how re-enable onboard VGA on CUSL2?

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pwrcul

I got myself in trouble trying to add an AGP video card. I hope
someone knows how to get out of it.

As of now I can't go back to the onboard VGA which I disabled in BIOS.

Here's the story:
I installed a new Gigabyte GV-N66256DP AGP card in my CUSL2 system
(BIOS is 1009). I disconnected the cable from the onboard VGA because
it is too short to be connected at the same time. I made no BIOS
changes. The new card did not work, sending no signals to the monitor
even on boot up.

I removed the card and reconnected the onboard VGA. It worked.

I restarted and used the DEL key and entered the BIOS, went to
Advanced-->Chip Configuration-->Onboard VGA and switched it to
"Disabled". The screen went blank. I stopped the computer using the
front switch.

I installed the new AGP VGA card again and attempted to start up. It
still did not work.

I removed the new card, reconnected the onboard VGA cable. When I
attempted to boot up, it sent no signals to the monitor while pressing
the DEL key.

So now I have no email, etc, but I can use my new machine to interface
with the web. That's how I am sending this plea for help.


Anticipating questions:
I have no other video cards for AGP or PCI.

I would like to get that new video card to work so if you have some
magic that will make that happen, I would like to know it. Thanks in
advance.
 
pwrcul said:
I got myself in trouble trying to add an AGP video card. I hope
someone knows how to get out of it.

As of now I can't go back to the onboard VGA which I disabled in BIOS.
Click to expand...

You should be able to clear the CMOS. Just in case you don't still have
your motherboard's manual, here's a link to download it:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Um, just looked up your video card--the Gigabyte GV-N66256DP is a PCI-E
x 16 card--can't find a 6600 Turbo card by Gigabyte that fits in an AGP
slot:

http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_GV-NX66256DP2.htm

Not sure if a PCI-E card fits in an AGP slot....

Did you confirm that you are in jumper free mode?


To get back to the default BIOS settings, see the instructions on page
57 (of 128) in the Asus manual--unplug, short the CLR CMOS jumper for
several seconds, then plug in, restart holding down DEL key.
(Instructions seem sort of in Chinenglish--a bit more clearly:

Unplug.

Short out the CLR CMOS jumper for several seconds.

Stop shorting it out.

Clear away, and make sure you are not going to electrocute yourself by
touching anything in the PC when it gets reenergized.

Plug power cord back in.

Turn on, hold down DEL key, onboard VGA should work--it's the default as
I recall--you'll need to re-enter date, time, scan drives, etc,

Again, I think that card does not fit your mobo--pretty new tech, and
the CUSL2 is pretty low tech....bought mine in 2001, I think--and, even
if it did fit, I think that new GPU will be pretty much held back by the
Pentium 3--(1000 MHZ?) Also, the 133 FSB is slow, compared to what is
out there now.

If you do have a PCI-E x 16 card, but it sort of fit....hmm, it may have
shorted something out--but, not sure about that. Can't be good, though,
as the expression goes.

Good luck!
 
pwrcul said:
I got myself in trouble trying to add an AGP video card. I hope
someone knows how to get out of it.

As of now I can't go back to the onboard VGA which I disabled in BIOS.

Here's the story:
I installed a new Gigabyte GV-N66256DP AGP card in my CUSL2 system
(BIOS is 1009). I disconnected the cable from the onboard VGA because
it is too short to be connected at the same time. I made no BIOS
changes. The new card did not work, sending no signals to the monitor
even on boot up.

I removed the card and reconnected the onboard VGA. It worked.

I restarted and used the DEL key and entered the BIOS, went to
Advanced-->Chip Configuration-->Onboard VGA and switched it to
"Disabled". The screen went blank. I stopped the computer using the
front switch.

I installed the new AGP VGA card again and attempted to start up. It
still did not work.

I removed the new card, reconnected the onboard VGA cable. When I
attempted to boot up, it sent no signals to the monitor while pressing
the DEL key.

So now I have no email, etc, but I can use my new machine to interface
with the web. That's how I am sending this plea for help.


Anticipating questions:
I have no other video cards for AGP or PCI.

