Help with PC Chips M810LMR

[babyloveunlimited]

This is my first desktop PC I've owned and I need some help(I've been a lifelong Mac user and I have had an Acer Travelmate 732TXV laptop for about 1 year prior to this machine).
After reading posts and following links on this forum, I was able to determine that I have a PC Chips M810LMR Mobo with the Sis730 chipset. It has on board 32MB shared video and no AGP slot. I picked up an ATI all-in-wonder 128 16MB PCI during the unadvertised $30 rebate special (on till 3.31.2001) and attempted to install it this past Sunday. Here is what happened:
Following the instructions, I disabled the drivers for the on-board video and loaded the standard VGA driver. Then I installed the card, powered back up, and watched WinME do the "new hardware found" and then restarted when prompted. I then installed the ATI drivers and software and restarted again. When I restarted, the image on my screen was distorted at the top 1/2" or so all the way across and the desktop was off the right side of the screen about 1". I was unable to move the desktop back into position using the ATI settings in display properties. In the display adapters of the device manager, the ATI shows up and also a "standard PCI graphics adapter" shows up with a yellow exclamation mark next to it.
After being unable to figure out the distortion at the top of the screen, I uninstalled the card and went back to the on-board video (I got intimidated and backed out). I need help with:
Why am I getting distortion at the top of the screen? Why is my desktop off the side of the screen? Why do I have a second display device with the yellow exclamation mark next to it? Have I missed something and or done something wrong?
Any and all help would be very greatly appreciated...

[Bovon]

Hi. I had a Soyo board that had the onboard video and sound. While ths sound was ok for my purposes, the video was somewhat distorted and had a sort of overlap down the left side. This board also used the sis chipset. After trying new drivers, and a buncha stuff Soyo techs said to do, I decided to go with a pci video card. The board did not have a jumper to disable the onboard video. The techs at Soyo instructed me to do the following.

Shut down, install the pci card, start boot, go into bios and change the video from agp to pci, save and boot to windows. go to device manager and properties for the onboard video and 'disable in this hardware profile'.

Then, reboot. This should clear up the conflict...it did for me, and the video worked fine. You cannot 'remove' the onboard video...and you will have a red X on it in device manager...but thats all.

Maybe this will do the same for you. If not, and if you can get your hands on a lesser pci card, try another card to see if it will work properly. I had severe problems a few years back with a high end video card, and nothing ever worked...I still have that card in my junk box..it just would not display properly and caused all sorts of problems.

[Peter M]

What you see is very probably a signal timing issue, with your monitor not being able to cope with what the ATI card feeds it. Try specifying your exact monitor type in Display Properties.

As for the "Standard PCI graphics adapter" ... boot into Safe Mode, uninstall all ATI and SiS graphics chip related software, delete ALL graphics adapter drivers from Device Manager, and then restart installing the ATI card.

Regards, Peter

[babyloveunlimited]

Tonight I will try the "safe mode" uninstall of all video drivers and software and then restart with the ATI card installed. My monitor is a Planar 15" flat panel which had no specific drivers that came with it. It was plug and play and shows up as Planar 150 in the device manager. When you state "select the correct monitor..." specifically what are you refering to? Already you all are being a great help.

[elroy]

If the monitor shows up as Planar 150 in the Device Manager this is what Peter Missel is talking about. The more "generic" setting is Standard Plug & Play Monitor.

[Peter M]

So ... a flat panel. Now is that connected to a digital data path, or to the standard 15-pin analog VGA signal?

If the latter, then tune down the refresh rate from the graphics card properties. Doing this won't affect flat panel display quality (TFTs don't have refresh rates at all) but maybe allow the panel to catch the signal correctly. The horizontal distortion and offset show that it currently can't.

Regards, Peter

[DASHARKMAN]

Look closely at the mobo--if it has a jumper for onbrd video--disable it--also go into safe mode & and in system properties remove all video adapters--then re-boot

[babyloveunlimited]

What exactly does a jumper look like? In my BIOS I see that Primary Graphics Adapter has PCI selected. I read somewhere (I think on the SiS site) that putting in a PCI card will auto-disable the on-board video. Does that mean that there is no jumper?

[babyloveunlimited]

These are the steps I took tonight:
Started into safe mode, uninstalled all video drivers and removed SiS 630 display device in device manager. Installed ATI card. Restarted. New hardware found wanted files for the ATI card that I did not have on the ATI install CD. Shut down. restarted into safe mode again. Chose the ATI card in device manager and loaded the Microsoft standard PCI display adapter drivers. Restarted back into Windows. Inserted the ATI install CD and ran the installer. Restarted. Screen came up off the right side again but this time the top wasn't distorted but all type is fuzzy in what seems like vertical bands about 1" apart (as it was on my 1st attempt - I didn't mention that). I then went into the display properties/advanced and set the refresh rate to different settings - 60,65, 70, 72, 75. As I chose the higher numbers, the screen moved more and more to center untill, at 75, it is positioned almost correctly. I then went into the ATI settings and when I chose Display/monitor/advanced/syncronization horizontal + and vertical - the screen is now centered. But I have the vertical bands of fuzzy type. All I need to do is fix this, and I am set. It does seem to be a sync problem with the monitor. Planar suggested 60hz but at that setting the screen jumps about 1/2" to the right. Fuzzy type in vertical bands is the issue now. The Planar is connected through the VGA connector, not the DVI connector.

[babyloveunlimited]

Back at it this morning - I started the morning still with the "fuzzy" type. I noticed that my screen size was a little large so I went to display properties/settings/advanced/(ATI) display/monitor/ and used the screen size adjustment to make the screen a bit narrower and a bit shorter. In the process of doing this, when I got the screen size to where I wanted it, the screen went black and came back on (refreshed) and the type is no longer fuzzy. So, after a long arguous(sp) process, I am now using my ATI all in wonder 128 16MB PCI card on my PC CHIPS M810LMR mobo with onboard SiS630 video disabled. I do have a second display adapter listed in Device manager with a yellow ex mark next to it. On the SiS site it states that I will have the 2nd adapter listed with warning next to it and to ignore it.

Thank you everyone that responded to my cry for help - I learned a great deal fron this - mostly to not give it up when things go askew!

[Peter M]

Now if you want to screw it up again, you can install the SiS graphics drivers in parallel, and drive a second display from the onboard graphics http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Regards, Peter