disabling onboard video card

i just bought a new geforce fx 5600 agp gfx card and i am trying to install it on a pcchips m925 motherboard. this motherboard already has an onboard gfx card, but it sucks. i need to disable it and get my geforce installed. anybody know how to do it? i've tried the manufacuter website... www.pcchips.com it hasnt been much help

i also found this on google:
gfx installation message board thingy
that cant be good :(

can anybody give me some help about how to go about disabling an onboard video card?

edit:
i've been poking around that site and i've managed to figure out that my motherboard is probably the m925 v5.0 (based on the pics and comparing the specs). i couldnt find the manual for that particular board, but i have one for a board that is very similar, im reading it now.
here is the manual nothing much there...

You may find a setting in the BIOS that lets you swap between PCI and AGP......you might have to change this setting to delete the onboard video.

Otherwise I guess that you need a new MoBo :( I am assuming that you have checked for any othe options in BIOS?

Cheers

theres an option to switch between pci and agp, but nothing happens when i do it... i set it on agp, put the gfx card in and it starts up with the screen turning funny colors

Try leaving it on PCI. Switch off, install card, attach screen to the GeForce and boot up...............Windows might well detect a "new device"...............it will kick off in 16 colour 640 x 480.

Then install the drivers for the new device and switch the settings in the BIOS if you have to.

I have a couple of old boxes with integrated cards where it just uses the device I plug the screen into.

Another thought, I device manager, try switching off the onboard video "in this profile"

Sorry, I am afraid that you are probably going to have to "experiment" a bit.

Cheers :)

well, i guess it is possible for me to use a different gfx card at least. experimentation is always fun tho :D

Hi Phone,

I just remembered that I have a box with a PCChips MoBo..........not sure which one, but I will dig it out tomorrow and have a look. It is a PII/450..........not sure if it has onboard video though.

I will get back to you on it :)

Cheers

What OS are you running?

thnx nihil. it seems that it does work, but when we start up with the new gfx card, its just a bunch of lines and/or dots... could this be some kind of incompatibility with the monitor?

Hi Phone,

I would look at your BIOS, screen drivers and videocard drivers (yes even though it is a new card!).

Try setting the video to something like 640x480 and 256 colours (using the on board card) then try an install of the new card.

I wonder if the MoBo actually supports that high level card? have you checked that with the videocard supplier's site?

I don't think that it is the monitor.................it should come up with a basic visible cofiguration using generic drivers.

Can you try another monitor?

Cheers

well, according to the box and the system profiler im using, my comp meets the minimum requirements. you know whats wierd tho, it was brand new, says it requires a cd or dvd drive, and yet it came with now cds with drivers, game demos, etc. on them. but thats not important now. i have a newer monitor that im gonna try it out on tonight. until then ill try out what you said.

Quote:

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wierd tho, it was brand new, says it requires a cd or dvd drive, and yet it came with now cds with drivers, game demos, etc. on them. but thats not important now.

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OOPS!...................that's the problem.....................I have not bought a videocard in the last three years that did NOT have an installation CD and at least some demo software.

I think that you have been sold one that has been returned, and accidentally got back into stock?

It is probably damaged, which would explain the symptoms.

I suggest you take/send it back.

You also should have a booklet or at least a contents slip that will tell you what SHOULD be there :)

Return it, and give them a hard time. ["lawyers, consumer protection association, computer press"..............should be able to screw some decent "compensation" out of them for that]

:D

Cheers

i will call pny customer service on monday, this gfx card has actually been discontinued by nvidia and it was the last one on the shelf so chances are it was returned. since its been discontinued i guess i can convince em to upgrade me to the 5600 Ultra.

we're going to try the gfx card out in another comp and see if it works. is it possible that my video bios could be causing the problem? according to my system profiler its 2 years old. pcchipsusa has bios for my motherboard and drivers, for its chipset and the onboard gfx card, but i dont see anything specifically labled video bios. i tried flashing the bios they had for my motherboard and the flash program i am using, amiflash, tells me that "this system's bios does not support flashing". i dont see any virus protection settings or read/write options in my bios setup so i would assume that it is writeable.

Are you running Amibios? You could cause yourself great problems if you use the wrong program!.....is there a BIOS flash proggy available on the pcchips site?

What is your operating system?

Trying the card in another machine should tell you if it is working, but the lack of a CD tells me that your card has been sold before.

You might also try to borrow a PCI videocard? and see if that works with your MoBo?

Good luck

i know im running ami bios and my os is xp home. i dont have any pci gfx cards on hand, but after i read that msg board again(the one i put a link to in my first post), it seems that those ppl have an m925 and are trying to install a pci card and that is what causes a conflict. an agp card should work fine, i think. why would they have an agp port if you cant use it, doesnt agp stand for advanced graphics port or something like that? now im gonna have to look into why i cant update the bios because its out of date... hopefully its busted and not a real incompatibility issue

I have had problems with XP and videocard drivers............this Microsoft registration. I will just go and boot an XP box with on MoBo graphics and check the settings.

I will EDIT this post with the results :)

EDIT:

I am running AMIBIOS v1.21.06 (About 3 years old or more.............can't remember flashing it)

In "PCI/PLUG & PLAY SETUP" I have two options for "Primary Graphics Adapter":

1. OnBoard AGP [This is set to = "ON"]
2. PCI

And "Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA = "YES"

These are the settings for a 64Mb onboard graphics adapter with shared RAM (64Mb)

What values do you have..................?....................I think that we might be getting there?

I think that you need to set your graphics card to PCI, even though it is actually an AGP slot?

I am sure I have a couple of RADEONs, and maybe one or two other AGP cards around.............I will try to install one tomorrow (it is a National Holiday here, so I will have plenty of time :D ) and check that setting and the process involved.

Please be patient, it is frequently difficult to sort hardware problems out, particularly remotely

:)

Cheers

under the pci/plug and play setup i have:
share memory size: 32mb
primary graphics adapter: (pci/agp) pci is on
allocate irq to pci vga: yes
pci ide busmaster: disabled

there is also a section called "advanced setup" with options about agp and stuff so here are the options i have that are relevant to that:
AGP mode: 4x
AGP Comp. Driving: Auto
Manual Agp Comp. Driving: CB (i thought this might be the problem, but im not sure what it is)
AGP Aperture Size= 64mb
auto detect dimm/pci clk= enabled (dont know if this one is relevant)
pci ide busmaster= disabled (dont know what this is either)

i left it on the default settings with pci as the primary graphics adapter, installed the card, plugged my monitor in, booted up, and it did the crazy lines and dots thing. the comp actually loads windows and i've noticed that the it does dots when its in bios and lines when its in windows.

i got it: my motherboard only supports agp up to 4x and the card requires 8x. what really sucks is that isnt even printed anywhere on the box or in the manual... no bragging about how its 8x, it wasnt even listed in the minimum system requirements. i guess im gonna have to upgrade my mobo

actually, they do brag about it being 8x and twice the speed of 4x (in passing) on the box, but a mobo that supports agp 8x isnt listed as a minimum system requirement otherwise we wouldnt have bought it