I would like to get that new video card to work so if you have some
magic that will make that happen, I would like to know it. Thanks in
advance.
Click to expand...

Clear the CMOS ? Unplug the computer and follow the procedure in
the manual. Near the end of section 4.3.2, it describes how
you short the solder points together.

"Onboard Video" [Enabled] is the BIOS default, and the defaults
should be restored after you clear the CMOS. You'll have to
reload all your custom BIOS settings after doing this.

If your attempts to short the solder points don't seem to be
working, you could also remove the CMOS battery for a while.
Without wall power or a CMOS battery, eventually the CMOS RAM
will run out of juice. When the battery is correctly inserted,
and wall power restored, you should be able to see the screen
via the built-in VGA.

Paul
 
Oops, just saw that there *is* a GV-N66256DP *AGP* 8X card too, not just
PCI-E x 16--inaccurate scan of Gigabyte web site, sorry--
 
Thanks for the quick and helpful ideas.

I have the CUSL2 manual and examined the right section. I think I have
identified the right solder points, and the battery is nearby. So I
can restore the default values.

I confirmed at the JEN that I am NOT in jumper free mode. The
dipswitches are set (for the 866 MHz PIII) with 1 and 4 OFF so CPU &
DRAM at 133.70 and AGP at 66.85 MHz.
Suggestions?

Meanwhile I looked more closely at the manual for the GV-66256DP. It
calls for connecting a [disk drive] 4-pin power cable to it "or the
system will not boot." (This is unlike its PCIe sibling.)

I don't have spare power connectors because of postponed housekeeping.
I need to phase out 2 old SCSI drives. I am using a pair of ATAPI
drives now.''

Maybe I will disconnect a SCSI power connnector and use it and see if
the video card comes to life. Any hazard with doing that?

I will crash now and come back to this during the night or the morning
in California.
 
pwrcul said:
Thanks for the quick and helpful ideas.

I have the CUSL2 manual and examined the right section. I think I have
identified the right solder points, and the battery is nearby. So I
can restore the default values.

I confirmed at the JEN that I am NOT in jumper free mode. The
dipswitches are set (for the 866 MHz PIII) with 1 and 4 OFF so CPU &
DRAM at 133.70 and AGP at 66.85 MHz.
Suggestions?

Meanwhile I looked more closely at the manual for the GV-66256DP. It
calls for connecting a [disk drive] 4-pin power cable to it "or the
system will not boot." (This is unlike its PCIe sibling.)

I don't have spare power connectors because of postponed housekeeping.
I need to phase out 2 old SCSI drives. I am using a pair of ATAPI
drives now.''

Maybe I will disconnect a SCSI power connnector and use it and see if
the video card comes to life. Any hazard with doing that?

I will crash now and come back to this during the night or the morning
in California.
Click to expand...

If a video card has a power connector, by all means connect it up!
I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised when you do. Try it before
any CMOS clearing attempts...

I think my 9800pro actually puts a message on the screen if the
four pin aux power is not connected. Not all video cards are going
to do that for you.

The conventional advice is to only power the video card with
that cable. The cable should not be shared between video card
and any additional disk drives. The reason for this is precautionary,
and is intended to avoid excessive voltage drop in the cable. My
9800pro draws 5 amps from that cable, and your video card might
do the same. I don't know if I could find any Google postings
of consequences for you or not (I cannot think of some specific
enough search terms).

Powering is not going to be an issue as long as you are doing
2D stuff. A card will run at about 1/2 power, until you get
out a 3D game or 3DMark benchmark software, in which case then
the power consumption will go up. So, do whatever you have to,
to check that you can see something on the screen, and then
do a bit more planning before any 3D tests.

If you current supply has enough amps for the job, you may be
able to fix your current shortage of plugs, by getting some
"Y" shaped disk drive "power splitter" cables from Radio Shack
or the like. I use those quite a bit for things like chassis fan
powering (I have some fans that don't have the three pin connector)
- one of my PSU cables can then power a whole bunch of small loads.
That frees up the rest of the PSU cables for more important work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.asp?image=12-101-203-01.JPG

Paul
 
Hi Bob,

from web site:

http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/agpcompatibility.html

Speed is always backwards compatible,
for example, a 4x device must be able to run at 2x and 1x.

