Help! How to disable on-board grahpic card on GA-7Zmm

[SamAlem2002]

Hi All;-
I am encountering a blank screen (monitor) and/or no auto-detect problem trying to install a Radeon All in Wonder AGP graphic card on a GA-7ZMM motherboard with an on-board proSavage Video card. The Motherboard (M/B) supplier's support people say the M/B should auto-detect and suggest updating the BIOS, which did not help much. The ATI, Radeon, manual insists that an on-board Video card should be disabled first before their card is installed. As there is no clear option (even in CMOS) where the on-board graphic card can be disabled, I would appreciate it very much if someone has some helpful suggestion or info in connection to this particular problem.

[david eaton]

Hello SamAlem andweLcome to the PC Guide Forums.

If you do not have a manual for your motherboard, you can get one HERE (http://www.motherboards.org/manuals/p/Gigabyte-GA-7ZMM/3860.html).

It should tell you how to disable the onboard video.

If no luck, post back, someone else will be along in a while!

David

[malcore]

This motherboard does not have a separate chip for graphics.The savage S3 engine is built right into the Via Northbridge chipset. The manual says nothing about how to disable it through the BIOS nor are there any jumpers to set.

So, I assume this is a driver configuration problem.

Do you get the black screen only when you try connecting your monitor to the new card, or are you now getting one when you connect the monitor to the motherboards VGA connector?

If you can get video through the mobo's connector, then you will need to boot into safe mode and get rid of the old drivers and remove the S3 from device list.

Post back with what operating system you are using and we can go from there.

[SamAlem2002]

Hello to both of you, David & Malcore:-
Thanks for your help.
Now to answer the questions raised:- by David --I have the manual for the M/B and as correctly noted by Malcore it does not provide disabling option. Malcore's further description of the chip, etc. is also correct and as regards the question posed by M.--yes the screen goes blank only when the monitor is attached to the new card. In fact even under this condition, the machine boots up as though there is no new AGP card and I can close it via the keyboard though there is no picture on the screen. In other words it just does not detect the new AGP card even if changes were tried in CMOS altering the default setting to boot from AGP instead of from PCI. Since the manual for the new card also suggests that the on-board card be disabled and/or the driver for the proSavage be removed first, I have tried to do that a couple of times but the screen goes blank if the monitor is attached to the new card or asks for the reinstallment of old graphic card if/when the monitor is reattached to M/B vga connector. Maybe, I may have made some errors in doing this particular procedure especially since the uninstalling of the on-board card via the Add/remove programs window function does not complete the uninstalling process and refer the manual removal of a certain driver (which I suspect to belong to the proSavage card).I hope this give you all clearer picture of the problem at hand on which I you may kindly continue to work on. My OS is Win98SE.

[malcore]

Hi Sam

OK, here's my suggestion and I hope it works;)
I should preface by saying that I'm working from ME here but it should be a similar process with 98.

First, I would remove the new card.
Second, boot into Safe Mode ( hold the Ctrl key or F8 while booting until the Windows start menu appears, choose safe mode and enter). Close the troubleshooter.

Now, you must remove the S3 from Device Manger:
Right click My Computer icon, click Properties > Device Manager. Hit the + beside Display Adapter and hilight the adapter then hit "remove".
Say "NO" when Windows asks to restart.

Now to get rid of the drivers and replace it with a standard Windows driver.
Right click on an open area of your desktop, then hit:
Properies > Settings > Advanced > Adapter > Change > Specify location of... > Next > Display a list of all available... > Next

In this Window, you will be asked to select device
Choose Display Adapters and hit next.

In this Window, on the left "Standard Display Types" should be hilighted and on the right "Standard Display Adapter (VGA)" should be hilighted. Click next.
If Windows asks to restart, say no and just shut down and power off.

Put your new card back in, making sure it is fully seated and you hear it click in ( this can take a bit of pressure). Connect your monitor to the new card. Start up and head to your BIOS and enable boot from AGP.

Fingers crossed :( ;) :eek: :rolleyes: :) Boot Up!
Hopefully you will have video from the card and Windows will prompt you for its drivers.

