Need AGP Speed Mod

[Devilman1]

My system with an HIS HD4670 boot, but without any video, I know tha AGP slot works because with a Sapphire X1950 pro or with an old Matrox G450 I have video.
My board, a MSI Master2 FAR7, has an AGP pro slot that is an evolution of 4x slot.
I would like to try to downgrade the AGP speed of the card to 4x to see if it works, but I haven't find ho wto do it with RBE.

TIA

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Cannot put x8 only card into x4 slot due to VOLTAGE as well as clock differences. You will blow the card, or the mainboard AGP, or both. So check specifications carefully before you try anything.

 

[Devilman1]

On the mainboard manual they said is 8x compatible but I don't have any video with 8x pure card, so I was thinking that it wasn't true.
But both 8x and 4x should support 1.5V or am I wrong?

 

[HalfAHertz]

If wikipedia is anything to judge by, you are wrong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agp

4x is 1,5V and 8x is half at 0,8V

 

[Completely Bonkers]

On the mainboard manual they said is 8x compatible but I don't have any video with 8x pure card, so I was thinking that it wasn't true.
But both 8x and 4x should support 1.5V or am I wrong?

The mainboard manual MUST SAY it is ALSO 4x compatible. If not, dont do it. Thank you.

 

[qubit]

+1 agree with the other posters. It does sound like the card is incompatible with your motherboard unfortunately. Have you tried it in another PC? Perhaps the 4670 doesn't work anyway?

That 4670 is a relatively new generation card, so may not work properly due to AGP and/or BIOS issues. This is a very old system and won't give you good performance any more, so it's probably worth biting the bullet and getting a new mobo, CPU, RAM & graphics card, if you can.

I recommend that you fill out the system specs in your profile.

 

[Devilman1]

I have a MSI Master2 FAR7 with two opteron 275 processor.
1 LC Metatron 1kW Power Supply.
4 Gbyte PC3200 ECC Registered RAM
2 SATA HD
1 DVD-burner
1 Blu-ray Burner

I thought it was a speed problem because on my other ASUS SK8V I could change the AGP voltage only from 1.5 V to 1.75 V and RBE under the clock tab showed 1.2 as GPU voltage.
The card works on the SK8V mainboard.

 

[qubit]

Hmmm.... I wonder if there's some weird BIOS glitch with having two physical processors fitted? Are you comfortable with removing the second CPU and powering it up?

Does the system make a normal power-on beep with that card in it?

Have you checked and double checked using the links given by the other posters that the video card is compatible with your mobo? If the voltage is wrong, it's very likely to come up with a black screen.

 

[Devilman1]

With one or two processor the result is the same:
the computer boot without any sound and video and also the OS seems to boot.
I checked all the connection and they are ok.
I have the same problem with an HD3850 that is also 8x only, but no problem at all with an old ATI x1950 Pro or an old Matrox G450.
By the way also the HD3850 show 1.2 V under GPu voltage with RBE.

 

[Namslas90]

The mainboard manual MUST SAY it is ALSO 4x compatible. If not, dont do it. Thank you.

According to MSI;

Slots

• One AGP Pro 8x/4x slot.
• Four 32-bit/33 MHz PCI slots
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) Pro Slot
AGP Pro is a Hardware Interface for high-power graphics cards which can deliver
more electrical power than the standard AGP Hardware Interface. It is simply an
extended slot that adds power pins to both ends of the slot to facilitate certain
graphics cards' added power requirements. Because of its added pins, an AGP Pro
card won't fit into a standard slot.

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=133&prod_no=692

EDIT; Also, do you have the extra power hooked up to mobo?

SSI 4-Pin VGA Power Connector: JPWR2 (Optional)
This connector is used to provide +12V power output to AGP Pro add-on card.

 

[qubit]

With one or two processor the result is the same:
the computer boot without any sound and video and also the OS seems to boot.
I checked all the connection and they are ok.
I have the same problem with an HD3850 that is also 8x only, but no problem at all with an old ATI x1950 Pro or an old Matrox G450.
By the way also the HD3850 show 1.2 V under GPu voltage with RBE.

Yeah, I'm afraid that it does sound like your cards and mobo just don't want to play together, unfortunately. The specs pointed to by Namslas90 do suggest that it should work though.

