FX5200 - no DVI signal

[socketa]

This card now only works on VGA input.
The DVI was working, then it sent no signal to the monitor a few times on a reboot, and now no signal.

Am getting ready to do my first recap of a monitor, video card, and PSU and would like to order all the parts at once (including a basic ESR meter)

The last 'component' to check out is this video card.
What could be causing this fault?

All the caps look good.
4 caps are Elna 6.3v 1500uf
2 Green ones are Teapo 10v 1000uf
The small cap next to the DVI output is also Teapo.
And the silver one, at the other end of the card, has no name, but has 3, 5, 1000, 6A printed on it's top

I have another card - (nvidia 7600) which creates artifacts, on both DVI and VGA - so am reasonably sure that that chip is toasted.
In contrast, the FX5200, has never caused any artifacts or ghosting, so, i'm thinking that the nvidia chip is probably OK.

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

one of the Elna's has leaked around the legs.

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Hi again,
Had a good look around all 8 legs, and couldn't find any signs of leakage - they were all shiny and bright.
Did notice whitening around the base of the 5-windings choke and a light caking on the inside of some of its windings - but it does not appear to be dry-jointed, because one leg is continuous (using continuity test) with a tiny SMD cap, (on the reverse side) and the other is continuous with a elna cap (on the topside of the board)

What next?

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

this ?

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Honestly can not see any sign of leakage from any of these caps, also the sides of the caps are clean with no signs of electrolyte.
Any dark spots on the pads are due to shade.

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

hmm.
maybe a setting in the o.s.
i know those cards can have seperate images or mirror the primary image to both ports.

if you boot with dvi can you see the bios messages?

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Ok It's working - well sort of

I've found a predictable routine

Here is the sequence:
(All of the bios beeps, in the sequence below, are is normal Test OK beeps)

1. Power down with vga connected
2. Power up with dvi
3. BIOS beeps once/blank screen/orange LED on monitor/no words on monitor - not even "no signal"
4. Swap connecter to vga - monitor displays correctly / monitor LED turns green
5. Swap to dvi connector - screen goes blank/ monitor LED goes orange
6. Restart using [windows] [u] [r]
7. Reboots with no bios beep but video OK
8. Restart computer using [windows] [u] [r]
9. Reboots OK, no bios beep / video OK
10. Shut down computer using [windows] [u] [u]
11. Bios beeps once / no video / orange monitor led
12. Plug in vga - video OK | monitor led green
13. GOTO 1.

So, there is some odd behavior here:

Currently, dvi does not work with a cold boot
And, in respect to this card, the bios behavior seems to be opposite to what one might expect.

As stated before, this ordeal does not happen with the ati vga/dvi card

Any thoughts as to what is going on here?

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

bios settings?

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

No - there is no bios agp settings

Also tried it with another card that has the same FX5200 chip - dvi works no problem.
So if other cards work OK, then, logically, the problem is with the card itself.

From the sequence above, it can be determined that during a non-cold reboot some information is retained somewhere that allows a successful restart.
This information is lost when cold booting.

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

maybe the agp bios is corrupt.

there are programs that can read & write them.

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

OK that sounds feasible
The card is Gainward G431110lQ0B4
Windows identifies the current bios as 4.34.20.27.06

So maybe the bios needs to be flashed.
But can not find this bios anywhere on the net

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

you have another card, does it have the same gpu & type of ram etc?

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Yes

Both have:
fx5200 GPU
DDR RAM
Buswidth 128
AGP 8x
Bios version of the gigabyte graphics card is "Unknown"

That's what GPU-Z reports.

The gigabyte bios is 63488 bytes and the gainward is 61440 bytes

So i saved the current bios and flashed the bios chip(?) (is there a separate BIOS chip somewhere on the card?) with nvflash using a startup disk
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/...lash-5-40.html

The flash was not executed.

These are the messages that were returned in the console:

Adapter : GeForce FX5200 (10DE, 0322, 10B0, 0427) H:N B:01, AGP, D:00, F:00
Note: EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID Check
Warning: Firmware image PCI subsystem ID (1458.3103) does not match adapter PCI subsystem ID (10B0.0427)
ERROR: PCI subsystem ID mismatch

The old bios version info is still displayed during boot

Also opened the ROM file with NiBiTor, but didn't see any thing there with regards to Booting and DVI
I changed the "text display time" setting, using this app and then flashed, with success (just to make sure that nvflash worked OK)
There is a round dot on the nibitor user interface, that can be red, orange or green - it indicates integrity.
The dot is coloured green for the original bios - which indicates that the bios is not corrupted. (i'm picking that the bios must also contain a checksum of itself)

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

can you put the bios you want to flash here.

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Zip file including the original Gainward, and the Gigabyte that didn't flash.

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

the pci id's are at offset $54
use a hex editor.
patch the 4 bytes in the one you want to flash so it matches the original.

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

here:

btw, i hope it didnt have any checksums

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

Thank you - no it didn't

i can see what you did, and why - nice one!
Brings back memories from a tut that i started, re the hex pairs and reverse order.

Would there be any problem flashing with the gigabyte rom file, since it it larger?
Also, comparing the two files in hexedit, i can see that the bunches of 00 00... (for example) occupy different offset ranges

Ive checked the bios's datasheets
Gainward - 25P05AV (can only find sheet for M25P05-A)
Gigabyte - SST25VF512

They are both 512kb

Since the BIOS chips are not exactly the same as each other, do you think that it still would be ok to attempt the flash?

[stj]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

the bioses are fine, the dumping program simply left off the empy area of the flash.

personally i hate that, IMO a 512k dump should be 512k even if it's half full of "FF"

[socketa]

Re: FX5200 - no DVI signal

OK, flashed the bios, but same problem persists
So flashed it back to the original bios rom file

Then removed the card and put it in a 32 bit computer
Works fine on cold boot, with normal bios TOK beep.

So the problem only happens when the card is in the other box.
Maybe the card is not fully compatible with 64 bit mobos?