on the other hand, i read simon's post for a possible upgrade for his 9700 pro from ATI if the 3.3 catalyst drivers failed to fix the problem.

this reminds me of the first 9700 pro i tried last september in a brand new ( at the time ) a7v8x. driver updates just basically never worked and ati graciously replaced my 9700 pro for a rev 2.0. which fixed all the major bugs.

sooo.. perhaps that will be the ultimate solution. i sure am glad i have a "built by ati" card.

trust me.. just disabling fast-write in ati's control panel fixes the problem.
never had a glitch for 3 weeks now.

but if you like to add an extra 1.26mhz to your bios agp settings.. well.. go for it!

i think we're all basically saying the same thing, i.e. if it works for you... do what you must.

System Specs:
Asus P4G8X
P4 @ 2.53Ghz
ATI built 9500 Pro
Crucial PC2100 2X256 MB
Latest ATI drivers, new beta bios 1005, intel app acc 2.3.
Asus beta bios 1005

Okay here we go. From extensive reading and Intel's whitepapers there is a bug in the Granite Bay's AGP 3.0 implementation. There is no planned Intel fix, please correct me if i'm wrong that. I've used the Radeon 9500 Pro with Asus A7V266 with no plroblems, of coarse it defaults to AGP X4.
I think the best course of action is to turn fast writes off (another known bug).
Set Bios to use AGP X4.
Use USWC.
Video aperture 128 MB
AGP voltage 1.6V

Changing AGP from 8X to 4X shouldn't make a performance difference. If there is, it would be very small but i'd rather have stability. After all day research i'll try these setting when i get home.

On another issue, after rebooting the memory test does not run. Usually from a cold boot it will run the memory test: (512 MB Dual Channel reported). Is this normal/exceptable?

Using bios 1004: No POST beep. No ASUS bitmap boot screen, was available pre bios 1004. It's enabled but i haven't seen it since i flashed to bios 1004, have since tried beta 1005. Still no boot screen, no post beep but no problems ....yet. Still waiting for Catalyst 3.3 drivers. I think the biggest issue is the Granite Bay's buggy AGP 3.0 implementation. Intel needs to issue a fix ASAP. Till then i will use AGP X4.

I turned off the fast write yesterday and have had no problems with the system. I also preformed 3dmark03 and 3dmark2001 test and scored very highly. I am still running the old bios, but I've upgraded the ati drivers. We'll see if this setup stay stable.

k


running
P4 2.8
p4g8x deluxe
9700 aiw pro
gig of ram

I've also installed latest Intel INF update utility version 4.30.1006. The version from the Asus cd was 4.10.xxxx. Fingers are crossed.

Just talked to an ATI tech, yeah it's the AGP 8X bug in the E7205 chipset, he also recommended to set AGP to 4X in bios. He also told me that i can enable fast write. But.... i'm not going to touch that yet. My system has been stable all day, but it will have to for at least a week before i start experimenting again. Does anyone know how much performance is lost with disabling fast write?
Has anyone used AGP 4X and enabled fast write?

I too have the problem with lockup on post when doing a warm reboot. Happens about 50% of the time.

I have the same motherboard and video card as subject. new drivers and so forth are not going to fix a BIOS problem...

Also unstable under Windows XP Pro.

i will test setting the bios agp setting at 4x and enable fast-write on my ga-8inxp... we'll see how good ati's technical team is. :o)

What motherboards are known for their stability when used with an ATi Radeon 9700 graphics card.

I ask because I just bought an Asus P4G8X and an Ati Radeon Aiw 9700 pro graphics card (P4 2.4 gig, thermaltake 420 watt psu, and corsair ddr400). Does any know if the gigabit 8inxp board makes for a good combo with ati 9700 pro. There has to be nothing worse than being in the middle of a game only to have it crash on youj, especially after spending good money on components.

Just tried simons recommendations, my box crashed again during unreal2. Maybe because i'm using a 9500 PRO? Going back to AGP 4X.... good luck on the fast writes.

maybe i can answer hugo... i have an 8inxp with an ati 9700 pro and it works perfectly fine when i disable, like most people here, the fast write setting ( and for others a few bios tweaks in addition)

it's mostly a question of chipset.. in our case the e7205.

following ricky's post i did exactly what ati told him.. set the bios agp setting to 4x and activate fast write. i don't know and haven't researched what exactly fast write does, but i'd rather compromise on setting the agp to 4x rather than disabling fast write having not seen much improvement at 8x.

so anyways, to make a long story long, i ran 3dmark03 and 2001without a glitch... but we all know it can take a few days before the bugs start so.. why not play jedi knight in the meantime?! :o)

and if everything else fails, i can always revert to disabling fast write.

lewrebbit, does your box crash right after waking from sleep mode? That's how i know that the mods i did didn't work. I usually leave my computer on at night and in the morning when i wake the computer, the screen is corrupted and it's time to reboot.
On other note, after burning with nero my box doesn't freeze for 5 seconds after ejecting a burnt disc. But now after inserting a cd into my cd-rw drive, the cd-r icon doesn't revert back to the windows default icon after ejecting the cd. WTF, anyone got a clue how to fix this? This is requires a reboot to clear and I'm tired of having to reboot... at least no more loops.

