Attention all computer techs!!!

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whattaguy

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My friend just reformatted his computer, but can't get his video card to work. It's a Visiontek PCI video card, but the pc keeps locking up at the Windows 2000 welcoming screen. I have a hunch that it's the onboard video causing the conflict, but cannot get into the system bios to disable it. It's a Compaq-made pc about 4 years old. I've tried pressing esc and del, and F8 gets me to choose which mode to boot in. I know this is not a music-related question, but I know that there are a bunch of intelligent people on these boards! Thanks.
 
last time this happened to my Dell, I had to replace the mobo. But, try pulling out all pci cards, install them one by one after rebooting each time you put in one and see if you can nail down which one is causing the freeze.

good luck

Al
 
humm? most standard IBM systems use the "del" key to inter the bios, not sure about your OEM system, that's why your having issues, they luv you using tech support, $$$ grubbing rat ass bastards...

heh, excuse...
 
AIA2,

Thanks for your response! The only pci cards he has are the graphics card and a network card...both aren't in the system now, and the computer boots up fine. But when I put in the video card, the computer freezes at the welcoming screen. So I tried loading the drivers prior to the install of the graphics card, but still got the lock up after the graphics card was installed. I'm pretty sure that the problem lies with the graphics card, but it worked fine before on Windows ME...stinkin' Compaq didn't give him a full version of it, just the "recovery disk" which gives me a red screen that yells at me saying, "Call technical support!" Any other suggestions? Well, I'll try all the other "F" keys to see if I can get into the bios. Thanks.
 
I'm puzzled as to why you want to install a pci video card. It's unlikely to out-perform the built in chip. Is there no AGP slot? The built in video probably needs disabling in the bios. I don't know how to do that on a Compaq but I think the info is on the web, probably even on Compaqs website. Honestly though, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett Packard etc, I wouldn't bother with their machines. They usually do something non-standard that makes doing your own add-ons a pain.
 
Jim,

Thanks for your reply. My friend had to go the pci route because his mobo doesn't have an agp slot. It's a GeForce 4 pci card. I'll check out Compaq's site about the bios, since I think that the disabling the mobo's video will do the trick. I might ask him to just anti-up and just pay for a new mobo/case, and use the old parts from his system. Thanks.
 
I think most compaqs use the f10 key to enter the bios. If you can disable the onboard VGA good, If not you might be able to change which one the computer looks at first. It might say onboard/AGP and can be switched to PCI.
You could also try booting to safe mode and disabling the onboard card in the device manager. If you're putting the PCI video card in the first slot you might try a different slot since it might use the same IRQ as the onboard.
 
Daffy,

F10 worked! The computer, however, automatically disabled the onboard video card. Unfortunately, the computer still freezes at the welcoming screen. I was able to boot up into safe mode and install all the necessary drivers, but I still get a freeze. I also tried changing the IRQ's, but the bios only uses 2 IRQ's for everything. Currently, the graphics card is sharing the IRQ with 2 other devices. I'm going to try to swith the PCI slots with the card...dunno if that will work, but it's worth a shot. Thanks for all the help. I am totally open to any other suggestions.
 
If it's at the welcome screen I'm wondering it the freeze is being triggered by the sound card conflicting with something else. Usually right after the welcome screen you get the opening sound as it goes into windows. Not that it would be a permanent solution, but you could try disabling the onboard audio in the bios and see how far it gets. If that stops the freeze then you might figure out some way to get the audio or another device to use another IRQ.
In the bios, you might be able to free up IRQs by disabling devices that are not used. Things like printer ports, com ports ect can be disabled if you don't use them. In alot of bios you can disable the onboard midi (joystick port) Chances are if you are gonna use midi, you're gonna have a USB or PCI audio card that handles it. That should be good for freeing up at least a couple IRQs. Then you might be able to swap the PCI cards to different slots and see if you can eliminate your resource conflict...

add: If you only see 2 IRQs being used you could try disabling ACPI if that's possible. You'd probably have to re install XP from scratch again (gonna get mupped by disabling ACPI) but it would habdle the IRQs differently and it might solve some probs...
 
Daffy,

This is what did it:

I disabled the

Intel Corporation 810 Graphics Controller Hub

in safe mode from the display drivers under the device manager.

Doh! That's what you told me a long time ago! Thanks for all your help and suggestions...I would've given up a long time ago without you guys! :D Thanks. You guys are awesome!
 
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