[GazzaT]

Hi All.

I have ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Mobo and wanted to upgrade my AGP card to an Inno3D GeForce 8800GT.

On power up there is no internal Beep and no video output. I have Googled the living daylights and found 3 possible issues.

1. The 8800GT is a "Gen2" card and the chipset only supports "Gen1". You have to get a flash from the card producer to downgrade it to "Gen1".

2. The PCI-e 16x slot on this mobo is in fact only 4x and the card needs at least 8x to run.

3. Nvidia have released a BIOS upgrade which addresses the issue. The version is 1.50A. This is a link on another forum by an individual and they offer a link for the download. However, when I check the ASRock site, they have 1.50 but not 1.50A. They actually go upto 1.80 but none of the issues that their upgrades cover mention the 8800 range, so I am warey of getting a BIOS from anybody other than the mobo manufacturer.

Has anybody else encountered this problem? I have mailed the support sights for both the card and the mobo but we all know how long and drawn out that process can be, lol.

Any help appreciated.

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If the card comes with a six-pin power adaptor, it needs this connected before it'll do anything else.

The 4CoreDual-SATA2, according to Asrock, does not work with your 8800GT. However they do state:

The NVIDIA® 8800GT PCIE VGA card is GEN2 mode VGA card. Unfortunately VIA ® ® ® chipset does not support GEN2 mode VGA card. The only solution is to set 8800GT PCIE VGA card to GEN1 mode.
We have tested 8800GT PCIE VGA card. After flashing GEN1 mode BIOS for 8800GT, it works fine on VIA ® ® ® chipset motherboard.

The BIOS in question is that of the graphics card, not the motherboard. So the solution is to flash the BIOS of your card to revert it to an older generation for it to work in this board.

Edited by Neil Jones, 12 February 2008 - 03:49 PM.

[Neil Jones]

If the card comes with a six-pin power adaptor, it needs this connected before it'll do anything else.

The 4CoreDual-SATA2, according to Asrock, does not work with your 8800GT. However they do state:

The NVIDIA® 8800GT PCIE VGA card is GEN2 mode VGA card. Unfortunately VIA ® ® ® chipset does not support GEN2 mode VGA card. The only solution is to set 8800GT PCIE VGA card to GEN1 mode.
We have tested 8800GT PCIE VGA card. After flashing GEN1 mode BIOS for 8800GT, it works fine on VIA ® ® ® chipset motherboard.

The BIOS in question is that of the graphics card, not the motherboard. So the solution is to flash the BIOS of your card to revert it to an older generation for it to work in this board.

Edited by Neil Jones, 12 February 2008 - 03:49 PM.

[GazzaT]

Cheers for the reply Neil. With regard to the power supply to the card, the audible alarm you get if you try and run it without the 6-pin connected makes it unlikely that anyone would make that mistake. I think that before I try and downgrade a card I have shelled out for, I will try the latest Mobo BIOS as some threads I have read elsewhere seem to think that will work. If it doesn't, then at least I will be running the latest version of the BIOS on the Motherboard and as for the card, I will probably change it.

[GazzaT]

To Finish.

Inno3D have confirmed the following:

For all the latest G9X GPU (ie 8800GT, 8800GTS 512MB), there is a compatibility problem with the VIA chipset which results in no display. It is recommended you change your motherboard to one with an Intel chipset.

So, I can change my motherboard but I cant afford to just chuck money at the problem.

I can try and get the card manufacturer to give me a Flash for the cards BIOS and revert it back to a Gen 1 which I assume is PCI-e V 1.1, which I may go with.

Or I can change the card.

It is commonly bounded around that PCI-e 1.1 and 2.0 are "backwards and forwards compatible", ie, you can sling a 2.0 card into a 1.1 slot and vica verca and it will work at the lower speed of either the card or the slot. Clearly a bit more to it than that and well worth considering if your looking to upgrade your graphics. Lets hope the PCI-e special interest group can sort this one out before we get PCI-e 3.0!