[asb447]

I have onboard graphics on my eMachines computer. I booted the computer as normal the other day but had no display on the monitor. I tested the monitor on another computer and its fine. on the emachines i can hear the fans running and the harddrive running so all seems ok with the motherobard i assum or these wouldnt be running right? My question is if the onboard graphics goes out does it mean the motherboard is out also or just the graphics. I have a PCI slot that i can use but i dont want to buy a video card if the motherboard is burnt out, how can i tell?

Thanks a mil!

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Fan's, hardrives, dvd\cdrom drives are powered normally directly by the PSU. IF THE SYSTEM IS NOT UNDER WARRANTY then open the side of the system looking from the front of the system it would be the left side.
Look for the fan that is on top of the cpu attached to the motherboard. If the power lead is connected to the mb then it's most likely the graphics has gone out as the mb then is getting power. If the cpu fan is hooked to the mb and it is not turning then the mb is out and a replacement will be needed. Please post your findings or any other questions you may have

Edited by rshaffer61, 22 April 2009 - 03:11 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Fan's, hardrives, dvd\cdrom drives are powered normally directly by the PSU. IF THE SYSTEM IS NOT UNDER WARRANTY then open the side of the system looking from the front of the system it would be the left side.
Look for the fan that is on top of the cpu attached to the motherboard. If the power lead is connected to the mb then it's most likely the graphics has gone out as the mb then is getting power. If the cpu fan is hooked to the mb and it is not turning then the mb is out and a replacement will be needed. Please post your findings or any other questions you may have

Edited by rshaffer61, 22 April 2009 - 03:11 PM.

[asb447]

Hi there, thanks so much for the reply!1 so the fan over the cpu was working so i bought a pci graphics card and i can only boot into safe mode. The drivers that come with the pci card dont have any instruction as to which driver to install from the many on the disk, the card is an ATI rage XL 8mb PCI VGA video card. I tried in safe mode to install the driver from the ATI Rage folder but when i boot to normal mode its a blank screen.... Any ideas?

[rshaffer61]

When the system is first turned on and at the first post screen. This is where the memory is counted up start tapping DEL key on your keyboard. This will bring you into the BIOS\CMOS part of the motherboard. "WARNING:DO NOT change any settings in this area without being instructed to do so"
Scroll to the advance settings or features....depending on your mb.
Click enter on kb
Scroll down to onboard or integrated and click enter
Scroll to onboard graphics and highlight. Click enter to disable>>> this will depend on mb so check the bootom of the screen to see how to modify
Make sure that it is set to disabled
When done click F10 to save and exit...you will be prompted to verify. Click Y and then enter.
System will then reboot with new graphics card installed. When the system boots into window then you will see the notice that New Hardware has been found. When prompted for driver then make sure it is looking at cdrom disc. If this step does not happen then go to
Go to START-->RUN and type devmgmt.msc
click enter

Scroll down in the list to what now will be a entry for your graphics card and it should have a yellow exclamation mark next to it. Right click on the card and then click on update driver. Tell it to look at the disk.
It should find driver on the disk. If not then let me know and we will install it manually

Edited by rshaffer61, 22 April 2009 - 03:13 PM.

[asb447]

Hi there,

I booted it up there but am not getting a signal now, i cant even get into safe mode, would there be jumpers on the motherboard somewhere to disable the onboard graphics? i am not up on where to get the specs for the motherboard i am looking at it at the moment and it says ms-7207 ver 2.0, does that mean anything? This is an emachines AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor. 2.2ghz/512ram 2000mhz system bus... thanks for helping me,

[rshaffer61]

You are not getting a video signal? Did you plug the monitor into the new card or are you plugging it into the onboard video? Once you put a video card in then the onboard usually will not work. Please let me know

[asb447]

i plugged the monitor into the new video card, i can hear the fan running i got one beep so i take it that was post but no signal on the monitor, the onboard video was not working before so i wasnt able to go into the bios to disable the onboard graphics, after i installed the new graphics card and initially booted the computer it showed on screen the boot sequence which indicated the video card was working, but it was short lived as i opened the driver CD as it wouldnt autoplay in safe mode, i couldnt find the driver for the new PCI card and that is when i shut down and sent you the message from my other computer. After your instruction i tried to boot it again but this time no signal on the monitor, i wondered if there should be jumpers on the MB to disable the onboard graphics, or wondered it there was a problem with the MB? Thanks

[rshaffer61]

OK look at the mb again for me please. I'm looking for a number that should start with something like this...K8N

Can you see anything that looks like that on the mb? Let me know.

[asb447]

thanks yes i see it.. K8NGM2 H

[rshaffer61]

Is this really the card you have?
"ATI rage XL 8mb PCI VGA"
8 megs of memory?
I believe The problem is the card you bought. This is a old type connector on the card and what you need is the new pci express. Now this is making sense allot more.
Go HERE to see your mb specs. Let me know if I can explain this alittle better for you.

[asb447]

i just bought the cheap one to establish if it was the onboard graphics that was the trouble or if it was the MB. Shouldnt this card at least work? If not which card should i buy?

[rshaffer61]

The card in theory should work. Check and make sure the card is seated correctly. Pushed all the way down in the slot. The one beep code means it is posting so the issue is the card itself. Was the card new or used? What was the issue with the onboard when you said it didn't work? Was there no video at all from it? Also there is no jump[er on the mb to disable the onboard video.

[asb447]

Its a family members computer, they told me there was no picture when i tested it with my monitor i ruled out a monitor problem. I checked the card 3 times to make sure it was pushed down correctly and it is, i bought the card online new. So based on wehat i have told you do you think the motherboard is ok? Can you suggest a different card i can buy to try? I didnt want to spend much money as they only use the computer for email and stuff no graphic intensive stuff....

[rshaffer61]

Well lets test the mb then and see if that is the problem. Follow the next steps in order. If you don't understand a step please ask and I will explain it for you.


Disconnect everything from the Motherboard except

* keyboard
* mouse
* video output
* 20+4 powercable
* 4/8 pin 12v wire both coming from the powersupply,
* Cpu fan wire
* power and reset button to the case
*case speaker

Now you should have NOTHING connected to the motherboard except what was listed above.

The goal here is just to test the mobo:

If the computer still will not boot up the please remove the motherboard from the computer along with the power supply

place the motherboard on a piece of card board larger than the motherboard,

this will eliminate a short from the mobo to the case witch could be a possibility

Install the cpu with, 1 stick ram in dimm 1, power supply, video card, case switch and case speaker
Connect ps2 mouse and keyboard along with the monitor
Repeat the above and power on

If the computer now boots into bios you most likely had a case short so make sure when installing the motherboard in the case that you use standoffs and they line up with the mounting holes in the motherboard and none of the standoffs touch anything else on the underside of the board.

[asb447]

I really appreciate you helping me, but i am not confident enough to take apart the motherboard. What i would like to do is as you suggested get a pci express card and see if that works, if not, they need a new computer anyway as this one is older, i would probably make it worse trying to follow the steps you laid out. If they get a new one i woill maybe try your steps as a learning tool, but it wont matter then if i mess up Can you tell me is this a good card to get?
Galaxy GeForce 8400 GS Video Card - 256MB DDR2, PCI Express, Supports 512MB, (Dual Link) DVI, VGA, HDTV