Ask the Doctor: Can't See, Cap'n!
Ask the Doctor: Can't See, Cap'n!
Posted 07/18/2009 at 8:50am
| by The Maximum PC Staff
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I bought an Intel Mini-ITX D201GLY2 mobo some months ago and finally got around to putting it all together. 1GB of Patriot DDR2 RAM (automatically underclocked to 533MHz), a 250W PSU, an LG SATA DVD/CD burner, and a 160GB SATA Seagate hard drive. Windows installed without any problems. But when I found the onboard graphics wouldn’t display widescreen video, I picked up an ATI Radeon 9250 videocard, thinking this would solve my problems, but it only created more. Before installing it, I went into the BIOS under Video settings and turned off the integrated graphics and switched over to PCI graphics, hit F10, and saved it. When the machine was powered down and unplugged, I hit the power button again to discharge any juice still left in the system before installing the videocard. Once it was installed, I plugged the VGA cable into the card, plugged the AC cable back into the PSU, and powered on the system. Nothing. Just a blank screen with the card installed. I know the card works fine because I have already installed it in another system to test it and had no issues with it. It’s only when the card’s installed in the mini machine that I get a blank screen. Have you run into this sort of problem before?
—Marcus Jorgensen
It sounds like the motherboard is confused and can’t find a video device to initialize. Normally, you do not have to disable the onboard video when you drop in an add-in card; you just put the card in and power up. The Doctor recommends that you reset the CMOS settings. This should bring the board up with the default settings and re-enable either the onboard or PCI graphics card. Try your monitor on both video outputs after you have booted the box. If that doesn’t work, you’ll want to pull the card and boot the machine. Just because you put the card in doesn’t mean that it’s the culprit. While mucking around inside your case, you may have jarred a power cable loose, which may be preventing the machine from booting fully. Make sure it properly boots and that you have eliminated other possible problems before putting the card back in.
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SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes. |
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visibly_stealthy
July 19, 2009 at 8:24pm
Maybe a bigger PSU could help a little.
In the hands of a master, any object can become a field improvised, lethal weapon.
Stry8993
July 18, 2009 at 10:58pm
But, I mean, that sounds like the computer i had 6 years ago... 9200 and all. Things aren't too expensive these days,e specially something that can push past that little tike you've got there. Heck, a Core i7 920, with a nice EVGA X58 Motherboard, 6GB's of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB Hard Drive, and a PSU, for 779.99 Canadian... just need a graphics card, and preferrably not the ATi 9 series ;)
mesiah
July 22, 2009 at 12:00am
If your working on a budget or just building a machine for surfing the net you could probably built this entire computer for the price of an i7 cpu. Not every situation calls for a ferrari.
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