Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of awecs
awecs

asked on

Disable Onboard Video Adapter Gateway 300S

I have a Gateway 300S and the onboard video adapter seems to have failed. I installed a PCI graphics adapter. I follwoed all standard procedures--boot to safe mode, disable AGP in Device Manager, reboot, go to BIOS and switch from AGP to PCI, reboot, install software and drivers, reboot. At this point all should be well. Not so much...

The system boots up without any trouble. When Windows XP loads all the startup programs like McAfee it appears to be perfect. Then the color goes haywire. Many times I get a very red hue that is hard on the eyes but everything is still visible. When I look in Device Manager, both graphics adapters are listed, though the onboard AGP says it is disabled.

Is there any kind of hardware jumper on the system board that will disable the onboard AGP? The only options in the BIOS is a preference being AGP or PCI, but if I uninstall the AGP adapter, it reinstalls itself on the next boot without asking. Any ideas on how to disable the AGP permanently and allow ONLY the PCI adapterto function?
Avatar of awecs
awecs

ASKER

Also, I called Gateway to see if they could provide me with a system board model number. The only thing i was able to get from them was that it has a 1.73GHz Celeron Processor, a Gateway part number 2037584, and a system board model 2-10I85J which gives me nothing here in EE or on Google.
Avatar of Mark Poirier
There are a list of motherboards that Gateway has 1.7GHZ processors in found here, all Intel oem boards. http://support.gateway.com/support/supinfo/index.asp?pg=2&file=dt_mot066.html
The color change, does this take place with both onboard and PCI card? If so you may be looking at a video cable problem from the VGA connection to the monitor.
SOLUTION
Avatar of Mark Poirier
Mark Poirier
Flag of Canada image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
At Gateway's site the noun name for the motherboard (if it has one) may be more usefull in their search engine than the part number.
I know you've tried uninstalling the AGP adapter, but have you tried going to device manager and disabling it? If you right-click on it, you can disable it. I don't know if it will solve your problem, but it might disable it within Windows, even if it's still enabled in the BIOS.
thoffman ~ Read the question. He did that already..
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of awecs

ASKER

Okay, you all have been very helpful. Thank you all so much for your fast responses. Using info you suggested, I have pinpointed (I believe) the correct system board which is an Intel Kitty Hawk 1.3GHz Celeron board P/N 2515734 on a 815EP chipset. PCBONEZ's comment that they never made a 1.73GHz Celeron is correct... you caught my typo. :-)  I am currently looking for something to show how to disable AGP.

Does this bit of extra info help?
from what little i could find.  the manual for that board should be as follows:
ftp://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d815eea/A1696401.pdf

i skimmed it but couldn't find too much.

i will do more checking later.

good luck,

cashcomp
First there's a driver issue with that system's vga in W98, ME, and XP so your on-board video may not be bad depending on what you saw as the problem.
http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/126300920.shtml
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
PCBONEZ:

that cant be quite right as the AGP slot is soldered over and not available.  maybe we should find one that has the slot available.

cashcomp
from what i saw on the gateway support site, i could'nt find any KITTY HAWK mainboards with a 1.3GHz proc that actually did have an AGP slot available.  am i missing something or just plain being stupid?

cashcomp
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
cashcomp .. If you'd READ the info in my previous link:
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/2515734/2515734mv.shtml
It says: "This is the top view of the Intel KittyHawk motherboard with the major components highlighted. The motherboard ships with an Intel 1.3-gigahertz (GHz) PPGA Celeron™ processor."
Have you tried replacing the video cable or tried another monitor to make sure thats not the problem?
PCBONEZ:

if you read all of my previous posts, you would notice that i TOTALLY read the question wrong from the beginning I believe that there were some notes on READING and UNDERSTANDING completely before posting in the WELCOME to EE.  I was looking for a mainboard WITH an AGP slot as i read the question and believed that the problem was with an AGP add-in card and NOT a PCI add-in like it says {red-faced}

I am not certain that the issue could entirely be BIOS related as windows reads the BIOS long before it starts to load programs from the start menu.  and it also loads drivers for any and all graphics cards long before then as well.  it could be a driver conflict with one of the programs in the startup menu.

beyond that i will have to do more research before deciding to post again {maybe I will read all of the information presented during the research before posting}

cashcomp
Avatar of awecs

ASKER

Thanks for all your help guys! I think the entire system is slowly dying (appears to be having processor trouble, too) so I'm going to recommend to the customer that she look into a new system (preferably NOT Gateway!!). I tried to be fair with the point splits since I learned from many of the posts. I graded a B and that is only because the issue is not resolved, but you all provided great info. Thanks again!!
cashcomp
I'm excitable and can be LOUD but I don't do grudges. (They are too much work.)
Everyone get's lost once in a while or doesn't catch something, INCLUDING ME!
The point to saying something was ONLY to steer you (and anyone else reading this) back on track so there are more minds working on the asker's problem.

awecs
Just for kicks, before you junk it, swap in a known good power supply.
You may have a slowly dying PSU.
awecs ~ I appreciate the points ~ too bad it didn't resolve the problem

PCBONEZ ~ thanks for overlooking the shortcomings ~ we ALL learn from trying to help

cashcomp
Patience and understanding is the answer to alot of issues.

My mother in-law once left me with this bit of wisdom ;-)
"I was wrong only once in my life, I thought I was wrong when I was actually right."
now there's confidence for you!
Avatar of awecs

ASKER

Just an update... The system stopped booting for me at all. I plugged my PCI diagnostic tool in and got the BIOS POST code. The system board or CPU appears to be dead now. The video signal going on the onboard AGP may have been a warning sign to a problem that I hadn't even considered. Not sure if one led to the other or not as it's tough to track it down. Nonetheless, the customer has purchased a new Dell machine in the time it took me to get back to her (no patience).  LOL

Thanks again for all your help!!!