Nvida GeForce4 MX 420 PCI Card doesn't work

[lasergecko]

I've got an IBM NetVista machine with an integrated video card. I've added a PCI Nvida GeForce4 MX 420 which doesn't work. The device is enabled in device manager. When I try to enable the profile in Nview Control panel application, it works for a second and then just greys everything about.

In the bios I changed the setting for Primary Video card to Add On Vga from Integrated video and now neither video card is giving a signal.

Please Help. Thanks so much.

 

[PingSpike]

Have you tried a different PCI slot? Does the card work in other machines?

 

[lasergecko]

I pulled the card out and rebooted and was able to get into the bios to reset the primary video card to the integrated. Now in XP Home, in the display properties, it says the display is on the Nvida card but when I plug it into the Nvida card there is no video. In device manager the intergrated video card is disabled.

 

[nanaki333]

go into the bios with your onboard and disable your onboard video, then tell it to scan PCI for the graphics card.

 

[qquizz]

I have dealt with one of these card before , doing the same thing you are doing. I never could get it to work in the machine w/ onboard video, but it would work in other machines. From what I found out, it is possible that your power supply doesn't meet the requirements for the PCI add-on card. The card I was dealing with required a 300 Watt PSU.

 

[lasergecko]

I put the card in a new dell machine and it worked fine. So qquizz, I think you're right.

Thanks.

Nanaki333, I tried to set the bios to disable it but as I mentioned in the earlier posts, when I disable the onboard video then I got no signal from either card.

Got any more ideas? If not, qquizz must be right.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: lasergecko
I put the card in a new dell machine and it worked fine. So qquizz, I think you're right.

Thanks.

Nanaki333, I tried to set the bios to disable it but as I mentioned in the earlier posts, when I disable the onboard video then I got no signal from either card.

Got any more ideas? If not, qquizz must be right.

It's possible that disabling the onboard, disables "IRQ for VGA", on all installed video cards, due to a buggy BIOS, and that the NV card requires that to function properly. (Although I would think that would only apply in Windows, when using the acceleration functions?)

Another possibility, is that the PnP/ESCD data is corrupted, and the BIOS is assigning resources to the PCI cards that aren't right, overlap, or have some other issues. It might not be mapping the PCI video card's BIOS to an open option-rom space in upper memory, for example. (Also make sure that "PnP OS" is to "YES" or "ON" or "ENABLE".)

What I would do is, see if the BIOS has any options for clearing/resetting the PnP/ESCD data. If it does, then set it to "YES"/"ON" and reboot. You should do this without the PCI video card installed. Then install the PCI video card, and boot to the BIOS, and then exit and save. Leave the onboard video *enabled* thought all of this. Now you can try booting to Windows, with both the onboard and PCI video card enabled. Windows should prompt for the driver for the PCI video card, install it. At this point, it still won't be "active", unless you enable it as a secondary display in Display Properties. Do this now, and then select it as your primary video display. After doing this, shutdown your machine, swap the monitor cable to the PCI video card, and boot into Windows again. You might not see the loading banner, but you should see the desktop when it finally comes up. (If not, connect the monitor cable to the onboard, and if you can see the desktop, give up at this point, you can't get the PCI video to be your primary display.)

If the desktop correctly shows up using the PCI video card, then at this point, disable the onboard video under Display Properties again. Also, go into Device Manager, and Disable the onboard video card there too.

Reboot the system, and hopefully, things should work from here-on out. Please note that throughout all of this, the BIOS setting still has the onboard video enabled, except that it is disabled in Device Manager inside of Windows. The only downside to this solution, is that you won't be able to see the display of POST. So if you ever get any boot-time errors/beeps, you will have to disconnect the monitor cable from the PCI video card and re-attach it to the onboard video to see what the BIOS error message(s) are. Hopefully that won't happen that often.