Graphics card problems

[Mercifull]

OK so it would seem that my graphics card is shagged :(

My current pc has an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO which I think has failed. There are lines all over the place, images have artifacts and sometimes the left hand side of the screen looks like its wobbling.

I have tried the latest Catalyst drivers from the official ATI website which didn't solve the problem and I also tried using the Omega drivers which still didn't fix anything. I have a "useable" pc by running with hardware acceleration off but its still glitchy.

I was supposed to be selling this pc for about £200 and after spending a stupid amount of money on a completely new system i really need to make sure that this one is working so i can recoup some of my spending lol.

My motherboard is the Asus P4R 800=V Deluxe and has a built in 9100IGP chip so should be good enough to use Office and the Internet etc however I cant seem to get it to work.

I take out my Radeon card and plug the monitor onto the onboard and I only get blackness on the screen. I was under the impression that it should just automatically revert to the integrated chip if I took my card out? Do I have to somehow tell the PC I want it to use the onboard in the bios or anything?

Help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Serenity]

Make sure that the onboard chip is activated in the BIOS. If you used a real graphics card before, it's probably turned off.

[Mercifull]

k thats all well and good except the screen is all messed up. :( Is there no way it can be done from within Windows? (the picture is at least readable)

[Serenity]

No, it's in the BIOS

From my experience with semi-broken cards, the screen is usually fine until you start Windows. But I guess it could also be the other way around.

You could use another card to change the settings. Borrow one from a friend maybe. I have an ancient PCI Matrox Millennium laying around for things like that.

Maybe you can read enough to set the BIOS to its default settings. That's usually not that hard. You can also try a hardware reset on the motherboard.

[Shane]

I can always send you my ASUS 512mb NVIDIDA card if you need the cash to sell it. I am sure no one on eBay is going to by it... cause PCI Express is the way to go now.

[Mercifull]

Theres no point sending a gpu accross the pond when I can get a old one on ebay for less than £15.

I'll try and find the manual for my motherboard tonight to see if i can trick it to set up as dual monitors or something except only plug in one. I dunno :(

New one probs not coming for a good week or so.

[Mercifull]

Just got a replacement card from eBay. Will fit it this weekend, hopefully that will fix everything *crosses fingers*

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

May the force be with you.

[Mercifull]

bugger bugger bugger!!! not the graphics card after all its the bloody socket. :(

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

Damn, you need a new mobo, not to mention everything that goes with it...

[Mercifull]

arghhhhhhhhhhhh