Geeky query

[fluffymark]

Thanks to snow_leopard I have a shiny new AGP Graphics card. Unfortunately jellyfish (my computer) doesn't seem to like it. After slotting in the card into the AGP connector (that's the brown one near the processor, correct? - it the only one it'll fit in, anyway) and trying to power up, it does odd things. I've tried reinserting the card a few times, and it give a new error each time. The worst is when the power comes on but nothing else happens, no attempt to boot the bios or anything. Slightly better than that is when the bios beeps a few times (3 or 4), presumably to tell me it can't find my monitor, and then stops. Once I even got it to boot, although my monitor would only work attached to the old graphics card (which is a PCI device). Windows then claimed it located an unknown 'early PCI' device on my system, and asked for drivers, but refused to accept the graphic card drivers on the attached CD. I attempted to install the drivers by running the setup directly from the CD, but this claimed it couldn't find my new graphics card, and told me to up it in my computer, where it already was. Removing the new graphics card, my computer works perfectly every time.

Possible faults:

It's a dodgy connection - it appears to slot in properly, mind you.

The graphics card is faulty. But its brand new, dammit.

Theres a conflict with something else on my system?

My AGP connector is faulty. Possible - I've never used it before.

The BIOS/OS just can't recognize it?

Grrrr. I want my shiny new graphics card to work. Please? Help? *sweetsmile*

Comments

[zotz]

With the old card in, try going into the bios and see whether there's an option to boot from PCI or AGP graphics device. If so, obviously, switch it to AGP. Otherwise, dunno.

[fluffymark]

Tried that, apparently the bios as always been set for AGP as the primary display device, even though until now i've only had a PCI graphics card.

[emomisy.livejournal.com]

Just a thought: Is the AGP slot a PCI device? I can't remember (and can't check as this box doesn't have one).In which case Windows will need the drivers...
Also, does it boot into Linux with both cards and what does lspci or less /proc/pci give for it (if anything).

[fluffymark]

No idea - i'd not even heard of AGP until i looked at the box and saw it wasn't a PCI card. I've got a CD with drivers on, but as i've already said, it refuses to install the drivers as it claims it can't find the AGP card.

Trying Linux is an idea, although i consider myself lucky if i can get it to boot at all with the new card installed. And i'm going to tackle Windows (where I *know* I have the right drivers) before I even attempt to get it working in Linux.

[zotz]

Trying linux is a very good idea - it gives more verbose and helpful error messages than windows.

[fluffymark]

My strong suspicion is thats it's a hardware fault somewhere. I'll throw a few things at it today and see if i make any progress on it. :)

[secret-vampire.livejournal.com]

i have no idea what to suggest - not any help at alli know but bleh! I had the same thing with a PCI to USB card a while back, i never did get it to work so its sitting there on my shelf at the moment! let us kno how u get on!

Lis
xx

[fluffymark]

I'll let you know if i find out anything helpful - my friend evil_nick below has posted a promising reply.

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

Hi Mark

Erm, I could make some probably-wrong suggestions:

Find the manual for your motherboard and work out what the sequence of beeps means - it's trying to tell you what's wrong, bless its heart!

There could be an IRQ (interrupt request) conflict with the new graphics card, although I'm sure it should be plug and play etc. Look in your BIOS and see if any IRQs have been reserved by naughty things (and so block plug and play). You could also try running your computer with the bare minimum plugged into it to see if that can get it to work (so take out sound card, network card, whatever else you have).

You can also check that your BIOS has been set so that it knows you have a plug and play operation system, and generally switch on plug and play.

You could also try setting your bios back to default settings to see if that helps. You could also see what bios version you have (look when it boos up) and have a look at the web site for your motherboard manufacturer and see whether they've made newer versions of your bios software which fix incompatibilities with AGP graphics cards. If so then you could try upgrading your bios (be very careful if you choose to do this).

Do you know what AGP slot speed multiplication your motherboard supports (e.g. 1x, 2x, 4x)? Do you know what multiplication the graphics card expects? I guess the card should be backwards compatible if the speeds don't match.

Or the AGP slot itself could be knackered, or the card itself. If you have another computer around the place then test the card in that, and try a known-good AGP grapics card in yours if you have one...

There are probably lots of other things that could be wrong. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!

Nick

[fluffymark]

Wow! Thankyou lots - some of those ideas sound very promising, but ill let you know how i get on with it. I'm still unsure as to if its a hardware or software fault - unfortunatlye i'm more leaning to the point of view its a hardware problem, given that sometimes it won't even get as far as the bios screen when booting.

Unhelpfully, the motherboard was second hand, and not only do i not have the manual, i don't even know what make it it - all i know is that it can take Pentium II chips. I'm certain the beeps must be monitor not found, as theres no visual output when that occurs. I didn't even know AGP existed until a couple ofdays ago, and have no idea about AGP multiplication.

Still, I can try out most of the ideas. We currently have 3 of these new graphics cards and 3 motherboards in this house, and some combination must work and give insights into why it doesn't work now. :)

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

Your motherboard will say on it who made it and what model it is. Most motherboard manuals are on the internet now, so you should be able to find it with a quick search.

The error won't be that the monitor couldn't be found - it's only windows that looks for a monitor - so it's worth trying to interpret the beep language.

Good luck

[fluffymark]

Ihave a horrible feeling the bit where the motherboard tells me what make it is, is hidden in a corcer behind the power supply, and would entail me removing a lot of things from the box just to be able to read it.

Oh ok, i'm guessing it's confused about the graphics card then. Maybe the fact i keep the old one in is upsetting it?

Re:

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes I think it wouldn't like that. You're supposed to be able to have more than one graphics card, but I guess they're fighting like gerbils and hamsters.

[fluffymark]

Yes, I know people with two graphics cards, and two monitors, so it can be workable, but maybe there are some that disagree with each other.

So yes, first thing i'll do is remove the old one. Wish me luck!:)

Re:

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

Good luck!!! :-)

I must build a computer for Rhiannon and Ian soon - I've got all the bits but they're scattered in different parts of the room at the moment.

[fluffymark]

I need to build Catt a new computer too, we have a shiny new motherboard and processor and memory, and of course one of these new AGP cards, unfortunately some idiot stole the rest of the bits that were arriving in the post, so we can't assemble the thing yet. Grrrrr.