Harm to PCI Express Video Output

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:14 am

Help!!! I somehow made it impossible to use a PCI Express card on my ASUS A8N-Sli motherboard. This is what I did. I put a Diamond Supramax PCI modem card in the bottom PCI slot on my motherboard. This modem had been working in another computer. But now it caused the system to crash and when I tried to reboot, my ATI X1800 XL video card would not post. There was a long beep and the audible message: System failed VGA test. This kept occurring even after I took out the modem card!!

Since I couldn't get into the BIOS I put an old PCI video card in one of the PCI slots and it booted up fine. Then I tried to go into BIOS and find out what might be wrong. I tried a couple of things, like making my PCI Express the primary boot and choosing Single video card but nothing works. I went into system to see if there was an Interrupt conflict but couldn't see anything wrong there either. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:24 am

Did you try to set the post back to long rather than quick post? thought its probably doing that when it doesnt work the first time round...

hmm...

Dan

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:40 am

IF you can get back into the bios (usin the PCI card)
reset all to defaults then power off the pc, unplug the psu and reset the bios

leave the battery out for ~10mins
then test again.

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:57 am

Ken, I was wondering, would clearing the CMOS by setting a jumper do something similar to removing the CMOS battery? What about flashing the BIOS? I have not done any of these before. In the past I have been reluctant to do so for fear of damaging the motherboard, but now I guess I am in a nothing to lose situation. Do you think I may end up having to send the motherboard back to ASUS? Should I try clearing the CMOS first or do you think that will probably not do the job anyway in this case?

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:55 pm

Dro wrote:Ken, I was wondering, would clearing the CMOS by setting a jumper do something similar to removing the CMOS battery? What about flashing the BIOS? I have not done any of these before. In the past I have been reluctant to do so for fear of damaging the motherboard, but now I guess I am in a nothing to lose situation. Do you think I may end up having to send the motherboard back to ASUS? Should I try clearing the CMOS first or do you think that will probably not do the job anyway in this case?

Using the jumpper just removes the battery power from the Bios chip........it's the same as removing the battery (kinda)
You should be fine resetting the bios! The only thing that will happen is the time&date will be lost! -> you'll also loose any opverclocking settings etc. (back to defaults)

If it was me, I'd do it! It's not as dangerous as it sounds!

MAKE SURE YOU UNPLUG YOUR PSU FIRST. otherwise there is a very small chance a powersurge will burn out the bios chip.

Asus boards normally have the Bios jumpper/batttery in the lower left corner of the board.....or sometimes beside the second last PCI slot!

To be sure, unplug the pc, use the jumpper and then remove the battery....in that order........leave the pc then for ~10mins with the PSU unplugged.........then put the battery back in, switch back over th jumpper, unplug all unessential usb devices etc. then plug in the PSU and try boot normally...........make sure to do it in that order and don't leave any steps out!

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:09 am

Thanks Ken, I will follow your directions to reset the CMOS. This still leaves me wondering, if a Diamond PCI modem can cause so much trouble to the PCI Express video output, how does one have a modem in this computer? My motherboard is an ASUS A8N-Sli.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:25 am

You can get either a usb or serial modem....(external)
Serial modems are better but more expesive.....the usb modems are software based.
US Robotics make some very good external modems.

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:38 pm

Well guess what? I just finished removing the battery and clearing the CMOS, reinstalling the battery, etc. There was no change in the result. I get the same beep when the post should occur and then nothing.

According to the ASUS manual, you should remove the battery and then change the jumper to the 2 - 3 pins to clear the CMOS, then put the pins back, then reinstall the battery. Ken, I noticed that your directions reversed the order of jumper and battery but I went with the ASUS directions and removed the battery first. Will that make a difference?

Someone on another thread said the modem may have fried the video card. I did in fact RMA the video card and got a replacement card. I don't know if that means for sure it was bad. But I did NOT have the modem in the motherboard when I installed the new video card yet it made no difference. I still have the same problem. I was always careful to remove the power cord when I installed any of the cards.

I have ordered another ASUS A8N-Sli motherboard so I will try my replacement video card in that when it arrives. Hopefully I didn't damage the new video card. I don't know what is going on. This whole thing is getting very frustrating.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:41 pm

What are your complete system specs? PSU, CPU, GFX etc..

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 9:07 am

The power supply is an iBest 600-Watt Dual Fan 20+4 Pin ATX Power Supply w/SATA from Computer Geeks. The CPU is an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 3800+. The video card is an ATI X1800 XL 256 MB DDR3.

I am worried now that I may have damaged the replacement video card even though the modem was not in the motherboard at the time I reinstalled the video. I think the facts point to a defect in the motherboard which was somehow latent before the modem card got installed and was then exposed and is somehow damaging a video card in the PCI Express slot. If so, I will need to send the motherboard back. I got my motherboard in January so it is still under warranty. However, what can I do about the video card? I got a replacement from ATI and if this one got damaged too, I don't know if they will give me a third? What do you think?

I am still waiting on the ASUS A8N Sli motherboard I bought on auction on eBay. But is it possible if the new replacement video card was also damaged, it could now do damage to the new motherboard? It seems like a vicious cycle. What to do? (i.e., How can I safely test my video card without the possibility of further havoc?). Else I should buy a new (third) video card and start over from scratch? Then send the second card back to ATI, let them check it and, hopefully, if its bad, send me a replacement? Complicated or what? Let me know what you think? Thanks.

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:04 pm

I am very happy to report I have made some progress. I was able to check my video card on another machine and it works fine. That is a tremendous relief. So that reduces the problem to either the mother board or the CPU. It seems unlikely that the CPU is at fault since I can run the computer fine using a PCI video card.

I am now waiting on a new ASUS A8N-Sli motherboard to arrive by mail. Since I know that I have not damaged my video card, I am going to put it into the new motherboard, along with my old CPU. If the problem persists then I will know that the CPU is bad afterall!

Someone suggested I should pull out the old motherboard, remove and then replace the CPU on it, and reinstall the motherboard in the case. Maybe this could fix the problem. So I will try that too. I'll report back on my progress.

Amazing, all this trouble because of simply installing a modem in a PCI slot!

Dro · Post by **Dro** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:55 am

Well I received a new A8N-Sli motherboard Friday. At first, I was afraid to try booting up for fear that the same problem would persist (In which case the CPU would apparently be at fault). However, I finally got the courage to try it last night, and surprise, surprise -- it worked!!!

This has been quite a struggle. I appreciate those who offered suggestions. I really don't know what is wrong with the old motherboard. I reset the CMOS by removing the battery. I flashed the BIOS with the latest version. I even took out the motherboard and reinstalled it, but nothing worked.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a replacement from ASUS. I got this board in January. I don't know why installing a working PSI modem caused this problem to manifest, but I doubt I'll be putting PSI modems in any more of my computers. Thank you all again. Harry

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:33 am

Glad to know it's sorted!!!