Onboard video card kaput, not recognizing installed

I'm going to come right out and say I suck with hardware. Software I'm decent with, but I hate digging in computer innards. That being said, this is my problem:

I received a couple of games for Christmas, BioShock and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Don't tell me I'm behind, I know it. lol), and SysReqLab told me that I am unable to run either due to needing 4GB of RAM and at least a 2GHz processor. I also don't have a good enough quality video card.

I have another PC besides mine that isn't working correctly. It's an ATX case with an ABIT motherboard (yes, I believe it's grounded correctly, it was working before) and a fairly good processor. I don't really know the exact specs on either one. Anyway, I wanted to stick my computer parts into that case to take advantage of the better motherboard and CPU.

The problem is that the ABIT motherboard has an onboard graphics card and that it is non-functioning. I have a crappy (but working) video card in my computer as it is, and I tried putting it into the other computer with everything else, but the display still doesn't come up.

I'm wondering how I can get this to work since everything I've read on disabling the onboard graphics requires you to be able to see to begin with.

It just occurred to me that I had the monitor in the onboard slot the whole time, but my monitor cable isn't the same as the plug on my graphics card. They both have prongs, unlike the one on the motherboard.

Is there anyone willing to help someone who's clueless and really, really hating not knowing what's what?

P.S.: Oh, and the computer boots up fine. No beeping errors, the fan starts up then quiets down, it seems to be running just fine.

 

Hey there,

Hmmm may have shorted the card or need to short a pin on the motherboard to disable onboard video but this is fairly rare nowdays, normally done via the bios - disable enable onboard or shared / intergrated graphics etc.. check device manager if you are able to boot..could be too many devices sharing the same irq possibly number IRQ5... of course check monitor is still fine on another p.c... even a rough knock can kill an old CRT monitor.

The monitor may not support the graphics card setting for Hz and just not displaying...is there an led on the monitor what color is it green amber etc...also check that there isnt a switch or button on the monitor / screen that might have been knocked somewhere along the way... also potentially the units power supply may not be up to spec or getting old and not getting enugh juice through to the video card, on a simialr note check to see if the video card requires its own power connection internally quite common now days.. try removing the installed video card and seeing if the onboard kicks in.

It maybe the video interface doesnt support the voltage required for the card.. like old school agp cards, some would support a 1X or 2X agp but not 4X or 8X it maybe a similar issue..check out motherboards.org for you model..the mobos model name is usually centrally located or on the edge of the mobo...dont forget the revision number. F! or REV1.2 etc usually located in a similar area or on the corners of the mobo...this should give you a few things to check out get back to us after youve tried a few...I would try the basics from monitor power cable first 101 geek stuff before getting inside the pc...

L8r guy
All else fails you maybe able to reset the cmos look for a couple of pins with cmos in fine print on the mobo...

g.luck with this one:wave

 

All of the hardware except the motherboard and CPU have been properly working as of yesterday. I had everything hooked up to my other case. The reasons I switched cases are that I dislike the other case, and the ABIT motherboard is "notorious for shorting out when improperly installed grounded, although it doesn't fry itself, just ceases to function."

I'm using a flatscreen monitor that works fine, the LED is red, like it is when the computer is asleep or off, meaning no input to display.

The power supply is also good, I tested it with my old configuration before I moved all my stuff into the other case.

The video card doesn't seem to require anything, it worked with my old motherboard with no hookups. The onboard video card did not kick in when I started it the first time, I had forgotten to put in the other video card. lol.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: I can boot, I believe, I just can't see anything, period. The monitor/video card combo works fine, same ones as in my old config.
450w power supply, too, so I think I've got it covered there.
Currently looking up the motherboard, I apologize that I missed that part.

 

10-minute window expired: Motherboards.org doesn't have a listing for abit, but I have an AN-M2 with an AMD processor. Not sure how I can find out what type without taking it off.
Now that I have the model, though, I can try a few things with the video card. I'll be back with the results.

 

There seems to be a fair bit of info on Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=abit...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a