----HELP---- with Video Card

Hi guys:

I don't know if I'm offending anyone by saying this, so sorry in advanced, but....

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I NEED THE HELP OF ALL OF U!!!!!!!


I have spent the past 2 years owning a video card, installed into a computer that really doesn't deserve it. It was meant for a Compaq POS. Now, I have gotten... "authorization" to install the video card into the PC (family matters... I'm 16 and not A+ certified, so they don't trust me). Now, I have spent the most agonizing moments in my short life trying to install that thing on this pc. The main problem is that, even when I start the pc in safe mode, uninstall the onboard crappy Video, turn off, put in new video card, turn on... THE monitor won't get the signal. It will blink it's light orange, like the tower wasn't turned on. Now, I e-mailed and chatted HP support about this (apparently HP aquisitioned Compaq? I guess) , and after like, oh... a million tries they finally understood that:
A) The card is FINE. As in not damadged and;
B) The card IS compatible witht the pc, I have double and triple checked.


After this, they said that the problem must be with my BIOS. They gave me an update, I installed it (the whoal floppy boot disk and all), tried to install it again... and NOTHING!!!! NOT AT ALL! Now, I think this might have something to do with the IRQs, but I saw an e-mail support message on the video-card's web site that had an IRQ problem, and the monitor booted just fine (the problem was later on, crashing and whatnot) so I doubt it.

The card is a Visiontek Xtasy Nvidia GeForce 2 MX (outdated, I know, but hey, try getting something better on a scrap budget), just in case your wondering. I would very much like to one day finally have enough memory in this machine to play a decent game with my friends on this thing. So...
PuH-LEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!



Thanks a million!
:confused: :eek: :D

Wait, did you have a video card installed before you bought that one, or did u have the "chip" on the motherboard..?? I know wheni nought my GeForce2 MX400 FXF, i just popped it in, turned on the moniotr, and installed the card via the CD that came with the card. Then i went to Right click my computer-> Manage-> Display-> Disable the old card and restarted....

Well, I think I should be more specific.
The Video IS onboard. I read in a related post by nihil something about disconnecting the VDU cable from the onboard to the new video card. Now, I might just be all newbie saying this but, I'm assuming this is a cable "inside" the pc case? Seeing as he disconnected it FROM the onboard. If not, I guess it's just the monitor cable? Please advise, cuz this might be the solution to my problem. Yeah, I'm using windows ME (sadly).

Wait Wait man.....:)

It's a PCI card right? Ok do the following...go back to your old Graphic card..turn on your machine to make sure it works....turn it off, pop in the new card, dont do anything just pop it in.. turn on your machine and install the video card with the CD you got....or download the setup from www.nvidia.com. Then just plug in the monitor cable in the new card, and then go to my computer -> manage...and disable the old card.....

Yeah, to answer your question: It's PCI.
Seriously, I'm this close to just giving up and trying to get a new video card. But, thinking about it, how can I get a new one knowing it might not work.

Thanks Mem... but it didn't work. See, I tried that once before, I tried it again on your suggestion. But the problem is, no matter what, the monitor never gets the signal. It's not the pc crashing, it's not drivers.... it's just that if that card is inside the machine, the monitor will never ever get the signal (the light goes orange and the display is black). It's amazing. I guess I need one of two things: A new video card or a knife, cuz this is getting frustrating. Thanks anyways, mem.


P.S.:
Anyone know if the saints work on PCs? I'd gladly submit them to the vatican if they make this work. I'm still open to suggestions, BTW.

What if the new card is inside but you connect the monitor to the old port ? If the monitor still stays black im guessing the video card is not compatible with your motherboard maybe...

Try this,
Make sure you have uninstalled the drivers for the new card. Turn off, put new card in its slot, reboot using on board video. Go to control pannel run the new hardware wizard. If windows can see your new card it will prompt for the driver follow instructions on screen. If not choose new hardware manualy it may be on the list you will see if not click have disk and follow instructions on screen if windows does not find the driver automaticaly you will have to tell it ware to look by browsing to the folder on the cd.

Once you have the crd and driver installed go into the device manager and look at the properties of your on board video and the new card to see if there is an irq clash, if there is you will have to change the irq for the new device either through the controll pannel or the bios.

This card should be working even without the proper windows drivers, only a blank screen and a monitor in standby simlpy means problems on a lower level than drivers.

You are sure your vga card works? You are sure that the monitor and card have at least one compatible frequency and resolution area? Normaly they have.

I suggest the following, if everyone's else advice above already failed:
start with as less components and requirements as possible, and see if you can get the signal to work. Then slowly put things back.

So basicly start your box with only your motherboard offcourse cpu and ram, and your graphic card, disable the onboard video (read the manual how to do that, probably requires you to change a jumper).

If that works, figure out the conflicting components, probably an IRQ issue like said before.

