power supply

ya, something wrong there. Take the cards out and put them in one at a time.

 

I don't know how to check voltages, and I tried to put them in one a time. That didn't work either, it just doesn't work with even one additional card.

Thanks for your help guys,

shneed

 

Antec makes good units, so there's probably no need to check voltages. It's
not hard to do, though, if you can borrow a multimeter. Just be sure to avoid
touching high voltage points!

It sounds more like a hardware/driver conflict, or possibly bad memory. Maybe
check the BIOS setup for anything related to AGP memory, or possibly
conflicting IRQ assignments for the PCI and AGP cards.

With AGP there's a block of main memory reserved for graphics use - called the
AGP aperture or something similar. A conflict might come about if the drivers
for the PCI cards aren't well-behaved and try to use that block at the same
time as the AGP card.

You could remove the AGP card and try the two x1300s together ... I'm not sure
if you tried all possible combinations.

Maybe try the x1600 with a non-ATI PCI card too.

Good Luck!

 

dpt,

Thanks for your help. I removed the AGP card and left 1 PCI card, then I uninstalled all the drivers and restarted the computer. Then I installed new drivers for the PCI card and installed the second PCI card. Both of them worked. Then I installed the AGP card and installed the new drivers for that. Restarted the computer, and everything worked. I guess my "expert" is not an expert.

Thanks all,
shneed

 

Glad to hear you got it working!

So it depends on the order of installation.
I've actually seen that sort of thing before
with other add in cards.

To be fair to your friend: not enough
power or p/s malfunction is a reasonable
guess, just not likely given you have a 550W
Antec, and especially not likely given your
total power demands are within the specs.

Now if only trading the markets were that
easy

 

Monitors have their own powersupplies, don't they. Me thinks their number is irrelevant here.

Ursa..

 

Whatever system power is required by the monitor(s) is "accounted for" by the power requirements of the video card(s).

 

APC Back-Ups 1500 RS, with RS extra Battery paclk... Hasn't failed me yet. THe self test ferature is very reassuring.