Graphics card help required please!!

[PaulRobo]

Hello all,

My mother board recently decided to give up the ghost, i replcaed it with a spare that i had lying around (exactly the same part) but when i connected my monitor the display was very poor, the colours did not show right and it kept flickering and going on and off. I thought that it was the AGP grpahics card slot that may be at fault as i had tried 3 differenct AGP card in and it all did the same. So i bought an old 3dfx voodoo 2 graphics card off ebay for a few quid. It arrived yesterday, so i installed it, after downloading an up to date xp driver, removed the old agp card and connected the monitor to the new output on the back of the graphics card. Nothing at all. Moved the monitor cable back over to the standard port and i got the same dispaly as before (rubish colour, keeps going off etc). Now if i wiggle the connector about on the old output then i can keep the display working, all be it a very poor display. But i can not get the monitor to work when connecting it to the new voodoo 2 card.

Can any one please help? I have treid to change the setting in bios when booting up to show that the pci card is the primary. I have removed the old drivers from the system but still nothing - only get a display when the monitor is connected to the standard output on the mother board

I am going to put the system back to as it was, and start from scratch. So could someone please advise what to do. Computer will have a standard rubish agp card installed with the monitor plugged into the standard output on the motherboard. I want to install the voodoo2 3dfx card and run the monitor by connecting it directly to the card.

Please help if you can. It must be something stupid that I have done cause the card obvioulsy works as i am getting a display, just not when i connect the monitor to the card.

[SlothX311]

Originally Posted by PaulRobo

Now if i wiggle the connector about on the old output then i can keep the display working, all be it a very poor display. But i can not get the monitor to work when connecting it to the new voodoo 2 card.

...It must be something stupid that I have done cause the card obvioulsy works as i am getting a display, just not when i connect the monitor to the card.

im slightly confused here because i dont see anywhere in your post that you ever got video from the voodoo card?

anyhow, ill take a stab at it

the new voodoo card that you bought from ebay is more than likely defective, but there is a possibility that it is not configured correctly? ... i have had my fair share of PCI video card problems, usually they spawn from aperture settings, just take this number to the lowest setting, like 16mb or 8mb for instance... also if you have an IGP disable that in the system bios as well, because this can cause a world of problems for no reason

after your sure that everything is configured correctly in the bios, and your still not getting picture try the following...

• reseat the video card, this sounds pointless but it fixes video issues 50% of the time
• try the card in a/all different PCI slots available to test for a bad PCI
• dusting off the PCI slots to ensure for a clean connection with the contacts
• put the voodoo card in a different machine and see if you get video

also another thought, you have tried several video cards, but only one monitor, i say... try the monitor as well, it may have sumthing to do with your poor video quality

let me know if any of this helps you ^

[PaulRobo]

Thanks, I will try a new monitor (or take my pc to amtes house to try).
I am getting a pciture from the voodoo card, as that was the only graphicsc ard installed at the time, but i can only get the display when the monitor is connected via the standard plug, not the plug on the voodoo card.

The monitor was working fine until i changed the mother board though.

[SlothX311]

mother board swap and now your having trouble?... im assuming you have a fresh install of your OS?

also try a bios flash and update

[PaulRobo]

I didnt do anything with the os when changing over the mother board.
I'll run the disk again tonight to see if that helps at all.
How do I do bios flash and update?

[SlothX311]

Originally Posted by PaulRobo

I didnt do anything with the os when changing over the mother board.

you always always wana do a clean install whenever changing out a motherboard, because the chipset is different, the memory resources are different, and the bios settings are different... that would be like dropping a v8 into a honda civic and not changing the fuel management system, or anything else under the hood for that matter....

im surprised that windows (assuming thats what you use) would even let you boot after putting in a new mobo, usually its no picnic to try and cold boot with an old install and new mobo

Originally Posted by PaulRobo

How do I do bios flash and update?

go to your manufacturers website that made your motherboard and look for your board, there should be a downloads section, you want to download the chipset driver and any bios patches or revision packs that they have on there

after you download this you can put it to a floppy disk and boot from it, the packet will do all the work, basically just goes through and wipes your bios and gives it an up-to-date version


good luck mate

[PaulRobo]

I got it all sorted now! I managed to find out that the card i had was an accelerator card and not just a graphics card.
I got a card from a mate and this has now sorted my problem out (well except for the faulty ram chip that i got from ebay!!) Updated all my drivers and its now all goods again. Thanks guys.