The signalling voltage is the only incompatible part.

An 8x device must be 0.8v,
a 4x device can be 1.5v or 0.8v,
a 2x or 1x device can be 3.3v or 1.5v.

The connectors are keyed so that you can only use compatible equipment.
AGP 1.0 and 2.0 devices using a 1.5v key, signal at 1.5v, while AGP 3.0
devices using the 1.5v key and signal at 0.8v.
AGP 3.0 devices must be tolerant of 1.5v signalling though, they won't
necessarily work, but will not be destroyed if inserted into an AGP
1.0/2.0 slot.

So perhaps it is a voltage incompatibility?

Also, a video card like that which needs its own power connector, again,
may be too much for the CUSL motherboard--the power supply I used for
mine was very small compared to the ones that are needed now. Maybe
there is just too much current draw somewhere in the system?

Good luck!
 
Good morning.

I am still open to suggestions. Following is an update on what I tried
and plan to try.

No luck so far. I first pursued Paul's suggestion to connect the 4-pin
power to the Gigabyte GV-N66256DP. First I just took one of the SCSI
drive's connectors away and used it. That did not work. Then I also
disconnected the other SCSI drive on the same cable run from the PSU
and removed the SCSI controller card. That failed also.

The PSU is 250W.

I plan now to short the CMOS solder points a few seconds and reconnect
the onboard VGA. If that fails I will remove the battery awhile.

If I get back the onboard VGA I will reconnect the SCSI drives. I plan
to wipe them clean and remove them. I migrated everything I think
could be useful some time ago and backed them up then. Then I will see
if I can get a straight cable run from the PSU to the AGP card. Maybe
that will get me the pleasant surprise of a boot....
 
Update: I have onboard VGA again. Thanks.

The CUSL2 has an AGP Pro connector which is universal. Supposedly, 8X
AGP cards, at least some of them, will run in it at 4X.

I will try to find that free disk wiping utility I read about recently
and clean of the small old SCSI drives and look for the cable that
might give me the cleanest shot at sufficient power for the GV-N66256DP.
 
pwrcul said:
Good morning.

I am still open to suggestions. Following is an update on what I tried
and plan to try.

No luck so far. I first pursued Paul's suggestion to connect the 4-pin
power to the Gigabyte GV-N66256DP. First I just took one of the SCSI
drive's connectors away and used it. That did not work. Then I also
disconnected the other SCSI drive on the same cable run from the PSU
and removed the SCSI controller card. That failed also.

The PSU is 250W.

I plan now to short the CMOS solder points a few seconds and reconnect
the onboard VGA. If that fails I will remove the battery awhile.

If I get back the onboard VGA I will reconnect the SCSI drives. I plan
to wipe them clean and remove them. I migrated everything I think
could be useful some time ago and backed them up then. Then I will see
if I can get a straight cable run from the PSU to the AGP card. Maybe
that will get me the pleasant surprise of a boot....
Click to expand...

250W ? That could be the problem right there.

But CUSL2 experiences on Abxzone seem to be quite variable.
I don't know if the difference between the users getting
cards to work is a BIOS revision issue, or a hardware
issue. For example, why would a TI4200 8X work, and not
an FX5200 ? The FX5200 likely draws less power than the
IT4200. And your card has a passive heatsink, implying it
is a <30W card and not a power sucking card. Makes me wonder
why they bothered with the aux power connector (you'll still
need it though, as when an aux power is used, it might be the
only source of power to feed the video card's onboard regulator).

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63361&highlight=cusl2+vga

There also appear to be people who have run ATI 9700 on CUSL2.

If you are going to flash the BIOS, there is this (minor) warning
about setting one of the BIOS settings before flashing. I would
think that just planning on clearing the CMOS afterwards, would
prepare you for using the onboard VGA again.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12569&highlight=cusl2+vga

Unfortunately, I didn't find any summary on Abxzone, as to what
the "success ingredient" is for AGP cards on CUSL2. Most users
don't report what they did to get a card running.

Paul
 
Another Update:

I have not had a chance to review and follow up Paul's suggestions nor
to do one more attempt without the SCSI drives.

