Problem with graphics card or northbridge?

[mwaddoups]

I (rather stupidly) removed the fan from my northbridge yesterday to see if it would run with just the heatsink. My graphics card covers 80% of the northbridge but the fan was so loud I was trying to work out how to fit a quieter fan, but before I perhaps broke my old fan I wanted to check it would run fine. Since it did run absolutely fine for about 4 hours, I turned it off and left it, planning to finish off putting the new fan in this morning.

When I turned it on this morning, it loaded up fine and I left it for about 10 minutes, and when I came back it had froze. I reset it and suddenly the screen wouldn't recognize it. My first thought was a northbridge problem, but I stuck in a old PCI graphics card I had lying around, and it worked fine. I have no other PCIe cards to test with, but what would you think could cause the problem? Or could it be something completely unrelated?

Thanks for the help,

Mark

 

[Lazzer408]

I (rather stupidly) removed the fan from my northbridge yesterday to see if it would run with just the heatsink. My graphics card covers 80% of the northbridge but the fan was so loud I was trying to work out how to fit a quieter fan, but before I perhaps broke my old fan I wanted to check it would run fine. Since it did run absolutely fine for about 4 hours, I turned it off and left it, planning to finish off putting the new fan in this morning.

When I turned it on this morning, it loaded up fine and I left it for about 10 minutes, and when I came back it had froze. I reset it and suddenly the screen wouldn't recognize it. My first thought was a northbridge problem, but I stuck in a old PCI graphics card I had lying around, and it worked fine. I have no other PCIe cards to test with, but what would you think could cause the problem? Or could it be something completely unrelated?

Thanks for the help,

Mark

If another videocard worked then it doesn't sound like it could be the northbridge since the system functions on a different card. Can you test your video card in another system? Also are you overclocking? raising the northbridge voltage?

 

[mwaddoups]

I have no other PCIe systems to test in - I may be able to get hold of another card to test in the PC in a couple of days though. I have overclocked the graphics card recently but only using ATiTool so it's not overclocking on startup. The only reason I still consider the northbridge as a possible problem is that I think the PCI bus goes through the Southbridge, whereas AGP/PCIe go through the Northbridge.

 

[mwaddoups]

I just checked, and found that the NB and SB are combined on the nForce4 chipsets, so it looks like I may have a random graphics card failure...great.

 

[Random Murderer]

I have no other PCIe systems to test in - I may be able to get hold of another card to test in the PC in a couple of days though. I have overclocked the graphics card recently but only using ATiTool so it's not overclocking on startup. The only reason I still consider the northbridge as a possible problem is that I think the PCI bus goes through the Southbridge, whereas AGP/PCIe go through the Northbridge.

you are correct in thinking so, however, the pc would not function if there was a problem with the northbridge.

 

[mwaddoups]

OK, thanks for all the help. Now to try and find a new graphics card to replace my X800 GTO.

 

[Random Murderer]

OK, thanks for all the help. Now to try and find a new graphics card to replace my X800 GTO.

do you know for a fact the card is dead? maybe it was just a bad connection on the power cord or someting... do you have a friend who has a pci e computer you can test your card in?

 

[mwaddoups]

I have a friend who I'm gonna see in a couple of days - I'll ask him first. What else could be causing the problem however?

EDIT: I am sure that it's not power because I know from experience that the pc boots and displays a power error when the PCI-E power cord is disconnected. Also, that wouldn't explain how the problem started.

 

[AshenSugar]

you are correct in thinking so, however, the pc would not function if there was a problem with the northbridge.

not true, you can have partial faiuars to chips, cpu and chipset, i have had athlon64 chips that had 1 mem controler DIE, i have had chipsets that had the IDE or SATA controlers DIE but the chipsets worked fine other then that.

infact once i had a tyan board(out of warr by a few months) that had the ide cont go out, replace it with an addin card, thankfully i had installed a driver for a simlar card(same chipset drivers) and the card was acctualy FASTER, i conntacted TYAN about warr and they ended up sending me a referb board anyway(didnt make me sent the dead board back, i had done enought buisness with them dirrectly they trusted me and the board was EOL anyway)

in the end i kept the board with the dead controler in a server (file server) with the ide controlers bios dissabled( to prevent detection hands) and used the board they sent in a buddys tivo box

 

[Random Murderer]

not true, you can have partial faiuars to chips, cpu and chipset, i have had athlon64 chips that had 1 mem controler DIE, i have had chipsets that had the IDE or SATA controlers DIE but the chipsets worked fine other then that.

infact once i had a tyan board(out of warr by a few months) that had the ide cont go out, replace it with an addin card, thankfully i had installed a driver for a simlar card(same chipset drivers) and the card was acctualy FASTER, i conntacted TYAN about warr and they ended up sending me a referb board anyway(didnt make me sent the dead board back, i had done enought buisness with them dirrectly they trusted me and the board was EOL anyway)

in the end i kept the board with the dead controler in a server (file server) with the ide controlers bios dissabled( to prevent detection hands) and used the board they sent in a buddys tivo box

well, i knew there were such things as partial failures, but i thought it was pretty black and white with chipsets...

you learn something new everyday!

 

[mwaddoups]

It looks like a partial failure is the cause as well, as my graphics card worked fine in a different PC. Now I just need to get a new motherboard. Thanks to everyone who helped.

 

[AshenSugar]

call foxconn, tell them the fan stoped working and then ur card stoped working propery and such, ofcorse dont tell them u removed/broke the fan urself
they may rma it.

i would sujest a tforce board for good overclocking, they are relitivly cheap compared to the other options and offer very good overclocking fetures

 

[mwaddoups]

I ordered a DFI RDX200CF-DR motherboard - its a good overclocker AND good motherboard if I don't use crossfire (which I won't). Just one last question - since I will have to be repairing/reinstalling XP, will my system be able to run Vista well?

Thanks again.

 

[Random Murderer]

I ordered a DFI RDX200CF-DR motherboard - its a good overclocker AND good motherboard if I don't use crossfire (which I won't). Just one last question - since I will have to be repairing/reinstalling XP, will my system be able to run Vista well?

Thanks again.

ick, dfi.
youre gonna want to create an account over at dfi street, cause i guarantee that board will not work right directly out of the box. its gonna cause you a lot of headaches...

 

[pt]

I ordered a DFI RDX200CF-DR motherboard - its a good overclocker AND good motherboard if I don't use crossfire (which I won't). Just one last question - since I will have to be repairing/reinstalling XP, will my system be able to run Vista well?

Thanks again.

with only 1gb of ram you will probabily have slowdowns

 

[AshenSugar]

ick, dfi.
youre gonna want to create an account over at dfi street, cause i guarantee that board will not work right directly out of the box. its gonna cause you a lot of headaches...

seconded, dfi is a pain in the arse.

just install amd chipset drivers b4 you swap boards that saves xp from needing reinstalled.


avoid vista its full of buggs and other crap

 

[mwaddoups]

I can't really install any drivers, since I cant get into it . I already got an account over at DFI(now DIY)-Street, and I've read all the tips for this motherboard - most people who don't run crossfire seem to have no problems with it.