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View Full Version : PC Fails Post, No Monitor Signal

cray86
05-05-2008, 03:57 AM
Hey all. Sorry to bate the title but I didn't know how to describe it.

My system specs on here are accurate. I've got a situation where my PC locked up over night and I rebooted. The monitor did not recieve a signal after that and only booted to the point where I got the Postcode "A1" on my Abit QuadGT board. This Postcode is not in the manual and I cannot find anything reliable for it online.

I removed the 3870X2 and put in my old 6800 GTO and the system booted fine. The only thing I had done last night was to add a 120mm standard Antec fan.

If I put the 3870X2 back in it does not boot beyond that postcode, but the fan and lights on the graphics card are up and running. It even does its posting fan boost (which it always does) and then settles down to the stock fan speed.

Without another system to test, is there anyway I can determine if my 3870X2 has gone bad? I've been running it at stock speeds without an overclock.

Thanks a bunch if anyone can point me in the right direction. Information on what the postcode A1 means on a QuadGT board would help a lot too.
spearman914
05-05-2008, 03:58 AM
The bios might be old... Did you try flashing it?
cray86
05-05-2008, 04:18 AM
Will do.

Can you use a flash drive to flash the BIOS? Abit's website says yes but give mostly details for how to use the floppy method.
philbrown23
05-05-2008, 05:05 AM
it's the same as the floppy drive using a flash drive. A1 means no video card bios I had the same problem but I just reset the cmos a few times and it worked, but the card may be a bad card especially if another one works in it, that or you are maxing out your powersupply wich could be possible.
hat
05-05-2008, 05:07 AM
Naw... not with an OCZ 780w
oh hey and Cray, can your Q6700 do a 9 multi? If so go for 400x9... nice even numbers. 1600FSB, RAM running at DDR800, CPU at 3600...
JrRacinFan
05-05-2008, 05:09 AM
Whats your NB volts set at cray?
hat
05-05-2008, 05:10 AM
The NB can affect video card stability??
JrRacinFan
05-05-2008, 05:11 AM
I am sorry hat I was not specific enough....

Let me rephrase ....

Cray, What is your Northbridge AND MCH volts set for?
hayder.master
05-05-2008, 08:31 AM
you have try to update you bios
cray86
05-05-2008, 07:17 PM
Ive got a friend who is gonna try the card on his system to see if it is the card itself that has gone bad. If it tests OK with him, then I will BIOS update and try it again on mine. I need to figure out if its the board or the card, if I had to guess, I would say the card sense my 6800 is working fine.

Power shouldn't be an issue, but if the card checks OK I'm going to test my power supply next.
JrRacinFan
05-05-2008, 07:22 PM
Im not saying its the actual power supply cray. Im asking what you settings you have. Power supply seems fine, can you post an everest sensor pic for us?
cray86
05-05-2008, 10:19 PM
Naw... not with an OCZ 780w
oh hey and Cray, can your Q6700 do a 9 multi? If so go for 400x9... nice even numbers. 1600FSB, RAM running at DDR800, CPU at 3600...

The next thing on my agenda, after this ;)
spearman914
05-05-2008, 10:24 PM
The NB can affect video card stability??

I think PCIe and VGA/GPU voltage effects video card. NB effects MB/CPU/and RAM.
farlex85
05-05-2008, 10:27 PM
Any of those at the wrong values can cause instability though. If one card works and the other doesn't, it seems like a good bet the 3870x2 is messed up in some way.......
hat
05-06-2008, 02:44 AM
vMCH is the memory controller. How can that affect video card stability? I never knew that..
kenkickr
05-06-2008, 12:30 PM
Well, cray, your card works fine. I tried some 3 GPU action last night and finally see my 6000 x2 is my bottleneck, scored 13,184 but not sure if the 3870X2 was running full steam because Overdrive wasn't accessible(only had 6-PIN connectors).

Cray and I work together @ the same shop
JrRacinFan
05-06-2008, 03:12 PM
Sorry for not getting back with you sooner hat & cray. Yes, even though the card itself has its own external power connections it will still pull power from the PCIe slot. If its attempting to pull too much power it will cause northbridge to function weird.

So, I am beleiving the problem here is related to the NB and/or MCH voltage.

Cray,

If you have ANY overclock set or were overclocking at the time do CMOS reset with the 6800 installed, post and load cmos setup. Do your everyday stable 24/7 settings but add an extra notch to both MCH and NB. Save and Exit. Power down and try installing the 3870x2 again.
cray86
05-06-2008, 03:43 PM
My MCH voltage is at 1.5 (1.25 stock). It was that high to keep the 8GB of RAM stable.

I'm going to reset the bios and reinstall the 3870X2 and go from there. If that has no results, I'm going to flash the BIOS to the newest version.
JrRacinFan
05-06-2008, 03:51 PM
Well, it could play into effect. Try 2 sticks if you cannot get it to post with my suggestions.
cray86
05-07-2008, 05:02 AM
KenKicker helped me check out the card and it is working.

I've got it back in my system, with only 4GB of RAM, and a slightly lower overclock. It's stable and happy now soo... I don't know what happened.

If anything happens again I'm going to go from there, but right now the system is stable and koshier.

Thanks a bunches for all of your help!