Finaly to have not to much trouble with your windows, connect all old stuff and the old onboard video, go to windows set the video settings to standard VGA, nothing fancy just plain old VGA, shutdown your box, disable onboard video, plug in the PCI card, and boot your box, Windows will recognize the new hardware, put in your CD and there you go.

A sometimes forgotten thing is that many motherboard manufacturers forsee certain slots for certain cards, and assign IRQ's accordingly. This may sound very strange, but it's a very good possibility that your card is unable to work in a certain slot and certainly not in combination with certain cards in other slots, cause of IRQ sharing. So therefor it's important to see if your card can run solo on the mobo without other devices connected like soundcard, PCI modem, ... try several pci slots for your card.
Probably there are pci slots with shared IRQ's and one or more without a shared IRQ, this can be checked in the manual or by fail and error. Read out the auto IRQ assignments in Bios when you replace the card, this way you can later assign the IRQ's yourself accordingly.

You know, guys. I was thinking about it, and it's probably an IRQ problem. See, I was checking out the IRQ assignments in my pc, and 1) They are all full (I think, I mean, they go up to 15) 2) The same IRQ that's for PCI bus steer (for the free PCI port, I think) is also the one used by the onboard. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this should be the source of my troubles? Right? It should cause the monitor to not get the signal? (Yes, I have tried uninstalling the onboard and did plug in the monitor to the new card). If I'm correct, I think when I turn the pc on (which has the video card and the onboard if I put it in), both the onboard and the new card are IRQing(or whatever verb IRQ converts to) the cpu, with the same one (3). That should cause that, right? Tell me if u know.

Yep, you are on the right track. It is indeed very common for PCI busses to share same IRQ, like I said above. Some cards / peripherals don't care to share, others do. So your best bet is either config your IRQ's manualy, or look at the manual of your mobo for the shared IRQ slots. It seems logical to me that you cannot share an IRQ for the video card together with one reserved for the PCI steer.

On a PCI only pc there can not be such thing as insufficient IRQ's, cause all could be shared.
There are 4 PCI interrupts reserved by onboard or PCI plug-in cards these are linked to IRQ's by the BIOS. So changing the card to another PCI slot can eventualy be a working solution.
power off, clear bios, change card, power on

In the document (link bellow) they describe the same method as I did before, start up with minimum installed (VGA + mobo + cpu + ram + hdd) and see of this solves the conflict.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...0_118_756_3734^1039^3055,00.html

Exactly what I was thinking, Vic (if I may). Just so anyone that maybe knows about the subject may point out the big deal, here's a list of the IRQ assignments on this PC:
IRQ 0 System timer
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
IRQ 2 Programmable interrupt controller
IRQ 3 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
IRQ 3 S3 Graphics Inc. ProSavage
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1)
IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
IRQ 7 ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock
IRQ 9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
IRQ 10 HSP56 WDM DEVICE
IRQ 10 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
IRQ 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
IRQ 11 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 11 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor
IRQ 14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
IRQ 15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)

You may notice IRQ 5 is missing. That one was used by the LAN card, which I removed cuz A) I don't need it for this PC and B) I wanted to try to put in the Card in that slot. Even though I tried, it didn't work. But later, when I went back to turn the pc on, no signal either on normal (without the card). Alas, I had knocked a memory block (stick, RAM, whatever you call it) out of it's socket. i reseated it and the PC was fine. I still have yet to try to install the Card in that slot (haven't had the time), but I have hope that it works.
Also, I don't know what PCI steering is, can anyone tell, please?
If anyone finds anything peculiar with the IRQs and can propose some plan of action, let me know.
Thanks

P.S.:
I am running windows ME (can't remember if I mentioned that)

You mentioned you have uninstalled you onboard graphics? How did you do this?
You should haqve gone into you BIOS and disabled it, is this what you have done?

A good way of freeing IRQ's up is to go into your BIOS and (if you dont use them) disable your serial ports, parralel port, onboard modem(if you have a PCI one), onboard sound(if you have a sound card).

One of the first things I usually do is disable my serial ports as not many things use them now-a-days.

You say your new graphics card is a PCI one, are you sure it is not an AGP one, im not sure if an AGP graphics card will fit into a PCI slot, as I have never tried it but my guess would be that a G-Force 2 would be an AGP card, if it is and you are putting it into a PCI slot it will certainly not work and would give you the result that you are getting now!

Not to be rude Nokia, but if he fit it in a PCI slot without breaking anything then it's PCI, AGP wouldn't fit. There are G-Force 2 PCI cards and I went through a similar situation with my computer. Unfortunately so far as I could tell mine was just too old for it. I agree that, if he hasn't already, he should disable the onboard card in the bios, and make sure the the PCI card is enabled.