But I got them wiped using Eraser 5.7. I will remove them when I
return from shopping.

When I return from the market I will try first seeing if I can isolate
one cable and run it direct to the GV-N66256DP. Failing that, I will
start reviewing Paul's items.

Meanwhile, I sent an email separately to David Cole who successfully
installed a GV-N66256DP in his vintage Asus P4Te motherboard. His web
page, http://www.davidcolepictures.co.uk/Equipment.htm, does not
describe his PSU.
 
3rd Update:

I removed SCSI drives and card. I was able to connect a direct power
cable to the AGP card with no other device on it.

At the same time I found I could route the onboard VGA cable around the
AGP card and have both connected. But no signal came to the monitor
(BIOS had onboard VGA enabled). I also checked the AGP VGA: nothing.

So I removed the GV-N66256DP. System booted with onboard VGA. There
must have been some kind of conflict????

I checked BIOS as it booted. In Advanced-->Chip Configuration there is
a Video Memory Cache Mode (UC/USWC): It's not documented in the manual
and Google found nothing. I plan to ignore it. Default is UC.

In Advanced-->PCI Configuration there is a Primary VGA BIOS which I
think is the 1009 BIOS replacement of the earlier VGA BIOS Sequence.
The three options are PCI Card, AGP Card, and onboard. Default is PCI
card. It does not interfere with onboard booting, etc. I think I will
set it to AGP card when I next try disabling onboard VGA.

But I will crash first and return later to change the BIOS settings and
insert the AGP card.

Meanwhile David Cole responded that he has plenty of power in his P4Te
box and that he's always had a VGA card, so he did not migrate from
onboard VGA to the GV-N66256DP.
 
pwrcul said:
3rd Update:

I removed SCSI drives and card. I was able to connect a direct power
cable to the AGP card with no other device on it.

At the same time I found I could route the onboard VGA cable around the
AGP card and have both connected. But no signal came to the monitor
(BIOS had onboard VGA enabled). I also checked the AGP VGA: nothing.

So I removed the GV-N66256DP. System booted with onboard VGA. There
must have been some kind of conflict????

I checked BIOS as it booted. In Advanced-->Chip Configuration there is
a Video Memory Cache Mode (UC/USWC): It's not documented in the manual
and Google found nothing. I plan to ignore it. Default is UC.

In Advanced-->PCI Configuration there is a Primary VGA BIOS which I
think is the 1009 BIOS replacement of the earlier VGA BIOS Sequence.
The three options are PCI Card, AGP Card, and onboard. Default is PCI
card. It does not interfere with onboard booting, etc. I think I will
set it to AGP card when I next try disabling onboard VGA.

But I will crash first and return later to change the BIOS settings and
insert the AGP card.

Meanwhile David Cole responded that he has plenty of power in his P4Te
box and that he's always had a VGA card, so he did not migrate from
onboard VGA to the GV-N66256DP.
Click to expand...

There is a BIOS guide here. USWC stands for Uncached Speculative Write
Combining. Write Combining is the process of gathering together fractions
of words, in the hope that a more efficient transfer mechanism can be
used. (Writing a byte at a time would be terribly slow, whereas
using all 64 bits on a processor FSB would be more efficient.)

http://www.rojakpot.com/freeBOG.aspx

http://3dgpu.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t216.html

Are you overclocking ? I would select a multiple of 33MHz for
the common clocks, as this should give an AGP clock of 66MHz.
While many older cards are quite tolerant of overspeed AGP clocks,
some of the newer cards are not. (The worst cards only go up
to 75MHz.)

Other than that, I'd see about borrowing another power supply,
to test in place of the 250W. If you have a meter, I'd grab
a disk drive cable and measure the +5v and +12V on there, while
the computer is powered but the AGP card driven screen is
blank. Maybe you will find either of those voltages has dropped
more than the acceptable 5% rating printed on the side of the
supply. (Measuring +3.3V is a bit harder, unless the supply has
that 6 pin connector. The 6 pin carries +3.3V, and on an older
ATX, that cable is a place you can gain access to +3.3V without
having to probe the motherboard itself.)

