8800GT ASUS A8V-VM SE compatibility problem

[sheppast]

Hi

I am experiencing an identical problem to many it seems. I have A8v-VM SE motherboard. I have been using the onboard video. I just bought a video card for it, a Zotac PCI-E 8800 GT. I plugged it in and I get no video out from the card, I can still use the onboard but the new video card does not show up in device manager. When I attempt to run the 8800GT the computer loads to windows but without any signal to the monitor (I can hear windows loading but I can't see it!). I have followed the intructions on other forums and cleared the CMOS as well as selecting PCIE VGA in BIOS (my BIOS is version 702). I have also disabled the onboard video in BIOS but this results in three beeps on start-up and no display on the monitor. Any help would be greatly appreciated... here are my full specs

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ with HT Tech.
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Midi-Tower ATX Case +550W PSU -Black/Silver
ASUS A8V-VM SE Motherboard
6x USB Ports, GB LAN, Dual Channel Memory, 8 Channel Audio, 4x SATA ,2x UDMA, RAID 0,RAID1,RAID 0+1
1500MB DDR400 Memory (1x1gb, 1x512mb)
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-Re-Writable +R/-R/RW
512MB ZOTAC 8800GT
19" ViewSonic VX912 TFT Flat Panel Monitor - DVI (8ms)

I have also been told that the ZOTAC range of 8800GTs are fully backwards compatible, although it is a PCI-Express 2.0 card, it runs with 1.0 and 1.1

 

[flux64]

they are not backwards compatible.

you need a pci e rev 2.0 board

 

[sheppast]

can you recommend one?

 

[sheppast]

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=51849

according to this, a pci-e x16 slot can handle pci 2.0 cards. My motherboard has a pci-e x16 slot, therefore it SHOULD be compatible with the card...

 

[talit]

A8v-vm se its not compatible with last pcie 2.0 cards im afraid, at least until asus will post a new bios update, and who knows how many time are we suposed to wait for. That was my problem. My sistem is practically as yours. But i was so lucky to ask where i bought my mainboard "one month ago" and they changed it for a secondhand but unused dfi nforce4 infinity without paying a penny. Try to find a mainboard 939 with a nvidia or amd chipset, they should work just fine as mine does. The problem is mainly with via chipset.
Another dont recomended solution its to update graphic cards bios with a modded Gen1 bios, that makes your 8800gt a pcie 1.x card instead of 2.0 (Gen2) but if you´ll do so you´ll lose your garanty. But what the hell it shoulds work.
If you can afford it upgrade your sistem with new but not expensive core2 cpu as 2160 which is highly overclockable. If you keep your 4200, so do i, you must know about the bottleneck, when your 8800gt get fine and play games just push the filters to 4xAA and 16 or 8 anisotropic and put the games at high quality (crysis just high) The bottleneck practically will dissapear, just a few 2 to 5 frames down of a core2 x6850 at crysis dont worth the money, core2, mobo and ddr2 cost.
Be Happy.

 

[sheppast]

I am currently looking into upgrading my CPU to avoid the bottleneck. As I currently have an AMD chip, can I switch to Intel? Or do I need to continue using AMD chips. I will also look to get a motherboard with AMD chipset, I have only had my A8v-VM-SE for 1 week! Can anyone recommend a good AMD CPU? My budget is $120 approximately.

Thanks

 

[talit]

There is not good cpu 939 abailable anymore so you have to stay with your current one or upgrade not only cpu but mainboard (you can return yours) and ddr2 (ddr 400 not compatible with new mainboards, except some asrock). But one thing its true, you have to return your a8v-vm se next week, usually you have 15 days to return products and they can try to find a solution or give your money back.