Nvidia Cards and the K8M800 Chipset/MB

[Tempestwolf]

Hello,

I am currently at a loss and was looking for some help with my VIA Motherboard. My problem is in reference to the AGP slot and interaction with Nvidia Graphics Cards.

I have the K8M800 Main Board with matching chipset and in it sits a AMD Semperon 2800.

My problem arises from some communication failure between the board and the video memory via the AGP slot. I have tried it with 2 seperate working cards to find the only common thread being the main board. The two cards in question are specifically the NVidia GeForce FX 5500, and the GeForce 6600. My ultimate goal is to be able to install and run World of Warcraft, a feat I have seen managed by computers with half the power of mine. I'll break down the problems by card.

The Geforce FX 5500 256mb:
Generally the card works but when trying to install the program there is an intermittent memory fault in transferring info to and from the card. Randomly at some point during the install it will spontaneously loose files killing the install.

The GeForce 6600 256mb:
Got it running for a short while but ultimately would lock up the system. In running world of Warcraft, I experienced tearing even on the lowest settings, something I know the card can handle and have seen it handle on mid to high settings. Also there is sometimes a problem with it even detecting the card and booting up properly, sometimes it will and sometimes it will just sit there once you power it on and not boot.

I have installed every up to date driver I can lay my hands on and according to various driver scans all of them are up to date. The only thing I found was a warning on Wikipidia that VIA boards have had problems with Nvidia cards and specifically with the AGP interface slot.

I am at my wits end here, does anyone know of what I can do to fix this problem?

Thank You.

P.S.
I should also mention, I meet all the other installation criteria for WOW
I am running Windows XP
I have 1 GB of Ram and ample hard drive space.

P.S.S.
The aforementioned article
"In addition, motherboards with some VIA and SIS chipsets and an AMD Athlon XP processor seemingly have compatibility problems with the GeForce 6600 and 6800 GPUs. Problems that have been known to arise are freezing, artifacts, reboots, and other issues that make gaming and use of 3D applications almost impossible. These problems seem to happen only on Direct3D based applications and do not affect OpenGL"

GeForce 6 Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I hope there is a fix.

[Mr. Chris]

I have seen many more issues with VIA boards and ATI cards than nVidia cards. I had an Abit AV8 board (K8T800 chipset) and both a 6600GT then a 6800GT and the board ran great.

Not sure I understand the issue with the older FX5500 card (the nVidia 5xxx series cards were really crappy cards), because when installing a game, nothing "loads" onto the card, you may want to run Memtest 85 to test your RAM, faulty RAM will cause data corruption, never seen a video card cause that.

The board not seeing the 6600 card or not booting with that card, could be a bad card, could be a problem with the AGP slot. Does that card need a seperate power connection from the PSU?

Also, what is the wattage of the PSU in the system? This could also be a problem. Chris,.

[Tempestwolf]

I thought of the RAM too and a tech I was working with from Blizzard. We isolated it and I replaced it with brand new sticks just as a precaution. The only memory that has not been replaced is the Vid Card.

The card does require a direct connection to the PSU (the 6600 card, not the 5500). I have tried the card on both wattage settings from my PSU (the higher has never actually booted). The PSU has both 115w and 230w settings. I have tried both with the 115 only resulting in a successful system boot with either card.

I am personally leaning to the slot itself being defective, but I am not sure. The 5500 boots everytime w/o fail, the 6600 sometimes requires a little wiggling to get it to seat properly I think, and then it boots fine (unless the system gets wiggled), but even then the tearing I saw in game I am thinking may be a result of that bad connection between the card and the main board.

Any ideas?

[Mr. Chris]

O.K., first off, that "wattage" setting on your PSU is the VOLTAGE setting. It should be at whatever the wall outlet voltage is in your area, prolly 115v. Stands to reason the PC wouldn't boot with the voltage set at 230v.

The "tearing" that you see could be the result of "V-Sync" being turned on in the game's video options. I usually run all my games with V-sync off. Or if V-sync is off, try with it on.

You can try and clean the 6600 card's contacts with a pencil eraser to make sure the edge connector is clean. Or when installing the card, leave the 2 screws for the bracket (on the card itself) just a bit loose to see if the bracket is twisting the card when it's inserted. Not uncommon to have alignment issues with video cards. Is the main board securely supported under the video card? Chris.

[Tempestwolf]

Thanks, I'll try that. Max watts is 410w.

I think the alignment is good, no problems matching it to the slot.

As to the main board it appears secure, no giggle at all.