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Need help with a PC :|

zxbrunozxbruno
edited June 2008 in Chit chat
I've been able to solve many computer problems, and most of the time Google is my friend. But this time I'm having a problem with the ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 9600. The video card has a special video output with a Y-style splitter, where VGA1 should be the one used for the regular monitor. The thing is, I get no image on startup, nothing at all.

A couple of things that I tried (all I want now is to be able to get the image on my monitor again):

-Removed the ATI card and restarted the computer with the monitor cable connected to the motherboard's VGA-out. No luck.
-Removed the BIOS battery (because sometimes the onboard video card is disabled), waited 5 minutes, put the battery back and restarted the PC. No luck.

Things I can't do:

-Use another AGP card. The PC only has one.

I'm running out of options here. Memory's fine, fans work, computer powers up ok. The only problem is that I can't get any image on the monitor.

:(
Post edited by zxbruno on

Comments

  • IN31IN31
    edited June 2008
    I know it sounds obvious but have you tried the monitor on a different PC?

    Does your monitor indicate via an LED colour if it has a good signal or not?

    The onboard VGA should be enabled automatically if there is no other graphics card on the bus so doubt it is disabled.
  • zxbrunozxbruno
    edited June 2008
    Yes, I did try the monitor on another computer, and the led immediately changed from amber to green (as it usually does). The monitor is fine. I thought that after removing the bios battery and waiting 6 minutes or more it would detect and use the onboard. I don't understand why it isn't doing it.
  • VampyreVampyre
    edited June 2008
    Because you've tried this:
    zxbruno wrote: »
    Removed the ATI card and restarted the computer with the monitor cable connected to the motherboard's VGA-out. No luck.

    (Which should automatically default in the BIOS to the onboard if no AGP is in the slot.)

    It would suggest to me that either the monitor or VGA cable is knackered. Try a different cable first as it's obviously cheaper to replace than a monitor. You'd be surprised at how many times over the years I've thought a monitor is on its way out and it's been down to a crappy cable.
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • bohuskbohusk
    edited June 2008
    Have you tried to plug another monitor to onboard VGA ? If this won't work either, both, onboard and ATI vgas are damaged.
  • zxbrunozxbruno
    edited June 2008
    Yes, I've tried to connect another monitor to the onboard VGA. I also connected the monitor to another computer and it worked fine.

    The cable that comes out of the ATI card is similar do DVI (but smaller in width), and the Y-adapter splits it in two, vga1 and vga2. Sadly I don't have a spare Y-adapter.

    What I find really strange is that before I installed memory the computer was fine. I downloaded cpu-z, found that slot1 had a 512MB DDR PC2700 dimm and slot2 was empty, installed another dimm (same capacity, different brand but also DDR PC2700), and when I restart the computer I noticed that the image was gone. Surely a ram dimm, even if bad, wouldn't cause problems to both video cards, or would it?
  • sparkessparkes
    edited June 2008
    It you reset the bios using the little jumper on the board. That's sometimes required if the default video is set to a slot.

    At least then you should see something on the monitor.
  • thingleythingley
    edited June 2008
    There's no jumper for the onboard graphics is there?
    (one of those buggers caused me similar problems to the ones you describe)

    On some motherboards there was a jumper sitting next to the first expansion slot that had to be switched for the onboard graphics to kick in. If it exists it may be somewhere else entirely but still worth looking for...

    I expected the bios on my gf's computer to detect there was no graphics card plugged in and default to the onboard VGA - but until I changed the jumper setting nothing happened.
  • sparkessparkes
    edited June 2008
    thingley wrote: »
    There's no jumper for the onboard graphics is there?
    (one of those buggers caused me similar problems to the ones you describe)

    There is a clear CMOS jumper :) That's done the trick on the two machines I had problems with.
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