Upgraded video card, now BIOS goofy

External Since: Jun 30, 2007 Posts: 6

My existing system (about 1.5 years old):

Biostar 6100-M9 MB
AMD 64 3000+ CPU
2x 1GB RAM

removed my existing video card (nvidia 7600GT), used just onboard video
for a few weeks.
Bought a Biostar 7900GT card off of ebay. Installed it, and it is not
working right. From the first boot into BIOS, there are weird things,
like: some characters in the BIOS selections are differnet colors, and
some of the characters are wrong (show a 'N' instead of a 'g'. Just a
few wrong letters on each screen. I think that the wrong letters stay
the same with each reboot.
Windows boots fine, I had removed the old driver, installed the newest
from nvidia. Now, any time the screen is displayed all black, there are
several pixels lit up. I can see a few dozen pixels in the Windows
background that are the wrong color, or black.
Tried playing a game, Halo, and it plays well, except there are weird 3D
streaks running through the game. Game has had some problems crashing, too.
I updated the BIOS to try to fix... no change.
The 7900GT has an extra 6-pin power connection. I did not have one, so I
made one (3 12+V, 3 COM). Works the same with and without this
connected. It detects when it is not connected, and tells me it has
slowed the card down to protect it. Fine.
Any ideas?

-mike

External Since: Jan 03, 2004 Posts: 6148

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:58:17 GMT, Mike
<snorlaxward.DeleteThis@DELTETEmchsi.com> wrote:

>My existing system (about 1.5 years old):
>
>Biostar 6100-M9 MB
>AMD 64 3000+ CPU
>2x 1GB RAM

What about your power supply, made model and wattage?
I always wonder why people don't consider it a "major"
component, especially since there is more variability and
consequence from what it is, than with many other modern
parts.

>
>removed my existing video card (nvidia 7600GT), used just onboard video
>for a few weeks.
>Bought a Biostar 7900GT card off of ebay. Installed it, and it is not
>working right. From the first boot into BIOS, there are weird things,
>like: some characters in the BIOS selections are differnet colors, and
>some of the characters are wrong (show a 'N' instead of a 'g'. Just a
>few wrong letters on each screen. I think that the wrong letters stay
>the same with each reboot.

I suspect the card is bad, you might try flashing the bios
on it, but the preferred remedy would be returning it to
seller for refund before, not after trying to flash a new
bios.

>Windows boots fine, I had removed the old driver, installed the newest
>from nvidia. Now, any time the screen is displayed all black, there are
>several pixels lit up. I can see a few dozen pixels in the Windows
>background that are the wrong color, or black.
>Tried playing a game, Halo, and it plays well, except there are weird 3D
>streaks running through the game. Game has had some problems crashing, too.
>I updated the BIOS to try to fix... no change.

Do you mean the card bios or mobo bios? It'd be the card
bios if it were either, but odds are the card is bad. I
don't rule out PSU problems completely but this is a typical
bad-card symptom (and also an example/reason to avoid ebay).

>The 7900GT has an extra 6-pin power connection. I did not have one, so I
>made one (3 12+V, 3 COM). Works the same with and without this
>connected. It detects when it is not connected, and tells me it has
>slowed the card down to protect it. Fine.
>Any ideas?

Use a multimeter to measure the 12V level while a game is
running. You can expect a minor voltage drop but (on the
card solder joints for the connector) it should be very
minor, let's say about 0.2V at most (and really this much is
a lot but there should be some margin here in what it could
tolerate), but I don't have that card to determine a
specific drop vs connector vs wire gauge estimate. IOW,
11.8V of clean power from a good PSU is going to work fine,
while an average of 12.0V of high-ripple power from a poor
PSU might not do as well... but not to distract from the
initial impression, most likely the card is just bad and you
should return it for refund.