display problems - video on motherboard

[miranda]

I have a 2 yr old computer that I want to give to my dad. It is a compaq with onboard agp video on the motherboard. There is a problem whenever we turn the computer on the monitor power light goes from green to orange and nothing is displayed. Every now and then I can get the display to work. I have tested to make sure it wasn't the monitor by trying that moinitor on other computers where it works fine. I have a pci videocard I can install to bypass the motherboards onboard video but need to know what to do to make this work.

[sage45]

Just install it... If you still have the BIOS Partition installed, you can press F10 to get into setup... When in setup, go to onboard devices and disable your onboard video... Depended upon the model you wont be able to disable it completely but you can at least free up the IRQ being used by it...

-sage-

[miranda]

unfortunately there is absolutely nothing coming through on the screen. It is completely blank. Now and then I can get it working but i havent been able to in a couple weeks and can not get into the bios if the screen is blank.

[sage45]

Are you saying after you install the new video card and attatch the monitor to it you get no video still??? If so, go to hp's website and see if you need to set a jumper/dip switch to disable the onboard video...

-sage-

[mouse]

Try sticking the PCI video card in, attach the monitor to the card. In theory the AGP gfx will be ignored.

Your mobo has a similar procedure to when you boot in that it will check AGP for the display adapter then check PCI or vice versa. Generally mobos are set to check PCI first by default but it doesn't make a difference. Basically if your mobo checks AGP then PCI and your monitor is connected to the PCI video card then it'll ignore AGP.

[sage45]

<scratches value=head>Isn't this what I said???</scratches> :p

;)

-sage-

[miranda]

yes, sage45, that is what you said. there is still absolutely no display when the computer turns on. I went to hp/compaq website and there is no jumpers or bios settings to change. They say to disable in hardware profile within windows. ARGHHHHHHH :mad:

[sage45]

The only other thing I could suggest then is to do a bios reset on the mobo... Should be a jumper or reset switch (depended upon the model)... Other than that you can also try using another pci slot...

-sage-

[miranda]

When all else fails go to the source (compaq support) that is what i finally did. Let's see what they have to say.

[miranda]

compaq was no help this needs to be done within windows and since there is absolutely nothing displayed on the screen i can not change any settings in either the bios or by clicking settings/control panel/system Now i am assuming it must be some other problem perhaps it is the cpu that is no good? or the motherboard

[mouse]

It might be best just to get a new motherboard. Sounds drastic but if Compaq won't help and the above hasn't, then I'm not sure what else there is. I don't *think* it'll be the cpu; the motherboard would sound a warning and maybe display an error on the cpu.

What is the system, do you know? Is it AMD, Intel, what type of chipset and onboard gfx does the motherboard use.