NF4 COLD/WARM Boot Problems...Read this.

[needmorstuff]

Ok This is what I found out:

 

1. Tried with the newly flashed bios chip. Same problem. If my leadtek 6800GT is mounted in the top PCI-E port the first red led will flash, then go off and nothing happens then. So no sound, no screen and 3xred led.

 

2. Mounted the leadtek in the lower PCI-E slot. No Screen but a long beep and three short sounds (VGA problem). All leds goes off (boot) af a short period (2 secs aprox).

 

3. Swapped with the 6600 GT point of view and...drum roll.....it booted.

 

4. Mounted the 6600 GT in the lower PCI-E and...drum roll....it booted.

 

Until now there is absolutely no problems with the POV 6600GT at all. I have booted several times, cleared Cmos, standard jumper boot you name. It boots every single time.

 

So now I will bring my Leadtek 6800 GT with me at work tomorrow to test the card itself.

 

btw. I will test the videocard in a Asus A8N Sli Deluxe.

 

 

one question.... how long did you leave between points 2 and 3 above>??

 

you see where I am going.....

 

if it booted (even with no vga) with the gt in the bottom slot, then a quick change of card would allow it to boot with the 6600, and then another quick change to the bottom slot would allow it to boot again with the 6600 in the bottom slot.

 

fwiw I have exactly the same problem as you.

[needmorstuff]

Where is the support? "calling all dfi support engineers we have an emergency"

[nagini]

Hi

 

This has been discussed over and over here at dfi-street. Since I need this board for a research project (because it has a PCIe x4 slot) we have been reluctant to give up and throw in the towel.

 

Since the receiving this board about a month ago we have had persistant startup problems. Once the system is up everything is okay - more than okay in fact.

 

Luckily, for us, we are a bunch of Computer Science and Electrical Engineer Ph.Ds and graduate students. Today we put our two test setups on the bench and decided to at least narrow down what's going on. First, we tested the power supplies (which are listed in my sig) and they checked out fine - no problems there with either one.

 

All along we have suspected that the problem has something to do with the BIOS startup code or our video card's BIOS (eVGA 6800GT). One of the grad students here (at UCLA by the way) noticed that whenever we were having a problem (nothing on the screen) the system still appeared to be booting up - just nothing on the screen. When this happens we sometimes eventually get video once the system boots all the way into Windows or Linux. To test this we tried to reboot from the grub prompt - bingo the system reboots. Okay we are getting someplace.

 

We then dug out a post card (port 80 card, debug card, etc) and plugged that into one of the systems. Viola much more info. Often the system was stopping for a time with a code of 75 or 7F. 7F is where the screen is supposed to be put back into text mode. Okay maybe some more info. Most of the time, however, the system would boot - just no video most of the time.

 

The video would fail (no signal to monitor) most of the time. Although the system appeared to boot most of the time. There were some attempts where the system would just hang during POST.

 

At first we thought the problem might be that we did not have a floppy or any IDE devices attached. we figured that since we were showing a post code of 75 there might be a problem with this. We plugged an IDE cdrom and disk in and removed out SATA cdrom and disk. Same problem as before, so not the problem.

 

Then I remember a post by someone (sorry I can't remember who) who was having this same/similar problem. He said that by plugging in a PCI graphics card the system would post and boot every time. Okay, but where to get a PCI graphics card. Off to the graveyard! eventually we give up and decide to use the DVI to VGA adapter and attach that to our 6800gt (it has two DVI connectors) and use a VGA cable to connect to our display (listed below).

 

What do you know? It know POST/BOOTS EVERY TIME WITHOUT FAIL!

 

Put back the DVI and bam! problems again...

 

We have tried the graphics cards in other systems (ASUS A8N-SLI, Dell 8400, HP workstation) and they work everywhere!

 

Just to be sure we plug in a 6800 Ultra and then a Quadro 4400 we have from nVidia followed by a couple of PNY 6600GTs and all exhibit the SAME behavior. DVI - problems, VGA - no problems.

