Hercules 9800SE AIW prob

[Cider Monster]

I'm having right grief trying to get my Hercules 9800SE AIW card installed.

My first effort resulted in the common boot failures or session freezng after a few minutes use. Then I noticed I'd missed an all important fact in the instructions i.e. having a non-Intel chipset I needed an AGP driver.

The second effort to install looked promising. Managed to load the AGP driver, updated to a newer set of Catalyst drivers. The following day it was the old problems again, boot failures or minimal use before a system lock-up.

I'm guessing that the motherboard is the problem. It's an SiS645DX chipset. I've been to the SiS website and there does not seem a whole lot there to help so possibly the board is just old.

Would upgrading to an Intel chipset board solve my problems?

System
Windows XP Home Edition
Pentium IV 2.4
1Gb DDR RAM
Soundblaster Audigy
350W power supply

[Lexeus]

Can we some more detail on your system specs ?

Your sig says you have a 350W PSU ? What make ? Generic ?

also what was in the system for the 9800SE AIW

could be a power issue

[mike_w]

Might be your PSU, since I've heard that 9800s like plenty of power.

Also, try taking out everything that isn't essential to booting i.e. PCI cards, optical drives, etc.

Might also want to try turning the AGP down to 4x if it's already at 8x.

[Kezzer]

/me has a 9800 Pro in his shuttle

200Watt PSU in here iirc

[Lexeus]

Shuttle PSU's are different though they are almost all quality, they have to be. Where as desktop PSU's are often crap. If you have a quality PSU's like a 235W sparkle I have it will still power a powerful system, but it still isn't the most secure situation

[Proplus]

Try powering the 9800 with a free molex from the PSU, not one thats powering other devices like a HDD or CD-RW.

[Cider Monster]

Can we some more detail on your system specs ?

Your sig says you have a 350W PSU ? What make ? Generic ?

also what was in the system for the 9800SE AIW

could be a power issue

Sorry, missed out my hard drive, a Seagate 60Gb (7200rpm) and I have a hot-swap drive caddy with a Maxtor 80Gb (7200rpm).

Checked the power supply and it is marked up as an ATX 350W

[Lexeus]

What make ? Did it just come with your case ?

The thing with PSU's is they may say they are a certain wattage, but just because they may be able to supply that at their peak it doesn't mean they can supply it all the time, or not blow up if they do sustain it.

For example, an enermax (high quality make) PSU of 550W costs over £100, where as a cheap generic make may only charge £20 for the same rated PSU.

Now Enermax's PSU will supply what it is rated at, where as the generic make will probably be something more like 300W, if that, and often not very stable.

Anyway, my point is, your PSU may not be supplying enough steady power, as I assume you were using a less powerful card before, and the PSU does not sound great combined with the fact the 9800's draw quite a bit of power.

When I bought a 9800SE AIW I had to change my PSU, although that was because I had an incompatible PSU, because of the 9800's damned PSU safety trigger problem which it has with some PSU's, makes it so you cant get more than about 1/2 second power.

[Cider Monster]

Thanks for that Lexeus.

I'm going to guess its a generic power supply having now checked out somw websites and discovered that you could get branded ones! I always that that one PSU was as goos as the next.

Funnily enough I was looking at the very PSU that you have. Unless there are any fitting issues (please say no, I want that 9800SE working!) methinks an internet order is imminent.

Thanks again for your (and everybody elses) assistance on this.

[skattrd]

PSU's are usually atx - so should be fine fitting in most cases.

Do a quick search on these forums if you're after a new psu - theres alot of ppl don't like q-tec (although mine was great and ran alot of gear for 8 months with no probs, just got a enermax tho). Most ppl will reccomend a CWT (from scan) if you can afford a little extra

[Cider Monster]

Thanks Skattrd.

I'm more or less sold on the Q-Tec 550W Gold and as I can get this for £25 its no great shakes if it causes an issue further down the line.

Just one final point back on the 9800SE AIW. I left all the ATI software in after the failed installation but this is not causing any probs to my old Nvidea card. When I come to try the next (successful, I hope) install of the 9800SE AIW should I uninstall all the ATI progs first?

TIA

[mike_w]

I wouldn't advise getting a Q-Tec, it's not worth the risk - you might be fine, you might not. I think it's best not to risk killing your PC just to save money, especially when you can get a CWT from Scan for only £10 more.

Also, if I remember correctly, the Q-Tec is not really 550W - the 550W is just the peak output.

If you want to make sure you've got rid of all the drivers, you can use something like Driver Cleaner

[Lexeus]

Like he said . You can remove them, but an less once you put the card back you have driver probs then it will probably be ok.

As for the PSU I probably would recommend a CWT from scan.co.uk

I dont know which exact Q-tec PSU you are looking at, but the one I have is the 550W PFC version, which means it has enhanced power safety, q-tec model '550WP'.

To be honest, if it hadn't been for the fact that I got this PSU second hand when it was almost brand new for only £15, I would have bought a CWT PSU from scan.
Your choice, and a q-tec will probably be ok, but recently I have come to the conlusion you may as well spend that bit extra to get the business if you are buying new to start with, but then again I buy second hand mostly

Good luck

[Cider Monster]

Well, I've 'asked the audience' and they seem pretty unanimous. So is my answer -

a) Don't change the PSU and dump the card?
b) a Q-Tec 550W?
c) a CWT from Scan?
d) a rather tasty jam sponge?

I think the answer is C.

Is it my final answer?

Yes ! (Audience whoops wildly!!!)

CWT ordered so no going back now!

[skattrd]

Can I have the jam sponge then

[mike_w]

You know it makes sense