X850 pro

[Katana_Thriller 0]

Here's the story.

 

I have a socket 478 motherboard, kinda bad. (ASRock P4i45GV) I purchased an ATI Radeon X850 Pro, AGP 256 mb. nothing would show up on my monitor going thru the VGA port. So now I want to get a new motherboard. Any suggestions? Socket 478 with an AGP slot, ASUS, MSI, anything. I just want it to work.

 

 

Pentium 4 3.2GHz processor

ATI Radeon X850 AGP 256 MB

512 MB DDR33

[warper2 0]

disregard

[Katana_Thriller 0]

Don't disregard! I need help!

[jwp2600 0]

Before you go out and buy a new mother board, check your basics.

 

Prior to the X850 did you use the integrated onboard video or did you have a different card installed?

 

If you used the onboard graphics did you disable it?

 

If you used a different card have you reinstalled it to see if it still works?

 

Did you uninstall the old drivers before installing the new card?

 

The X850 requires power, did you hook it up? If so try another adapter to assure you dont have a bad harness.

 

How big is your power supply? Do have several items plugged in that require a lot of power that could be starving the X850?

 

Try a different CRT to assure yours did not fail.

 

Otherwise, if you are dead set on purchasing a new mother board, I am personally a big fan of ASUS. I know several people that are not fans of ASUS, but I have never had an issue personally. What I would recommend is for you to visit www.tomshardware.com and read the reviews. They have a lot of information as to what motherboard would suit your needs best.

 

 

 

[Katana_Thriller 0]

I just plugged it into the onboard motherboard when i noticed the X850 wasn't doing anything. I did try disabling the onboard video then plugging the monitor into the X850, but still nothing. I did uninstall the old drivers and nothing. I'm assuming it got enough power, because the fan on the card was spinning fine, very loud, and i did try taking the power out of the harddrive and it still didn't work. I did not try a new motherboard.

 

I'll check out tomshardware.com and thank you so much for replying.

Niko.

[Katana_Thriller 0]

Does anyone else have A socket 478 board with an X850 in it?

[Sampson 0]

Katana-Thriller, I believe that we hava a problem in communication. Not all socket 478 boards are created equal. Yours is an AsRock AGI AGP compatible board. AsRock did some slick engineering to make its onboard VGA work with the 478 socket, but added the AGP slot in case you wanted to use another card, but that slot is a "compatible" slot not a real AGP hardware designed slot. This is a list of cards that are compatible with the slot they created: http://www.asrock.com/support/AGI8X_LIST/p4i45gv_r50_xp.htm You will note that the 850X is not on the list. It will probably never work.

 

Given that jwp2600 gave you some extremely sound hints. It is not clear that you understood.

 

First, using the onboard graphics (this is your default), you would need to uninstall the graphics drivers. After doing so, Windows will immediately tell you that it has found new hardware and would you like to install the drivers for it. You would cancel the request and reboot.

 

Then, in the process of rebooting you will see a message that if you press (usually DEL, but it could be any key of the manufacture's choice) to get into Bios, you should press that key before the computer goes any farther. Once in Bios go to the graphics menu and disable the onboard video and choose instead the AGP default. Exit Bios but write the changes when prompted (in other words, answer 'Y').

 

When it comes out of Bios, it will want to continue to boot into windows, but turn it off before it does. At this point, you would physically install the new card. jwp2500 alerted you to the fact that the 850X has an auxilliary power tether to make sure that it will draw enough power to work. Most older AGP cards get their power through the AGP rail and don't need the extra power but the 850X may. At this point, you should be alerted to two things - 1) because it demands more power, you should be sure that your PCU can supply it without being overly taxed and 2) depending on the tether, where to plug it in to get that power. Again, the 850X is not going to work with your "compatible slot" unless AsRock has managed to create a new BIOS that can handle it.

 

But, pretending that you have your AGP card installed, because you left Windows in a state that it was using a standard VGA driver, the card should display either 640x480 or 800x600 and look pretty washed out. Sometimes Windows will tell you that it has found new hardware and want to install the drivers it thinks that you need and sometimes it doesn't. You would cancel Windows attempt to provide the drivers, and stick the CD in that contains the installation procedure for your card. Normally, it will spin up and walk you through the process.

 

Again, it is highly unlikely that the 850X will ever work with that motherboard because it is an AGI not an AGP system.

[Katana_Thriller 0]

And that's why I want to get a new motherboard, but I want to make sure to get a board that will function with all of my parts. I know that Socket 478 is kind of unpopular for a gaming computer, and i just wanted to make sure to get a board that could hold both the X850 and is socket 478.

 

Thanks a lot sampson for taking your time to help a kid like me. Thanks everyone.

 

Niko