[mythtv-users] Slightly OT - PC won't boot or POST with AverMedia capture card

[Robert Denier]

I haven't had your specific problem, but here is more of a general 
approach I might take.  Check after each step.  (Insert universal 
disclaimer here.)

1) Is your power supply adequate?  Somehow I doubt thats the issue, but 
it might be worth a look.

2) Are the contacts dirty?  A soft pencil eraser can sometimes be used 
to clean them but make sure not to leave any of the crums on the 
contacts.  Alternatively a q-tip dipped in isopropyl alcohol  or acetone 
should work as well.  Acetone is probably slightly preferable.  I don't 
think it leaves any kind of residue, but perhaps someone can check me on 
that.  You may want to clean all the cards you test with in case it is 
some kind of wierd interference.

2) Reset to bios defaults.  Make sure your settings are very conservative.

3) Look to see if there is a bios update that might fix the problem.  
Look both for updates to the motherboard and to the capture card.

4) Try with a different video card.  You said you suspected that.  I 
recommend very simple cards for testing.  Of course if your kernel is 
setup to allow you to have a console on a serial port, a video card 
might not be needed.  Still thats a bit of a pain, and it really doesn't 
solve the problem.

5) Take everything out of your system that is not essential for boot up 
and try it. 

6) Is your hard drive still connected or any drives?  Keep disconnecting 
them.  Also take out all but one memory chip.  Yes its unlikely to help 
but sometimes you want to truly get to the basics.

7) Try underclocking the system if you can.  By underclocking I mean try 
to bring the pci bus below the 33Mhz that I think is the default.  Most 
are linked to the normal fsb so if you change that the others follow.

8) If it still doesn't work after trying all that, well you've just 
spent hours trying to get a low cost capture card to work, you may want 
to consider buying a different card ;)

-Robert



Phill Edwards wrote:

>I have an AverMedia TVPhone 98 capture card which works (I've tried it
>an a Windows PC) but won't boot when I put it in my MythTV box. The PC
>won't even do a BIOS POST when I put this card in any of the PCI
>slots.
>
>I have a feeling that it doesn't like the nVidia GeForce4 MX440 video
>card that's in there.
>
>Has anyone else had this problem and know what I can do to make it work?
>
>Regards,
>Phill
>  
>
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