ATI Video Card/Onboard video adapter boot conflict

[widdgetz]

Hello,

A week or so ago, my Radeon x600 card stopped working, so I called Alienware tech support and they sent me a new one. When I installed it, it worked fine. When I rebooted the computer, and every time I have shut down or hibernated since then, it loaded the opposite adapter from what it was running when it shut down.

Now the computer constantly switches every time I shut down or hibernate. If the Radeon was being used when I shut down, it loads the onboard card when I boot up the computer, and vice-versa. This leaves me crawling behind the computer to switch the monitor cable every single time I start up my computer.

Alienware support has no answers for me, does anyone here know what to do? I have already:
1) updated the Radeon drivers
2) uninstalled the internal-vga drivers
3) reseated the video card
4) set BIOS to load PCI-Express/PCI
5) disabled the internal card in BIOS
6) looked for BIOS updates (there aren't any)

None of those work, many thanks to anyone with a solution!

Thank you,
Ian

My system in a nutshell:
3.2 GHz Pentium 4 "Bot" w/ ASUS PCI-Express motherboard
1.25 GB RAM
ATI RADEON 128MB X600 (brand new and correctly installed)

 

[widdgetz]

Also thought I might mention that both video adapters work exactly as they are supposed to when they load. The only problem is in the loading, not in function.

When one loads, the other output nothing to the monitor. I don't have any weird colors or any video defects, just that when one card is on, sensibly the other is off. Unfortunately I have no apparent control over which is on!

 

[tf1]

When you have disabled the on board video in BIOS, does the computer still start up with the on board video? If you look in BIOS, is it still disabled?

My gut feeling is that this is a BIOS Saving problem rather than a problem with either video option.


Regards: tf1

 

[widdgetz]

Believe it or not, even when it starts up on the onboard card, BIOS shows the same settings regardless of which card it loads.

Alienware is sending an on-site technician to replace my mohterboard. Hopefully that will work! If not, at least I'll have a brand new motherboard (to go along with my brand new video card!)

 

[tf1]

I'll be interested in the outcome. Please let us know what happens. Thanks.


Regards: tf1

 

[paparazi]

degreethree
Well it's obviously a motherboard fault possibly an incompatibility issue with your particular components.

I would be interested to know if say, an Nvidia card was used instead wether this would cure it.

I'm guessing a bios flash maybe on the horizon for said conflict.

As a side note*
I question why Alienware should fit a motherboard with onboard graphics THEN fit a seperate video card.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[widdgetz]

Well, whether it was a good idea or not, when my video card died, it was good to have a fallback so I could at least see something on the screen.

The computer was designed with the Radeon x600, never had a problem until it died. I always kept everything pretty free of dust, so I was thinking that it was originally a problem with the motherboard...

The computer has been pretty terrible, performance is excellent, but it has corrupted my hard drive (had to buy $150 worth of hardware and software to read a corrupted Serial ATA hard drive with my laptop... SATA PCMCIA card, SATA cables, and GetDataBack was the only thing that even saw the files on my hard drive so I could back them up), stopped recognizing the USB ports, stopped recognizing the DVD-RW drive, video card died, and now this...

I'm calling customer service today under the advice of one of the tech support people to get a free extension on the warranty... I got a one-year warranty because I expected it to be a good computer!

Hahaha