andrew@the-woodward-
family.co.uk says...


snip

Mmmmm, I found that strange too, but there is a sticker on the card next
to the heatsink which says:

Leadtek LR2969
NVIDIA FX5500
PCB Rev:E BIOS Rev:4.34.20.69

There was no manual or documentation that came with the card, so that's
all I've got.

Bill




In that case, you may have an OEM card especially built for somebody
like Dell. An Ebay purchase? It's things like this that keep me from
purchasing hardware from anybody that doesn't have a really good
reputation for taking back merchandise.

You may be right - it certainly doesn't have any obvious Leadtek model
number stamped on it that I can match with info on their website. Google
returns a lot of references to Fujitsu-Siemens for "Leadtek 9629". The
puzzle and frustration is why it works in the other PC; both are home-built
ones with similar, though admittedly not identical, components.


By now I'd be using the card for target practice if I couldn't return
it and be looking at something like example only :

http://www.ballicom.co.uk/product_in...ucts_id=297490

or

http://www.ballicom.co.uk/index.php?...8_48&BalliCom=
3233ef18b809b1d4268b73d180e5218d

http://tinyurl.com/2zqoa3

for something cheaper.


Thanks, but I'll have to stick with what I've got for the moment. I'm on a
limited budget - which is one reason I've persevered with this card; apart,
that is, from the fun (???) of the technical challenge ;-) . I was hoping
to add more memory next, so I'll probably stick with the working card for
the time being.

Bill

"Andrew Woodward" wrote in message
...

I've gone back and re-read the responses to your post and I don't see
anywhere where you mention which Nvidia drivers you're using. Or if you have
tried un-installing the drivers, then tried to start the PC with the default
Windows driver. If you haven't done this I'd sure give that a try. If you
look around there's little programs that will totally remove any trace of
the old Nvidia drivers. If that doesn't work then I'd try a clean OS install
to see if that might fix the problem. It just might be some damn little
driver that's causing the problem, and a clean install will at lest insure
that's it's not a software problem. Which OS are you running? Not that this
should be the problem. This is a really strange problem you have. If I where
in your shoes, this would be driving me nuts!
The fact that the card does work in another PC rules out a defective card. I
think worrying about who made the card is getting off track. The issue is
that there's something about your PC that is stopping this card from
running.
There has to be a fix for this! JLC

Ryan Hatfield wrote:

[snip]


I think that pretty much leaves only one more option. Try finding
another VBIOS for this particular video card and see if that will fix
it. Obviously you'll have to use the other PC to do this. I'd also get
a spare PCI video card in case you accidentally flash it with the wrong
one.

I have come to the same conclusion - that it must be something to do with
the BIOS of the video card. When I boot with my old MX2/400 I get messages
on screen from the video card BIOS *before* I get the normal motherboard
BIOS messages accompanied by a beep. With the FX5500 I get nothing - no
screen display and no beep - the m/b BIOS never kicks in; I conclude that
the VBIOS is hanging. Interstingly, if I leave the PC for a while, the
heatsink gets warm (though not hot, so not an overheating problem) - the
GPU is obviously doing something; my guess, stuck in a tight loop.

Anyway, as I said, I'm not going to pursue this any more at the moment. The
card will sit in my cupboard until I have the time and/or money to throw at
the problem.