Re: SIS Mirage onboard issue

In article <1126886779.151605.19810@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Jay"
<jason.stribling@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks for the reply.....I had already tried to set 'init display' to
> AGP and still had the same problem.
> I was told by someone today that the board I have bought is a bottom
> feeder and now I am well and truly panicking.
>
> Have got the same manual as the link but it is not in luddite. Without
> sounding pathos.....I think I am worse off now after upgrading.....
>
> IS this problem unusual?
>
> Jay

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=128&type=expert&pid=16

"You can adjust the amount of system RAM reserved for the
onboard video using the motherboard's BIOS. However, unlike
Intel's solution, you can't use both the onboard video
concurrently with an AGP card. No dual monitors for you!"

What that tells me, is the board is of the type, that either
uses the built-in graphics, or it uses an AGP or PCI card.
The "Init Display" probably doesn't have onboard video
as an option, due to the either/or nature of video selection.
If AGP, PCI, or AGP and PCI cards were present, the built-in
would be disabled in all three cases.

The next thing I would try, is setting the AGP rate lower.
Try AGP at 1X and see if you can get the card to respond.
The nice thing about the ATI video card driver, is it
ignores the BIOS setting - if you can get 1X to work in the
BIOS, then SmartGART will attempt to use whatever common
rate the Northbridge and video card share, once you boot
Windows.

In the "good ole days", a jumper on a motherboard could be
used to disable onboard graphics. I don't see these BIOS
methods beihg an improvement on the jumper.

It could be, that the video card really isn't working at
all in the motherboard. But, if that were the case, the
BIOS would continue to use the built-in video. Since it has
switched to the AGP video card (and disabled the built-in
graphics in the process), it must be some other BIOS
issue (VESA mode maybe?) that is holding it up.

Paul
.

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