Rage 128 Pro HELP!!!!!

A friend of mine is running a Rage 128 Pro Video Card and it only works on the 2nd power up. First power up, you get no beeps are anything (monitor stays blank and the green light, goes to yellow). Shut off and restart the PC, you get the beep and the video card works. The PC has new memory and Me has been re-installed, so has the drivers for the video card.. Any thought, why the video card is acting this way????
Thanks
Rick

 

The only time I encounted these same symptoms was when my power supply was not up to the needs of the system. The rig would almost never boot on first try (especially if it had been left unplugged) but would always boot on the second try.

A new, gargantuan power supply cured the problem. I obviously cannot guarantee that this is your problem but it definitely warrants investigation. After you boot, go into your BIOS and take a look at your 12, 3.3, and 5v readings. Most boards boot off off the 12v rail. When my rig was having trouble, my 12v rail was reading 11.79v which, btw, is within spec and should not cause any problems. With the new power supply, the 12v rail never dips below 11.91v...and the problem is gone. Amazingly, I have the same mainboard in another rig and the 12v rail reads 11.43v (OUCH!) and as long as I keep it plugged in, it will boot. Lower system specs on that rig, though.

You should look into this. Your symptoms "smell" of a
hardware problem - but I can't be sure.

 

Have you tried the old memory again. Have you checked that the new memory is supported by the motherboard.

Could rule out the video by swapping with another card if you can.

I have seen these type of symptoms on a PC that had a loose CPU.

You should check all the connections (even clean the RAM and Video connectors, use a soft cloth to wipe them).

Matt