Hi I had the same problem I was running the asus p4g8x delux and the 9700 pro. It kept on crashing a couple of mins into the game. I downloaded the omega 2.3 drivers from http://www.omegacorner.com and everything was fine no more crashes.

the system i am running is
asus p4g8x delux
sb audigy plat
sony dru 500a
512 oz ram
2.8 gz p4
250gb
r7900pro
enermax 550w psu

Hi I had the same problem I was running the asus p4g8x delux and the 9700 pro. It kept on crashing a couple of mins into the game. I downloaded the omega 2.3 drivers from http://www.omegacorner.com and everything was fine no more crashes.

the system i am running is
asus p4g8x delux
sb audigy plat
sony dru 500a
512 oz ram
2.8 gz p4
250gb
r7900pro
enermax 550w psu

Hey, don't know if this is of any use to anyone this late, but I think I traced the problem semi to going ahead and putting the computer on stand by when you leave it. Since i flashed the bios to 1004, and got the 3.2's, and upped the voltage in the bios to 1.6 instead of 1.5, i get no problems, *unless* i put the computer in stand by. When I come back, after a few minutes, it might do that traditional momentary freeze, followed by windows critical error, and the 640x480 @ 8bit color thing. Hope this helps.

Hi everyone,

I too have the same P4G8X-Deluxe/9700 (not PRO though) combination. However, my problem is a little different to all the ones mentioned so far (though I have experienced a couple of seemingly random crashes in Civ III and Unreal II and a lock-ups in Warcraft III).

My main problem is that after a cold boot the display doesn't kick in until Windows is loaded. If I reset the computer the display is fine, ie. I can access the bios, see POST reports etc., it's just during cold boot. I have seen this problem reported on the web (don't have the URL with me at the moment) with the same combination, and am thinking it may be something to do with the powersupply or the BIOS.....certainly not the Windows drivers as these presumably don't kick in until Windows starts loading. Anyway, just wondering if anyone had seen this with their system?

My system specs are (as much as I can remember atm, not at home):

HARDWARE

ASUS P4G8X Deluxe
Corsair XMS2700 256MB x 2
P4 2.533 GHz
ANTEC PerformancePlus AMG660 Case (330W TruePower PSU)
PowerColor 128MB 9700 (not PRO)
Samsung combo DVD/CD-RW
WD 80GB HD

SOFTWARE

Windows XP Professional, with SP1
BIOS 1003 release version
ATI drivers ????? (can't quite remember, definitely not latest)
BIOS settings - ????? (can't remember)

Sorry about the limited software info, but I would be suprised if the stuff left out matters anyway - the problem seems to be with supplying power to the card I guess.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

I think it's your bios. When i first got my M.B. it had 1003 and after a cold/warm reboot it would take aalong time to boot windows xp. After the raid detection, the screen would go black for 10 seconds with no hard drive activity. I updated to 1004, now i'm up to 1005 beta. You may have to reinstall windows. Even after i updated to 1004 the black screen problem did not go away, but it did after i reinstalled windows. 1003 was bad.... most of the problems i had are gone now. All except that i can't seem to use the custom boot screen.
Also, i disabled floppy detection but windows still kept showing me a floppy icon. Yesterday i installed the latest Intel drivers (not from ASUS), i heard the windows system sound for sensing new devices. The floppy icon is gone now.
Is anyone here using DirectX9a? I'm scared to install it since there is no uninstall option and it may screw up some of my games.Specifically Medal of Honor, Jedi Outcast...

ricky... i have to admit i haven't tried sleep mode yet. i'll give it a try and let you know.

so far so good with the agp setting at 4x though.. still too soon to tell!

and people.. stop changing voltages and bus speeds for basic stable configurations. p4g8x or any other e7205 board will work fine just with a single tweak. if you want to overclock on the otherhand.. that is a totally different story. but i think the idea is to make it work, period.

then we'll overclock :o]

hey all. ive been reading this thread for several days now. ive tried all the suggestions and thought i should comment on my experience with this problem. just fyi

System: p4g8x (bios 1003), radeon 9700 pro (built by powercolor) 512MB corsair twinx DDR2700, p4 2.66ghz, win xp home.

right off the bat i was getting the "infinite loop" problem along with some screen (2-D and text) blurring at times.
i havent read about the blurring issue so that might just be my monitor. (its built by Envision and i think it kind of sux.)

disabling fast writes while using agp 8x worked ok. things remained stable with apeture set at either 128 or 256.

now i have the bios set at agp 4x (as well as the ati control panel) and fast writes is activated. things are going strong with this setting (2 days now). personally, i prefer this workaround because using fast writes seems to boost overall 3D performance. the agp 8x vs. 4x thing seems to be a non-issue (as of yet). games arent taking advantage of the 8x bus yet. in 3DMark you should get the same scores (or even higher) using 4x.

my current configuration is: agp 4x (in bios AND smartgart). apeture set at 256, fast writes on. bios 1003, catalyst 3.2

no more random crashes
now the bad news.
i too have had lockups coming out of standby at this setting. hibernate seems to be ok though. so i just set the display control to not go into standby.

my guess is this. between asus, intel, and ati. these problems will be worked out eventually through new drivers, bios, etc. could be a while.

contact your mobo manufacturer, intel, and ati and let them know whats going on with your rig. the more they hear from us, the sooner they will respond.

keep posting new info. good luck and thanks.

end of long entry.

Well I just bought this board upgrading for a p4b266 and I dont get random lockups I know when mine come its whenever I esc in counter strike or try to watch something on real player. I've got latest drives turned fw off I just have no idea why it's doing this I even set it to 4x agp.