VOGONS


AGP cards catching on fire?

Topic actions

First post, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Well at a local shop going out of bussiness I snagged a couple of parts.

MS-5184 VIA Apollo MVP3
2x64mb PC100
K6-2 400
AT keyboard
Serial/Parrell ISA Card
Serial Mouse (temp until I can find a PS2 port riser somewhere)

I'm for now going to mount it in a spare ATX case I have, though a local seller has a baby AT NiB with PSU for 15 bucks I'll grab on Tuesday, this board does have one feature I like, ATX and AT psu hookups. Pics will follow, but first odd problem.

I have cooked 2x Radeon 7500's in this computer trying to test for post, it just kills them any ideas?

specificlly a VRM on the backside glows red hot then flames up, really stumped

Reply 1 of 21, by ibm5155

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well, I already tested an ATI radeon 7200, geforce fx5500 and a voodoo 3 3000 on this board, they all worked fine, maybe you have some bad psu or maybe your agp bus clock is a bit higher than normal (or set to agp 1x)

Reply 4 of 21, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

psu is my trusty Antec TruePower 430W i got it NiB and it was powering my AThlon XP rig without a problem, could it be to much for this role somehow?

Reply 5 of 21, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

also im out of cards to test it with, all I have left is my 6800GS and my Ti 500, neither of which i want to cook off 🤣.

Reply 6 of 21, by Chaniyth

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

It could be anything, maybe try a different AGP card thats not ATI brand or a Radeon and see. The AGP port shouldn't be popping cards like that though.

Last edited by Chaniyth on 2015-05-16, 03:12. Edited 1 time in total.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you, they will kill you... but first they must catch you. 😁

Reply 9 of 21, by shamino

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Early AGP motherboards are notorious for having under specced components in the onboard voltage regulator that provides power to the AGP slot. They didn't take the spec seriously because they didn't realize how power hungry video cards were about to become.
I don't know if that particular board has that problem, but I don't think late 90s MSI was above cutting corners, and it was a popular corner to cut at the time.

My guess (and fear) is that a MOSFET on the board has been overloaded in the past and failed short, and now it's dumping the 5v or 12v input from the PSU rail straight into the AGP slot. If you are very careful with a multimeter, and have a pinout diagram, you might be able to find what voltage is at the slot.

Some ATX-only boards just dumped the PSU 3.3v supply straight into the slot, which wasn't really the best way of doing it, but it worked. AT boards can't do this because the AT power supplies don't have a 3.3v rail.

Reply 10 of 21, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

well went and picked up a PCI video card, a PCI TNT2 M64 to test with it, and no post, no beep codes no nothing. So at least I have a recipt and ill be taking it back, but sure is a disappointment, was really excited to be rocking Socket 7 Again 🤣.

Reply 11 of 21, by kanecvr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I feel your pain bro. My Commate ALi Alladin V won't run with BSOD with any AGP card so I feel your pain. And I wanted to pit VIA's MVP3 chipset vs ALi's Alladin V...

Reply 12 of 21, by Snayperskaya

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Have you tried another PSU, especially a ATX? I've decomissioned all my AT PSUs from my old computers - luckly all of them have both AT and ATX connectors.

I'm also very wary about newer AGP cards (universal) on original or 2X AGP motherboards. Working parts are getting more scarce every day.

Last edited by Snayperskaya on 2015-05-16, 12:34. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 13 of 21, by ibm5155

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

MS-5184 is an AGP 1x and 2x motherboard, and I'll not lie, with bad PSU, this motherboard really gets crazy, like crazy beep over start, screen flash lights, screen lines over screen [like when you re recording a tv], or even a blue screen of death bugged [random texts on it])...

Hmm, does your psu has -5v output? and if I remember right, new PSUs may be bad for old computers, since they usually take much more energy from 5V than 12V, where on new computers they take more energy from 12V and 5V is just used for a few things

Reply 14 of 21, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

yes i tested ATX psu's only, I also tested with an older ATX 1.0 Spec supply with a -5V still no post, and that computer shop will not take back their board grrrrrrrrr, so im stuck with a 40 dollar paperweight

Reply 15 of 21, by JayCeeBee64

User metadata
Rank Retired
Rank
Retired

If the MSI board is hopeless and the shop won't take it back then there's only one thing left to do - take it out to the range and dispose of it properly 😈
(Reminds himself of the piece-of-crap ECS K7S5A that died after 3 weeks and how good it felt to smash it to bits 🤣 ).

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 16 of 21, by candle_86

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Well got a working EP-MVP3C2 motherboard, again Super7 but this one I made sure they post tested it, and it posts fine.

To go with I grabbed

Soundblaster AWE64
ASUS AGP-V3800/32m TF Which I think is a TNT2
and a PS2 Header 🤣

Reply 18 of 21, by HighTreason

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Win 95 is probably best for hardware of this era if you aren't going to run 98 on it.

My Youtube - My Let's Plays - SoundCloud - My FTP (Drivers and more)