Is it possible to manually or mechanically disable an onboard video card?

[mcristallo]

Hi all,

New here. Found you on the Asrock website. I have a problem that I'm hoping someone can answer. I have a PC with the Asrock K7S41GX motherboard. Apparently the onboard video card has gone bad. All I get is a blank screen with "NO SIGNAL" at the top. I purchased a new PCI video card (Diamond Multimedia - AMD ATI Radeon 9250 256MB DDR PCI Video Card) and physically installed it hoping that the system may detect the new video card and I'd have display. Nonetheless, it didn't. In the new video card's instructions, it tells how to disable the onboard video card, but that does not help if the card is bad and I can see what's going on on the screen. So, my question is, is there a way to manually or mechanically disable the onboard video card so when I boot up it detects the new video card? Do you have any suggestions on how I can get the computer to use the new card? It is an older computer, and I do plan on replacing it. However, until I can get video, I've effectively lost everything on it. Thanks, Mark

[dJabba]

try to reset your bios from the mainboard, refer to your manual on where to locate the jumper and battery. Might not work though, I got a mainboard that is stuck on the same problem on the shelve.

[wazza300]

The only way would be to look in the mb manual or find a complete set of bios screenshots online and count the key presses needed to find onboard graphics and disable it,save and exit,I know its a long shot working blind but can be done if you count each key press

[profJim]

Did you connect the monitor cable to the new video card?
The most recent bios for your motherboard is 2.80. ASRock > Products > Motherboard > K7S41GX > Download
If your system still boots properly even though your screen is blank, you might be able to fix the problem if the 2.80 bios has an option to disable onboard graphics in the bios. To do this you would need to create a bootable floppy that will auto-flash the bios without user intervention. If you want to try this approach, contact ASRock tech support at ASRock > Support > Repair / RMA and ask them if this approach will work.

[mcristallo]

Yes, I did connect to the new card. My "monitor" is actually an HD tv. I did not try to connect to the regular monitor. However, it was working fine for that last couple of years connected to the tv. Don't know if hooking up to a reguar monitor should make any difference.

[mcristallo]

Thanks Djabba,

I checked the manual, the only thing I see about clearing something with a jumper is the CMOS. I assume this is not what you're talking about. I can't find anything about clearing the BIOS via a jumper. Everything seems to assume you have video working. Just my luck.

[mcristallo]

Ok, what do you guys think of this? I just spoke to a sales guy at StarTech. I was inquiring whether one of those USB to VGA video cards required a functioning video card. Of course he said yes, because you still need to have a video screen working to instal. Anyway, I explained my problem and without making a sale, he suggested I purchase a cheap AGP video card. He said that the motherboard should default to either the onboard video card or the AGP card. That it will not look at the PCI card unless it's set up initially, which I can't do. And if there is an AGP card installed, it will bypass the onboard card and go to the AGP card at boot up. From there, though I will have limited resolution, he said I should be able to get into the BIOS to set up the default to the new card, and return to normal resolution and operation. What do you think? Does this make sense?

[dJabba]

CMOS = BIOS in this case, so it's the same. And yes, the sales guy is correct in this case, a AGP card (PCIe for newer boards) should do the trick in most cases (try to borrow an old from a friend though). For my board it didn't help, i still get the error biep codes from bios that the gfx is broken (why i suggest borrowing one instead of buying one to start with)