 

---

 

So, we think there is a problem with/in the BIOS and using DVI (or more likely, initializing it) with this board (and at least some video cards or LCD's) - or at the very least our two boards (consecutive serial numbers #U51008752, #U51008753) have bad BIOS chips.

 

We have ordered another one of these boards which we hope will show up tomorrow to make sure this is the problem. We also have new memory (OCZ Rev.2 3200), power supply (PC Power and Cooling 510-SLI), another 6800GT and a PCI graphics card to test these ideas further.

 

---

 

If you HAVE an nForce4 SLI-DR (or I suppose the D) and are having the strange, sometimes it boots and sometimes it doesn't, issue AND you are using a DVI connection to your LCD then PLEASE try changing over to a VGA cable and report back here what happens.

 

Also, please post results using STOCK settings. Do not introduce more problems by trying to overclock your board before you can get it to boot up stably - common sense really.

 

Look forward to what others experience...

[Junkmail]

Hello nagini,

 

I am having the exact problem you are facing to the word, i restarted my comp after which nothing would be posted on the screen, again you could hear it boot up (could hear the windows welcome sound), but after a few more tries it stopped. The system behaved depending on which pci-e slot was used for the GFX card. I seemed to have more luck using the bottom pci-e slot, as the cpu, ram and vga card would get detected, but the final red led would stay on, but using the top slot for the gfx card only the first led would go off. When the problem occured a few days ago I tried using a DVI to Vga convertor and plugged a CRT to the GFX card but unfortunately it didnt boot but i will try again today.

[Mussels]

i can say that i have no problems here (dual DVI X800XL) and the NF4 board, but did with assembling it, latest bioses and no problem with it.

 

perhaps its an Nvidia bug? try some ATI cards and see.

[needmorstuff]

I have the same problem as junkmail - (I used the pci card to boot before) I have always used a dvi-vga converter as my lcd has no dvi.

 

top slot - no boot 3 leds saty on

bottom slot long beep couple of fast beeps

[nagini]

I found that we had to reflash using an autoexec file on the boot floppy. See biosman.com or similar if you do not know what I mean. All the resetting and power cycling would mess up the BIOS. We were constantly getting checksum errors until we did this and switched off of DVI. Also, grab a post card from someplace - they are pretty cheap.

 

Mussles, I will have to grab an ATI card and try it. It may very well be some kind of nVidia/DFI weirdness, especially with the 66/6800 boards. The thing is all the cards we have tried work on all the other systems we tried them in - except this one.

 

nfs: I think (could be wrong here) you are supposed to use the x16 slot closest to the cpu when not in SLI mode. I have also noticed that when in SLI mode a single card does not work - at least for me. Also, we are using the bottom video connector/port if that matters.

 

Off to borrow an ATI card...

[needmorstuff]

just a suggestion but why don't you jump on the already established thread so we can group ideas - else I will ask a mod to merge the two If that's ok with you.http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10435

 

I am using the top dvi socket....

will try the top one in 5 hours when i get home.

[Muzikfreakah]

x800xl, samsung 172x(DVI) no problems here also.

[EvoFighter]

My friend also complained his new MSI NF4 has the blank screen problem when boot up with DVI to his Viewsonic LCD. But the problem go away when he boot up with VGA. He is also using a 6800GT. He thought there is something wrong with his monitor or 6800GT.

 

So I think it is not a Nvidia/DFI problem, it's Nvidia/NF4 problem..lol...

[needmorstuff]

I tried it with the other connector - same problem here

[nagini]

It's looking more like some kind of nVidia video card/DFI problem to me.

 

nVidia people who are having this problem should try and borrow an ATI card. It's funny how only ATI people are the only ones who are not reporting problems.

 

Merging the threads is fine with me - as long as this problem GET SOLVED. Especially if we can get one of the DFI people to look into this. Or at least try a couple of experiments to independantly test.