Ok, let me be specific. Here's the story so far:
Had this system:
MSI P6N mobo
Pentium 4 3.0ghz
2X2GB PC2 RAM
Geforce 8800 GTX vid card
OCZ 600 mxsp PSU
Windows 7 32 bit
Decided to upgrade the video card to a Geforce 480GTX I found on Kijiji. Upon installation I had problem right away. Firstly I would get stuck on the BIOS splash screen, but consecutive reboots got me past it. Once in Windows I installed the latest drivers for the card and it seemed to perform ok, but I noticed the screen would occasionally go black for a half a second, like the vid card wasn't sending a signal briefly. Skyrim ran ok, but the black screen occurred more often. At one point I had a complete freeze-up and had to restart, which got me stuck at the BIOS for a bit again. I did some research and discovered that the 480 is a power hungry card, and I had the bare minimum to supply it. Also, at some point during this process the internet stopped working. I get "unidentified network", and other computers can see this one on the network, but can't log into it, and it can't reach out the them or the internet successfully.
So brought the card back to the seller and swapped for a Geforce 560ti, that being a less power hungry card with only slightly less performance. Upon installation I hit and got stuck at the BIOS flash screen again, and that's where I stayed. Every time I booted the machine turned on, I heard two beeps (which my research indicated meant a memory issue, but I've always heard beeps when this computer boots), then the splash screen came up, and that's it. I couldn't get into the BIOS setup, nothing. Here's what I tried:
- Resetting CMOS (via both the reset button and removing the battery)
- Removing RAM sticks, trying different slots
- Switching back to my original 8800 GTX vid card
- Plugging both vid cards (8800 and 560) into the secondary PCI-e slot (separately, of course)
- Unplugging all unnecessary components
Nothing made any difference. And that's the way things stayed until the additional sticks of RAM came in the mail. I removed the old RAM and installed the new ones into the same slots and booter 'er up; same thing. Thinking "great, well it's not the RAM", I decided to just installed all 4 sticks and see what happens. I installed the old RAM into the last two slots (now I had 4X2gb of PC2 ram, the max for this mobo), and booted 'er up one more time, without much optimism. To my surprise, I got past the splash screen!
I got a BIOS error of some sort, I don't remember what exactly, but I had the option to go into the BIOS setup, which I did. I hit "Load fail-safe defaults", saved, and rebooted. This time it launched right into Windows. Encouraged, I reinstalled (choosing "clean install" during the installation) the latest drivers for the card, and rebooted. Everything seemed fine, except that my internet still wasn't working.
I loaded Skyrim, and found it ran pretty ok, but not quite as smoothly as I had expected. I checked "properties" under "my computer" and found Windows reports 8gb of ram, but only 3 usable. I shut down and swapped out some ram to see what would happen now that I was booting ok, and got stuck at the BIOS splash screen again. Putting the ram back in got me past the screen again, so it appears I can only boot with every RAM slot filled. I ran Windows' memory test, checked out fine. BIOS reports 8gb of ram no prob. I think the usable memory problem could be a limitation of 32bit Windows 7. I have plans to upgrade to 64bit soon. And the internet still refuses to work. I installed "Reliable Multicast Protocol" to the network adapter, but no improvement there. I've installed the latest drivers for the mobo, no improvement.
If you've read this far, thank you. If you can help, please do! Again, here's the summary of the symptoms now:
- Ethernet port not working
- Strange RAM problem where the computer only runs with all 4 slots full
- 2 beeps at startup (there's always been a couple beeps or so, I never thought anything of it)
- 3 of 8gb of ram usable in WIndows.
Let me know if you need anything else from me.
Help!
Had this system:
MSI P6N mobo
Pentium 4 3.0ghz
2X2GB PC2 RAM
Geforce 8800 GTX vid card
OCZ 600 mxsp PSU
Windows 7 32 bit
Decided to upgrade the video card to a Geforce 480GTX I found on Kijiji. Upon installation I had problem right away. Firstly I would get stuck on the BIOS splash screen, but consecutive reboots got me past it. Once in Windows I installed the latest drivers for the card and it seemed to perform ok, but I noticed the screen would occasionally go black for a half a second, like the vid card wasn't sending a signal briefly. Skyrim ran ok, but the black screen occurred more often. At one point I had a complete freeze-up and had to restart, which got me stuck at the BIOS for a bit again. I did some research and discovered that the 480 is a power hungry card, and I had the bare minimum to supply it. Also, at some point during this process the internet stopped working. I get "unidentified network", and other computers can see this one on the network, but can't log into it, and it can't reach out the them or the internet successfully.
So brought the card back to the seller and swapped for a Geforce 560ti, that being a less power hungry card with only slightly less performance. Upon installation I hit and got stuck at the BIOS flash screen again, and that's where I stayed. Every time I booted the machine turned on, I heard two beeps (which my research indicated meant a memory issue, but I've always heard beeps when this computer boots), then the splash screen came up, and that's it. I couldn't get into the BIOS setup, nothing. Here's what I tried:
- Resetting CMOS (via both the reset button and removing the battery)
- Removing RAM sticks, trying different slots
- Switching back to my original 8800 GTX vid card
- Plugging both vid cards (8800 and 560) into the secondary PCI-e slot (separately, of course)
- Unplugging all unnecessary components
Nothing made any difference. And that's the way things stayed until the additional sticks of RAM came in the mail. I removed the old RAM and installed the new ones into the same slots and booter 'er up; same thing. Thinking "great, well it's not the RAM", I decided to just installed all 4 sticks and see what happens. I installed the old RAM into the last two slots (now I had 4X2gb of PC2 ram, the max for this mobo), and booted 'er up one more time, without much optimism. To my surprise, I got past the splash screen!
I got a BIOS error of some sort, I don't remember what exactly, but I had the option to go into the BIOS setup, which I did. I hit "Load fail-safe defaults", saved, and rebooted. This time it launched right into Windows. Encouraged, I reinstalled (choosing "clean install" during the installation) the latest drivers for the card, and rebooted. Everything seemed fine, except that my internet still wasn't working.
I loaded Skyrim, and found it ran pretty ok, but not quite as smoothly as I had expected. I checked "properties" under "my computer" and found Windows reports 8gb of ram, but only 3 usable. I shut down and swapped out some ram to see what would happen now that I was booting ok, and got stuck at the BIOS splash screen again. Putting the ram back in got me past the screen again, so it appears I can only boot with every RAM slot filled. I ran Windows' memory test, checked out fine. BIOS reports 8gb of ram no prob. I think the usable memory problem could be a limitation of 32bit Windows 7. I have plans to upgrade to 64bit soon. And the internet still refuses to work. I installed "Reliable Multicast Protocol" to the network adapter, but no improvement there. I've installed the latest drivers for the mobo, no improvement.
If you've read this far, thank you. If you can help, please do! Again, here's the summary of the symptoms now:
- Ethernet port not working
- Strange RAM problem where the computer only runs with all 4 slots full
- 2 beeps at startup (there's always been a couple beeps or so, I never thought anything of it)
- 3 of 8gb of ram usable in WIndows.
Let me know if you need anything else from me.
Help!