Crazy Graphic card problem.

[Tryst]

I have an Athlon II X3 3.1ghz PC which had a Nvidia GT9800 graphics card. I recently upgraded the card and decided to use my GT9600 in my backup Athlon II X2 2ghz PC which only had a 7300LE.

The old PC had been working great but sometimes, the graphics couldn't cope. When I changed the graphics cards over and booted up, it gave the Bios Checksum error during post (9 beeps) and refused to boot. I swapped the graphics cards back again and it worked fine. Both PC's have the same 500W PSU in them so it's not a power issue.

Checked the GT9800 in my main PC again and it works so I didn't damage it.

The PC I had when I got the GT9800 was a lower spec than my backup PC and with a smaller PSU but it worked no problem.

Now I am completely baffled as to why my backup PC just doesn't seem to like the GT9800 but will still play ball with the lower spec card.

Any ideas would be welcome.

[buccanneer20]

hi mate
first off if its 9 beeps thats bios or cmos probs ,try removing the battery and power lead leave for a few replace and reboot or if yours has jumper settings for the motherboard try clearing the cmos that way hope this helps

[dasteph]

I have an Athlon II X3 3.1ghz PC which had a Nvidia GT9800 graphics card. I recently upgraded the card and decided to use my GT9600 in my backup Athlon II X2 2ghz PC which only had a 7300LE.

The old PC had been working great but sometimes, the graphics couldn't cope. When I changed the graphics cards over and booted up, it gave the Bios Checksum error during post (9 beeps) and refused to boot. I swapped the graphics cards back again and it worked fine. Both PC's have the same 500W PSU in them so it's not a power issue.

Checked the GT9800 in my main PC again and it works so I didn't damage it.

The PC I had when I got the GT9800 was a lower spec than my backup PC and with a smaller PSU but it worked no problem.

Now I am completely baffled as to why my backup PC just doesn't seem to like the GT9800 but will still play ball with the lower spec card.

Any ideas would be welcome.

the following link will explain why you get the error with the graphics card but not much in the way of a solution.
ROM Checksum Error

the only sugestion i could offer is to uninstall the driver before removing the graphics card then reinstall the driver after you have changed cards.

[Egren71]

Not sure how relevant it is but according to the nvidia website the GT9600 has a 256Bit Memory Interface Width (see specs here) where as the 7300LE only has a 64bit Memory Interface (see specs here). It might be worth finding out what motherboard you have and see what memory width it will take.
I assume that since you are getting bios beeps that it nothing to do with the drivers as it hasn't started loading windows at this point. Although they may become a problem after you solve this one at which point dasteph's suggestion becomes a sensible thing to try.
Perhaps it is to do with PCIe versions (see here). I have had card issues with PCIe versions, although my problems were not Graphics cards.

[Tryst]

Tried everything that's been suggested and still a no-go.

The only thing I can think of is that the PCIE slot doesn't have the data bus capability to handle the card so I think it's going to be upgrade time for the whole PC.

214 UK pounds for motherboard, processor and memory is a bit more than I'd hoped to fork out though. It's the VAT that's crippling prices now and I resent paying taxes only to see it being used to prop up the economy of every other country at the expense of our own.

Thanks for the help anyway guys.