[KLUG Members] AGP problem (maybe?)

[Bryan-TheBS-Smith]

Scott Thurmond wrote:
> I have a Gigabyte 5AA mainboard, AMD K6-1 processor.  I have
> an AGP graphics adaptor.  When I try to install Mandrake I get
> a message that says "Install crashed.  Memory may be missing."
> I replaced the memory.  I replaced the graphics adaptor with a
> PCI card and it loaded fine but the graphics sucked.

I assume this is a ViA or ALi chipset?  Expect to have problems on those
old Socket-7 AGP boards -- especially with certain AGP cards that are
_known_ to be problematic.  What AGP cards did you try?

Well, 3dfx Voodoo3 PCI cards are now under $50 these days and quite good
IMHO (versus even some AGP cards).  Heck, the 3drx Voodoo3 AGP cards
should work fine (since they don't use main memory/DME).

> So I went and got a new AGP card thinking that maybe the original
> AGP card was hosed but I got the same results with the new card.
>I have upgraded to the latest BIOS for the mainboard.  Could there
> be some BIOS setting that might be screwing me up?

No, there is a whole slew of AGP incompatibilities that took awhile to
reverse engineer.  Intel withheld a _lot_ of specs on AGP.  My favorite
is the 5mm spacer that a lot of first gen AGP cards needed because Intel
even released the mechanical form-factor wrong!

> My next step is to replace the mainboard but I hate to go
> through all the trouble and money if it is something fixable.

Try toggling these settings:
- Disable AGPx2 (or enable AGPx1)
- Rotate through AGP/video memory reservation
- Try setting your memory timings more conservative

Again, what AGP cards have you tried?

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith    mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
Engineer  AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.  http://www.linux-wlan.org
President    SmithConcepts, Inc.    http://www.SmithConcepts.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
* Pentium stop, Pentium SMP go, Athlon MP go ... go very fast! *