Pavilion 8860 video issue

[Mike M_1]

Hello,

I just got a Radeon 7000 PCI 64MB video card, and i'm having a problem with video.

I currently have a TNT2 vanta 16MB card AGP, that i want to preferably keep and install the radoen pci too.
I installed the radeon but there was no video on either the pci or agp cards, so i tried the pci card alone, and there seemed to be a dark screen with blue along the edge and the hdd light stayed on.

I removed the pci and put in the agp and it work now, but without the better video card.
I went into the bios and noticed the primary vga adapter was set to agp. however, i am worried that if i set it to pci and the card still doesn't work, that i will be unable to change the setting back to agp, cause i assume the screen will stay blank if it is set to pci but i put in a agp if the pci doesn't work

Is there some way to get the bios to auto destect, or some failsafe that resets it should the pci setting not work and i'd get no video and no way to see what i'm changing in the bios back to agp?

[Ronald Postma]

Hi Mike,
First of all, why do you want to keep the fanta?

you change the pri. VGA adapter setting, if things does not work, you can reset the bios and it wil be set tot AGP again, but it will probelby work even with the setting changed.

In what machine do are you building the card? if it is an HP please give me a model, some do not work very great with ATI cards.

Have a nice day,
HTH, Ronald

[Mike M_1]

It is a HP pavilion 8860. The card is a ATi Radeon 7000 64MB PCI made by powercolor. I got it from a friend when he upgraded his card.

I have tested the card on an older Pentium 2 computer and it works great, so i know the card works
I don't mind throwing the old card to the side, it takes up alot of space in the case and cramps alot of cables.

plus, how do i reset the cmos? i cannot find any jumpers, do i just take out the battery and leave it out for awhile?

[Mike M_1]

oh, btw -I recently found my mobo to be a asus A7V made for hp. I read that the first pci slot shares an IRQ with the agp slot, which greatly explains why both will not run at the same time.

[Ronald Postma]

Hi Mike,
Indeed, you can reset the bios by leaving out the battery for about 15 minutes, also have the powercord disconnected.

Did you try the PCI card in antorher slot?
There is no new bios to my knowlidge.

Never heared problems wit Radeons and your model, but never used a pci radeon, maybe it is not compatibel. Hope someone else knows that,

Have a nice day,
HTH, Ronald

[Mike M_1]

ok, no success. No matter what pci slot is used , and the bios set to pci, there is no video to the screen, only a video signal with a glow of blue on the left side and the hdd light permanently on.

I gave up, luckily i had an ol Geforce2 MX in my computer parts stockpile, and it worked great. You'd be surprised how much better counterstrike runs, and how well everything runs when the video memory went to 32MB from 16, and this card is awesome. not the best for the day, but good enough for me.
this machine will be retired in a year or two anyway, so i don't want to spend any money on it, plus i don't do alot of gaming.