how to force PCI over onboard video?

M

Michael 23

My aunt has a Dell 2350. In removing the cables from the pc, she
somehow managed to pull the onboard video right off of the motherboard
(she said she didnt know about 'those little screw thingies' on the
video cable, so she just pulled and pulled until it came off... good
grief. )

Anyway... this has now become my domain to fix, as usual.
The PC starts up, you can hear the boot cycle, and I can shut it down
with keyboard commands so I know for the most part it is working.

I have a cheap PCI card, ATI radeon RagePro 8mb, and thought I could
just install it and reboot... but no luck. Apparently this machine
needs the onboard video disabled in the BIOS before it will use a PCI
card for output, and obviously I cant get into the BIOS since the
onboard port is totally screwed.

Any suggestions?

Before I call her and tell her she killed her computer, is there any
way to make it recognize the pci card, and get the monitor to come
alive again?

thanks... and yes, it is okay to laugh, I certainly am!
 
J

JAD

you could try a Cmos reset, however the default usually goes to Onboard
stuff. Big J has a point, the board is damaged, and ripping off the video
connector is probably one of the worst things you could do it.
 
J

John Doe

Michael 23 said:
Anyway... this has now become my domain to fix, as usual.
The PC starts up, you can hear the boot cycle, and I can shut it
down with keyboard commands so I know for the most part it is
working. I have a cheap PCI card, ATI radeon RagePro 8mb, and
thought I could just install it and reboot... but no luck.
Apparently this machine needs the onboard video disabled in the
BIOS before it will use a PCI card for output, and obviously I
cant get into the BIOS since the onboard port is totally screwed.

Try clearing the BIOS/CMOS and start up with the PCI card installed.
 
D

David Maynard

BigJIm said:
the board is damaged get a new board

Try clearing CMOS. If they were clever enough it would default to both on.

Does it have an AGP port? If so then an AGP card might auto-disable the
onboard video and grab control.
 
M

Michael 23

GETTING CLOSER...

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Clearing the CMOS allowed me to enter the BIOS. There is a choice for
default video - "onboard" or "auto". Default was to "auto" after
clearing, so I left it and exited.
I got excited when I saw the winxp loading screen appear on the monitor
- but that is as far as I get - then black.

Not sure what to do now - any suggestions??

There is not an AGP slot, only pci, and yes I realize the board is
screwed but I am at least attempting a temporary fix, short of
replacing the motherboard. Thx again for your help.
 

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