I forgot to suggest this before, but do you have the latest BIOS version installed? If not, you might just get lucky by updating it.

Finally, Via chipsets are a bit notorious for hardware glitches, although this chipset was one of their better ones.

 

[_JP_]

Huh...Google has come up with some interesting results, let me ask you, how many forums have you ran to get help, in the last year, with no avail?
This could help me sorting out my search and others to try to help you.
First things, first:

I have the same problem with an HD3850 that is also 8x only, but no problem at all with an old ATI x1950 Pro or an old Matrox G450.
By the way also the HD3850 show 1.2 V under GPu voltage with RBE.

I thought it was a speed problem because on my other ASUS SK8V I could change the AGP voltage only from 1.5 V to 1.75 V and RBE under the clock tab showed 1.2 as GPU voltage.
The card works on the SK8V mainboard.

That 1.2v you are seeing is the voltage at which the core is operating at, it has nothing to do with the 1.5v you were seeing the BIOS. Those voltages that you were seeing in the BIOS are the AGP signaling voltages and have no influence on the card's GPU core. If you were seeing 1.5v it means that the ASUS SK8V has an AGP 4x slot. What you were doing was overvolting the slot, but that's only needed to archive stability when overclocking, which I guess was not the case.
Your MSI board has an AGP Pro with 3.0 specifications, meaning that it operates at 4x/8x speed at 0.8v.

My system with an HIS HD4670 boot, but without any video, I know tha AGP slot works because with a Sapphire X1950 pro or with an old Matrox G450 I have video.
My board, a MSI Master2 FAR7, has an AGP pro slot that is an evolution of 4x slot.
I would like to try to downgrade the AGP speed of the card to 4x to see if it works, but I haven't find ho wto do it with RBE.

TIA

The cards downgrade automatically the speed and voltage for the slot, if possible. AGP spec 3.0 cards will work on 4x/8x 0.8v or 1.5v slots. The HD3850 and the HD4670 work on 4x/8x slots at 0.8v and at 1.5v.
According to MSI, you board was only tested with nVidia Quadro and ATi Fire GL cards, so there's no way to tell if those cards (the 3850 and the 4670) are actually compatible. I do not see anything wrong in running a card like that in that particular board.

 

[Devilman1]

Hi I'm using the latest BIOS.
I asked on MSI forum and to MSI support that answered that they have no interest because the board is pretty old.
I also asked on BIOS-Mod forum that suggest an ACPI table problem, but I'm not very sure about that because comparing the two first version of the BIOS when MSI should have improved Video card compatibility the ACPI Table was not modified, that was modified in the latest BIOS version.
The card didn't work even with the original BIOS.
I'm not an expert to dig inside it and see all the mod, I just disassembled it with award BIOS editor and then used a normal compare program.
So now I was thinking about a Graphic card issue.

 

[Namslas90]

Also, did you check BIOS setings - Frequency/Voltage Control

CPU Host/AGP/PCI Clock
This item specifies the clock frequency of CPU host bus (FSB), AGP, and PCI bus. It
provides a method for end-users to overclock the processor. When set to [Default],
the BIOS adopts the actual CPU/AGP/PCI bus clock values.

Be sure to set proper values.

 

[Devilman1]

I leave everything with default settings

 

[qubit]

I asked on MSI forum and to MSI support that answered that they have no interest because the board is pretty old.

Sounds typical. Barstewards.

So, it's looking more and more like you're stuck, unfortunately.

This is a long shot, but you could fit the card, then clear the CMOS settings (move the jumper and remove the battery, then put them both back) and switch on. You might just get a picture. Here's crossing fingers...

 

[_JP_]

I've been getting some additional info on this particular board and the results are not promising. Although, theoretically, everything should work fine, I mean, there shouldn't be any problems at all. I've found others with similar problems, regarding the graphics card, and no way to solve them as well. I also found a review by a consumer that bought the board and complained that it had numerous problems and that he had difficulties to get the system to work properly.
May I ask, though, for what do you need such a system like this for?
Considering that there are way better, cheaper and more powerful offerings to what you are trying to run with...?
Oh and, please, do try what qubit said.

 

[Devilman1]

I already clear the CMOS and so on, but no luck.
I only have video with the old X1950, that sometimes freeze the PC, or with Matrox G450