ms-fixit
06-04-2007, 02:33 PM
hi folks, I have an odd little problem here.
My system is: WIN XP MCE SP2, Kingston 1Gb ram, 250 GB WDC HDD, LG DVDRW, on an Intel D946GZIS mb, with a separate Sapphire ATI x1650 PCI-express graphics card, purchased November of 2006. Standard MS keyboard and Logitech mouse - no other peripherals attached.
When it arrived from manufacturer I erased the hard drive and reloaded XP to get a clean system (to remove the *free* sw junk from the manufacturer), and the system is fully windows updated. I also have the latest xp certified drivers for the ATI card. Note: since I am still troubleshooting this issue, I have *NOT* loaded the ATI Catalyst Control Panel, I am using the XP driver only.
What happens is when the correct drivers for the ATI are installed in XP, in the device manager I still get an unknown flagged video controller????? When I install the Intel GMA graphics driver for that mb, the flag goes away and the Intel GMA graphics shows up under display adapters, so I have three showing???? I see the Intel GMA and both primary and secondary ATI x1650's.
There is no setting in the BIOS to specify *not* to use the onboard video???? There is a BIOS setting to detect the video used, was set for auto, I changed it to PEG (indicating a PCI-E card in use). I assumed the MB would switch
from onboard video to PCI-E when it detected a graphics card in the slot, since there is not a BIOS option to change it. Does anyone know if this is correct for this motherboard? I have checked at Intel, and it is true for older Intel MB's most of the time. I have researched all of the PCI-E bios settings at The BIOS Optimization Guide website, so I am fairly sure mine are set correctly.
Manufacturer tech support is useless, I ask them questions they don't understand or can't answer. They had no idea on the original ATI card issues. I have worked in PC support for many years and this issue has me stymied!
One other relevant piece of info, when I got the machine it had a broken ati x550 video card, which was replaced by the manufacturer, and then I upgraded to the x1650. Is it possible the mb was damaged by the *bad* ati card? It was a very reproducible error, any time I started any app that used 3d graphics, my screen would shows vertical tears and blackout, and the GPU on the card would reboot my computer. When they opened up my system, the old ATI card had lost it's fan, so it was basically an overheated and damaged graphics card.
There is an Intel utility to unblock *hidden* bios settings. I haven't tried that yet. I haven't yet found specific enough documentation on this motherboard for this particular BIOS to know if there are hidden settings, but I suspect this is the problem.
Does anyone know if there is another way to resolve this? I think loading both onboard and separate graphics card drivers indicates a problem, do you agree? Just call me confused in Hamilton :confused: , and THANKS! in advance to anyone who can give me feedback on this!
My system is: WIN XP MCE SP2, Kingston 1Gb ram, 250 GB WDC HDD, LG DVDRW, on an Intel D946GZIS mb, with a separate Sapphire ATI x1650 PCI-express graphics card, purchased November of 2006. Standard MS keyboard and Logitech mouse - no other peripherals attached.
When it arrived from manufacturer I erased the hard drive and reloaded XP to get a clean system (to remove the *free* sw junk from the manufacturer), and the system is fully windows updated. I also have the latest xp certified drivers for the ATI card. Note: since I am still troubleshooting this issue, I have *NOT* loaded the ATI Catalyst Control Panel, I am using the XP driver only.
What happens is when the correct drivers for the ATI are installed in XP, in the device manager I still get an unknown flagged video controller????? When I install the Intel GMA graphics driver for that mb, the flag goes away and the Intel GMA graphics shows up under display adapters, so I have three showing???? I see the Intel GMA and both primary and secondary ATI x1650's.
There is no setting in the BIOS to specify *not* to use the onboard video???? There is a BIOS setting to detect the video used, was set for auto, I changed it to PEG (indicating a PCI-E card in use). I assumed the MB would switch
from onboard video to PCI-E when it detected a graphics card in the slot, since there is not a BIOS option to change it. Does anyone know if this is correct for this motherboard? I have checked at Intel, and it is true for older Intel MB's most of the time. I have researched all of the PCI-E bios settings at The BIOS Optimization Guide website, so I am fairly sure mine are set correctly.
Manufacturer tech support is useless, I ask them questions they don't understand or can't answer. They had no idea on the original ATI card issues. I have worked in PC support for many years and this issue has me stymied!
One other relevant piece of info, when I got the machine it had a broken ati x550 video card, which was replaced by the manufacturer, and then I upgraded to the x1650. Is it possible the mb was damaged by the *bad* ati card? It was a very reproducible error, any time I started any app that used 3d graphics, my screen would shows vertical tears and blackout, and the GPU on the card would reboot my computer. When they opened up my system, the old ATI card had lost it's fan, so it was basically an overheated and damaged graphics card.
There is an Intel utility to unblock *hidden* bios settings. I haven't tried that yet. I haven't yet found specific enough documentation on this motherboard for this particular BIOS to know if there are hidden settings, but I suspect this is the problem.
Does anyone know if there is another way to resolve this? I think loading both onboard and separate graphics card drivers indicates a problem, do you agree? Just call me confused in Hamilton :confused: , and THANKS! in advance to anyone who can give me feedback on this!