Quote:

---

im not sure if an AGP graphics card will fit into a PCI slot, as I have never tried it

---

The steering thing stands for
"Peripheral Component Interconnect bus interrupt request steering"

Nokia -> there sure (did) exist PCI geforce cards.

Notice the ACPI, this could also be part of your problem:
The PCI IRQ steering gives operating systems like Win95, Win98, Win Me, the flexibility to assign IRQ's and enable IRQ sharing. Like I said before there are in common 4 PCI interrupts.
With the PCI IRQ steering OS's can dynamicly assign intrerrupt requests to devices.
Basicly a PCI bus system can either set the IRQ in ISA mode, this way they cannot be shared or in a sort of plug and play PCI mode. Several devices can share a PCI IRQ. The other options are Both and Auto.

Also check your mobo for the: "assign IRQ to VGA" and enable this !

IRQ 3 S3 Graphics Inc. ProSavage seems to be your onboard video? correct?
This info comes from the BIOS? If so the BIOS probably lists all your IRQ's from 0 to 15?

Probably you have an option for every IRQ to choose from, either:
PCI -Only PCI devices can use the shown IRQ
Legacy - Only 16bit ISA cards can use the IRQ
Both - Both an ISA or a PCI device can use that IRQ
Auto - the BIOS will decide on the IRQ allocation.

You need to figure out the IRQ your Geforce uses, for instance if it's on IRQ 11, then IRQ 11 has to be set to either 'Both', 'Auto' or 'PCI'. If you want to make the graphical card use a different IRQ you should set IRQ 11 to 'Legacy' or 'ISA only'. The BIOS should allocate a different IRQ to the device after saving your changes and rebooting the system.

All Nvidia based graphical cards (like the Geforce) do need an assigned IRQ, they will lock up your box if not. (like you experienced). So the "assign IRQ to VGA setting" is very important and also freeing up one IRQ and assign it to your VGA card is needed.

If you know what device conflicts with the graphical card, you can set that IRQ to 'Legacy' therefor making it impossible for your graphic card to share an IRQ and therefor conflict with that device, offcourse this method is only possible if there's another IRQ available for your graphical card (or another shared IRQ, freeing up IRQ's).

When you make your change there must be an available IRQ to move to, in your case IRQ 5 could be an option, allthough I would keep this one for the network card.
If you cannot find an IRQ to free up, try disabling COM ports or USB controllers like others have stated, offcourse only if you do not use devices attached to these ports.

I hope this post makes sense to you, it seems a little bit confusing...


Links for more info on PCI IRQ steering:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;182604

to disable PCI IRQ steering in windows:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=182628

This guide can help you in resolving your hardware conflict:
http://www.techrescue.net/guides/conflicts.asp

I know there are PCI g-force cards what i was saying is that a G-force 2 is more than likley going to be an AGP card.

Yep, I know Nokia, only playing :)

I had to add to my other post:

Perhaps a way to get your box to work with the card, follow these steps:

boot your box with the working onboard video into BIOS
Disable all onboard devices including your video
Set IRQ assign to AUTO or BIOS
Save your BIOS changes,
reboot and immediatly power down your box.
Now, add your PCI VGA card (carefull don't burn yourself with hot parts, don't damage other seated stuff and make sure you grounded yourself before touching electrostatical sensitive devices (in fact all computer parts are).
Boot up
go into BIOS, now normally your VGA card has an IRQ assigned, set this fixed.
Now you can again enable onboard devices,
save BIOS
reboot
the BIOS will assign the other available IRQ's to your other devices.

_____________________

Ooops another thing that can be the cause of your VGA problems:

talking about PCI and AGP. Your onboard VGA is this PCI or AGP based?
This is important regarding installing a PCI VGA card. since this can give priority problems, causing no visible screen.

When you have onboard video and an AGP slot your onboard video is normally AGP equivalent. If you don't have an AGP slot it's possible to be either PCI VGA or AGP (accelerated graphics port) VGA.
On the first one (PCI based onboard) there's no problem, the motherboard will see your add-on PCI VGA card as the first display card.
But, if you have an AGP based onboard video and you add a PCI video card you will need to set up the display priority. According to BIOS type this can be a different video setting, it can be found at the 'Integrated Peripherals' section or at 'Initialize Display', at that option you need to choose 'PCI' or 'PCI slot'.

Some older motherboards from Compaq and also other manufacturers do that specific setting by jumpers. I remember your mobo was Compaq, so it's possible that you need to change the jumper that decides wich display bus to init first. You need to set this jumper to PCI if you have a PCI card. To locate the jumper, read your motherboard manual. If you cannot find it, contact tech support or give the type number for your mobo perhaps people here at AO can help you.

MR CD:\ was the above post helpfull? I hope you got the videocard conflict solved

please helppp me i mest up i installed a ati driver in my nvidia gforce pleace help mmeeeee :confused: :eek:




thanks hhhee :D