Some of the old 250W supplies are like bulldogs, and truly meet
their output rating and more. That is why I haven't been more
insistent about changing it. If you own a multimeter, it is worth
checking. (It would have been nice, if the onboard graphics would
work while the AGP card was still plugged in, to check the
voltages using the "Hardware Monitor" page in the BIOS. But
I think your last post is indicating that there is no display
as long as the AGP card is plugged in ?)

Also, since you've disconnected a couple of SCSI disk drives,
that is at least a power saving of about 30W anyway. So, the
extra video card power more or less is equal to the SCSI power,
in the aggregate sense. It is still possible to overload one
particular output, and with these video card aux connectors, it
is hard to judge which rail, +5V or +12V, they are loading up.

I think I've been through this hell a long time ago. I had a
P2B-S, and I think I may have tried to put a TNT2? card in it.
I got the old blank screen, and simply returned the card and
got my money back. I think the cards had a high failure rate,
as this was just after they started shipping. I didn't bother
trying any more of them, so don't know what the problem was.
So this kind of crap has happened to me. I think my old machine
still has an ATI 8500 in it now.

Here is an testiment to AGP cards and CUSL2 :-) Seems
like they were able to try a few different types.

http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rt2500/rec/mb/asus_cusl2.cfm

The further I look, the more I'm convinced it should work. I
found another poster claiming to have run an AIW 9700, and
All In Wonder cards are usually pretty picky about their +3.3V
diet. And this posting should bring a smile to your face:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/printthread.php?t=33185

Paul
 
Reply to Paul's note above:

Thanks for the info on USWC. I will enable it. Thanks for another
referral to Adrian's BIOS guide. I should have looked there for the
answer. I will also make AGP the Primary VGA BIOS.

I am not overclocking. One of my hopes is to underclock the
GV-N66256DP to where it keeps pace with the CUSL2 4X if I can rise to
understand it well enough. First I need to get it to work.

Yes, I can't have both onboard VGA and AGP at the same time.

If it fails in the next minutes, I will see if I can borrow a PSU from
a former neighbor; I sent him an email about trying other AGP cards he
might have and his trying the GV-N66256DP in his machine but have not
heard back.

There's a chance I can take the CUSL2 box to the shop where I got it on
Monday; if so I will bring a printout of this saga. I don't know how
busy they are. They should have PSUs and meters. It will cost $ for
the help, but they are good.

Monday is the decision day on RMA for the AGP card. I hope I don't have
to toss in the towel.

I am glad someone has cards working in the CUSL2 (Matrox link) and
chuckled over that last entry.
 
Sadly, the GV-N66256DP with the CUSL2 did not display anything to the
monitor. Blank screen.

When I started it, the monitor responded with a green light, but in a
few seconds it went to its yellow standby color as before.

I will see if I can reach that neighbor, etc. as I mentioned above.
 
This may be the final note on this part of the saga.

I took the card and my CUSL2 system to the local shop where I bought
the box years ago.

An older AGP card booted with no problem.

The GV-N66256DP did not work in 3 other systems so the tech concluded
that it most likely is defective.

I contacted the vendor for the RMA. I am requesting a replacement.
 
pwrcul said:
This may be the final note on this part of the saga.

I took the card and my CUSL2 system to the local shop where I bought
the box years ago.

An older AGP card booted with no problem.

The GV-N66256DP did not work in 3 other systems so the tech concluded
that it most likely is defective.

I contacted the vendor for the RMA. I am requesting a replacement.
Click to expand...

So the CUSL2 is "not guilty" :-)

Here's hoping the RMA unit works better.

Paul
 
I sent the GV-N66256DP back this morning.

ZipZoomFly on their RMA message says they will test, so we may learn
more.

I'd say the CUSL2 claimed to be "not guilty," but we may learn more
soon.

I hope by going a second round with a replacement--if that is what
ZipZoomFly chooses as their response--the new card is trouble free :-)
 
Here's an epilogue:

Good News for CUSL2 owners wanting a quiet AGP card.

The replacement Gigabyte GV-N66256DP AGP card based on the Nvidia
GeForce 6600 GPU works fine in my CUSL2 as well as in another person's
P4Te. It looks like the first card was defective.

Thanks for the help.
 
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