Man, I really hope this works:confused: :cool:

GOOD LUCK Sam

[SamAlem2002]

You made my day M!
I have passed thru the major hurdle, thanks for your advice/help.
I followed your suggestion step by step including the detaching and reinserting part of the process. Lo and behold, I was able to boot from the new card for the first time. What a great relief!!

Having said that, there was, however, this minor problem of installing the ATI which did come OK at first trial. I had to work around the problem, by uninstalling the S3 proSavage utility via the Add/Remove function and then try to install ATI all over again. This time it went more or less fine. Except perhaps that I had to pass thru a certain warning:- "system compatibility check has registered system attributes that can negatively affect multimedia playback" or something to that effect (note. I am translating this messages into English). And the other such encounter involves that after installation of ATI and while rebooting again there was a message requesting a driver or something (bt829.cat) for a newly found hardware, ATI WDM Rage Theater Video, and two others similar items for which I had/have difficulty finding the driver in the ATI CD if that is where they are located. At this stage of the game, I opted to bypass/ignore the request and proceed to getting the ATI process completed (altho it might not be all well set). As of now, I choose to deal with other taskes and come back to it later, may be tomorrow. Well my friend, I have gotten over the major hurdle thanks for your help. And if you're familiar with this specific card, Radeon All in Wonder (32MB), I may still need your help
if some other problems that may unfold in the process of getting the new card going, maybe under a slightly altered title/thread. Until next contact, stay well and safe. Mucho thanks again.

[malcore]

Hi Sam

That's great news! Glad you finally have video from your new card. I have to say I am relieved too.:p

However, I am concerned about the messages you have been receiving.

Have you checked ATI's website for more recent drivers? Usually the drivers on the installation CD are a little outdated and an update can make a real difference.

Post back if you are experiencing any problems.

A good idea may be to check your registry for any reference to the Savage or S3 there. Here's a link for a small and easy to use program for cleaning the registry (http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml) . Try it and remove any mention of the S3 or Savage card. This program is simple and automatically makes a backup.

[SamAlem2002]

Hi My friend M.
Thanks for the message above and hope you had a nice weekend.
Altho I did not as yet get around to exploring further or becoming familiar with some of the card's main features, I have made the effort of reinstalling the drivers from the CD all over again to make sure that I have them right. (BTW, thanks for the registry cleaner which is quite handy and helpful.) This time too the same warning message mentioned earlier appeared again and the details of it seems to refer to a CD burner drive of the computer which I hope would not be much of a problem since I don't use it except for specific taskes.

More importantly, I have duly noted your suggestion to look for the latest drivers and accordingly asked the ATI support via e-mail if the driver-updates they have out at their website for the Radeon all in Wonder (32 MB, AGP) are earlier or latter versions of those included in the CD-Rom that came with the card, namely ATI software CD-rom release #7.13. I hope to hear from them soon.

In the meantime, I have briefly browsed over some sections of the lengthy manual in the CD-Rom (80 pages or so), and tried hastely a couple of features that I am particularly interested with (i.e. the viewing/monitoring of TV programs (Nordic, Euro) on the my desktop screen, and the recording/editing VHS videos on/thru my pc). Unfortunately, I found only the DVD player user-friendly, the others seem to require more trials and working thru the manual which I hope to get over with by the end of this working-week. I intend to start exploring in earnest the above mentioned features and more only after being certain whether or not the driver updates are necessary. If you have some suggestions or tips to make in the meantime, I would be happy to hear them. Cheers and bye until next contact. Sam ('The best time to worry is tomorrow.')

(BTW, If and when I need to proceed further on these new aspects of the subject matter, it would be under a more appropriate new thread since the current one has already been resolved, thanks for your input. I will provide you the title of the thread-the link- on the next posting on this one.)

[SamAlem2002]

Hi Malcore:-
As mentioned earlier I have continued on fine tuning the use of the card under a new thread "All-in-Wonder Radeon--Help on latest drivers" within videocards/monitor section. Could link up there, if you had some suggestions/advice on updating drivers issues. Thank again for the help already provided and ciau on this thread.