posted 01-03- 01:33 PM               

I have a HP 8513 P3 500, with 128MB RAM and an Nvidia TNT with 8MB.

I went out and bought a 32MB TNT2 M64 card hoping to improve games performance, however upon installation all my games (unfortunately, including SDOE) seem to lockup after a few minutes. B17 II Locks up immediately after loading the mission.

I've tried everything from reinstalling drivers to reformatting my system from scratch. (SDOE's the only game on my computer now!)

A few hours later, I noticed that my AGP controller showed this:

Which resides here in the device manager:

I've tried clicking the "Set Configuration Manually" button and then let windows automatically adjust the resource settings (or something like that!) with no luck. It just reverts back to the settings in the top image

Any ideas?? I don't fancy the idea of going back to the old onboard TNT 8mb card!

posted 01-03- 03:02 PM               

D6000000-D7DFFFFF

D7F00000-E3FFFFFF

posted 01-03- 03:05 PM               

Doubt if that is it...I would think that most newer systems would have a function to disable onboard controllers if the user ever had a need to do so. Just a thought, for what it's worth..

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nealg=FC=

posted 01-04- 12:19 AM               

Next, make sure shadow ram, video cacheing, and VGA palette snoop are turned off. This can lock up a system using any video card not built into the motherboard. Set the AGP aperture size to a value equal to or greater than the memory on your new card.

Whether or not you can disable the onboard video from here, I still recommend the following steps.

Go to My computer, right click and select properties. Click on the Device Manager tab. Go to display adapters and make sure you only have ONE listed. If the onboard is listed, disable it. Boot into safe mode and check again, delete the adapter from the list if it's there- this will remove the associated drivers (sometimes you'll only see one adapter when booting into windows normally, yet you'll see 2 or even more when booting into safe mode). Make sure NO other device is using IRQ 10. If you have a PCI card (unless it's your new video card) in the first PCI slot- move it. If you have no other slots, remove the extra card until your video is installed and running. The first PCI slot and the AGP share the same IRQ. Other video devices work great in this slot (TV tuners, video captire, etc), but NIC cards, modems, and sound cards can generate lockups due to sharing violations.

Once you've disabled / removed the onboard video, change the drivers for your new board to the standard VGA drivers. Delete the drivers you installed for your new board and reboot. Then reinsatll the drivers for the new video board.

Another thing- when reinstalling Windows for an integrated system, NOT using their system restore disk and trying to install using a standard Windows disk can cause problems. I've helped a couple of people out where I had to reinstall using the system restore disk, then reinsert the new video card and do all the junk I listed above.

Last, you may still have problems. This is one of the gotchas with buying a system having on-board video (on-board audio can cause problems when upgrading to a new soundcard too). Good luck

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"Where'd he GO!?!?"
thunk-thunk-thunk-zing-OUCH
That answered my question

posted 01-04- 05:47 AM               

Jug is right, they can give you real problems! I just upgraded my set up, and had surplus drivers screwing up my sound, giving lock ups, and , at one point, crashing before windows booted.

I had to remove all the old devices, and then some! My new motherboard didn't help....it has 2 versions, one with on-board sound, one without...I was getting a Soundblaster Live for Christmas, so I bought the no-sound version....BIOS was preset to run with on-board sound! That confused the hell out of things!

Likewise with video. Even my old voodoo2 card had left it's mark....systen was trying to fire up glide....on a GeForce 2MX....

posted 01-04- 12:33 PM               

It appears that onboard sound and video is a no go now, that's for sure, but I'll exhaust every possible...um...possibility.

I've tried removing the old cards drivers and setting the display to standard VGA and almost every single other procedure possible before installing the new card but it still refuses to work.

I've tried removing the TNT2 from my computer both software and hardware wise and The really strange thing is that I've noticed that the resources for the AGP controller (first image above) sometimes show what is shown above, yet the old card runs fine with these resources shown above! So this means it's probably the new card that's causing the problem.

Thanks everyone for replying.

posted 01-04- 12:46 PM               

Check the pic below:

(the TNT indicated above is my onboard card which works fine with the above setting)

Now, if I may ask, how would I go about moving that PCI IRQ Steering thingy?

I've found a device similar to it in the hardware list but it uses IRQ 9. I tried changing it anyway to see if I can and a message said I can't, even after unticking the "Use Automatic Settings" box. However I didn't reboot after unchecking the said box.

Would it be possible to assign the AGP slot another IRQ instead?

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[This message has been edited by Harman_5 (edited 01-04-2001).]

posted 01-04- 06:18 PM               

There's also a way to set an IRQ so it can't be shared, but I haven't done that for a long time and don't remember how.

Mighty- I've had problems with shared IRQ's inolving things other than internal cards. I learned this trick from I friend of mine that owns a computer store.

You may still have problems because of the on-board video. I hate to tell you this but it's not uncommon to be unable to add a video card. Sometmes you just have to try cards from different mfgs. I went through this 4 years ago and had to try 4 cards from different companies before I found one that would work. It relates to how they set up their drivers. (That was the las system I ever bought with video & audio on the motherboard, and I've had no problems upgrading since then with the computers I replaced it with).

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"Where'd he GO!?!?"
thunk-thunk-thunk-zing-OUCH
That answered my question

posted 01-05- 12:36 PM               

Mighty, I was hoping there would be no trouble sharing the IRQs with the card with something else, however after trying time and time again, I've have no luck and come to the conclusion that IRQ 10 should have only the card to work.

Commando, will also try that BIOS procedure you described, although there is another thing, in my BIOS, there's a setting that says "Primary Display Adapter" or similar and by default, it is set to PCI. I've tried setting it to AGP with no luck. I've moved the modem to PCI slot 3 hoping for some luck, but still no go. And to think I bought this computer because it was supposedly "expandable" because of an extra AGP slot...go figure.

Also, HP wasn't able to give me much help because apparently this card I had bought was not known to them in their troubleshooting archives and that it would cost around US $40 to research it for me! Coupled with the fact that the warranty (limited as it is now because I opened the case) is going to run out in about a week or so from now.

And, I've noticed written on the motherboard that there are two little texts regarding onboard sound and video. The video text says:"VEN_DIS: ONBOARD VGA
ENABLE: 1-2
DISABLE: 2-3"

The onboard sound card has something similar however I haven't been able to find any switches that make these above functions work. I think the onboard VGA must be disabled manually but I don't have any idea how.

Jug, it seems you may have a point with the card manufacturers. I'll take this one back soon and ask for a different (and no doubt, more expensive) card that is more well known. The current one I have is based as you know, on the TNT2 M64 and it is made by a unknown (to me) company called H.I.S.

Also, (sorry for the rant) have any of you guys had troubles with PCI versions of the cards? I am willing to try a PCI card if it doesn't pull this stuff on me.
I know they can be more expensive for the equal AGP model and that the AGP slot is faster than the PCI, I'm still willing to try. And my other computer (an Aptiva AMD 333) has some free PCIs so I try the PCI card on that to see whether this trouble is related to the HP or not.

Thanks for the help guys.

posted 01-06- 08:28 AM               

Last, before disabling the onboard video with the jumper, switching cards goes much easier if you change the display adapter driver to Standard VGA (PCI)

Make HP earn their money- call and ask about the jumpers. If they aren't shown in you manual or you don't have one, and HP doesn't have the manual posted- make them send you one.

posted 01-07- 01:22 PM               

BTW, Mirthain, my HP uses 230 volts of AC so I think there is no problem there however it is still lower than the 250 you suggested.

Harman_5

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