On-board video question.

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philo

I just built another machine out of junk parts...
and as usual...the on-board video was a piece of junk...
but the machine worked just fine after i put in a low end pci video card.

Just curious as to why on-board video always seems to cause so many
problems (I'd say that about 80% of the time I've been unable to use it
with any satisfaction)
 
I think because people expect to much from it. I recently built three new
computer for our office at work and used on board video on all of them. it
works fine for that purpose. The people using them are doing nothing other
than internet, email, and office apps. On board is fine for people that need
a basic computer.
Joe
 
Joe said:
I think because people expect to much from it. I recently built three new
computer for our office at work and used on board video on all of them. it
works fine for that purpose. The people using them are doing nothing other
than internet, email, and office apps. On board is fine for people that need
a basic computer.
Joe
Click to expand...
It was nothing to do with video quality...
as a low end pci card worked just fine...

I'm talking about on-board video causing system instability.

ie: In the machine I had just been working on...the machine crashed all
the time until i added a pci card.

In another machine I built with on-board video...
I could not get a modem to work at all...due to device conflicts...
but all was fine after I used a PCI card...

In another machine...I ended up with mouse problems etc
 
It was nothing to do with video quality...
as a low end pci card worked just fine...

I'm talking about on-board video causing system instability.

ie: In the machine I had just been working on...the machine crashed all
the time until i added a pci card.

In another machine I built with on-board video...
I could not get a modem to work at all...due to device conflicts...
but all was fine after I used a PCI card...

In another machine...I ended up with mouse problems etc
Click to expand...

For me , as the other guy said performance wise they are fine for
mundane tasks. The problem is most of them use odd chipsets like the
Mirage /S3 type of stuff. Thats what I dont like. I dont know if the
firm updates the drivers that often, or if there are incompatibility
problems with their chipset/drivers with other things etc.

Thats why when I changed my mind about all in one systems because they
were so cheap and saved money --- I ONLY bought nforce2 microATX
boards which incorporated the 400mx video chipset in it . Obviously I
liked it because the 400mx was the low end mainstream gaming chipset
for ages before they put it in the integrated boards and that itself
was ages ago. And they are selling the things even now and nvidia is a
dominant firm so you get driver updates and lots of feedback on
problems and makers of hardware and software try to make it there are
no problems.

Thats not to say there are zero problems. The one that came up was you
couldnt run the nforce2 boards though they were initially designed to
run at 400 FSB with integrated video , many people reported
instability if you used the integrated video with it so many of the
boards were actually advertised as maxing out at 333 and in a footnote
you would see them say it was possible to run it at 400 if you used a
video card.

However, my neighbor bought a emachines and it used an integrated
microatx board with savage video chipset and it had all kinds of
problems running with an ATI video tuner card he wanted to use. It
totally screwed up his system. I tried all kinds of things new drivers
etc and finally gave up and bought him a cheapie 400mx video card , in
fact we used an old VooDoo 3dfx card his son had laying around at
first and then the system worked perfectly with the TV tuner card.

Thats not to say they all are crappy cause if all non nvidia
integrated system boards didnt work then no one would buy them
obviously but many of these systems builders may have certain things
they know will work with them and stick to that stuff though even that
couldnt be that narrow cause people do go out and buy accessories
afterwards.

I dont know if you are having problems with nforce2 boards but all the
ones Ive used - no problems at all except for the one where the caps
burst , bad caps on a biostar.
 
[email protected] said:
However, my neighbor bought a emachines and it used an integrated
microatx board with savage video chipset and it had all kinds of
problems running with an ATI video tuner card he wanted to use. It
totally screwed up his system. I tried all kinds of things new drivers
etc and finally gave up and bought him a cheapie 400mx video card , in
fact we used an old VooDoo 3dfx card his son had laying around at
first and then the system worked perfectly with the TV tuner card.
Click to expand...

Generally onboard video does not work well with video preview/capture. I
don't use them very much because most of my customers are likely to use a
capture card.
Thats not to say they all are crappy cause if all non nvidia
integrated system boards didnt work then no one would buy them
obviously but many of these systems builders may have certain things
they know will work with them and stick to that stuff though even that
couldnt be that narrow cause people do go out and buy accessories
afterwards.
Click to expand...

This is quite dishonest of these suppliers if only they know how to get them
working and what works with what.

Michael
 
It was nothing to do with video quality...
as a low end pci card worked just fine...

I'm talking about on-board video causing system instability.
Click to expand...

Which specific video (integrated) chipsets, OS, and types of
instability?

I haven't found too many problems with integrated video if
you ignore the performance in 3D. However I try to avoid
SIS- SIS anything actually.

ie: In the machine I had just been working on...the machine crashed all
the time until i added a pci card.
Click to expand...

It's a bit hard to draw conclusions without details, but did
you try newer video drivers (from the chipset manufacturer,
not MS or motherboard driver) ?

In another machine I built with on-board video...
I could not get a modem to work at all...due to device conflicts...
but all was fine after I used a PCI card...
Click to expand...

Hard to draw a conclusion here too, but I'd be inclined to
blame the modem as much as the video, especially cheap
winmodems.

In another machine...I ended up with mouse problems etc
Click to expand...

Can't recall any mouse problems recently... I try to avoid
integrated video but ultimately come across it often
regardless. I suppose it's best to just tackle each problem
on a case-by-case basis, or add the video card, new driver,
whatever.
 
Can't recall any mouse problems recently... I try to avoid
integrated video but ultimately come across it often
regardless. I suppose it's best to just tackle each problem
on a case-by-case basis, or add the video card, new driver,
whatever.
Click to expand...


Ok here is one specific example:

Asus A7VI-VM mobo which has an on-board S3 pro savage.
running win98se.

the problem was a real odd one...in that after several hours of use...
the mouse cursor would disappear (although if you could figure out where
it was...the mouse would still work)

by putting in a pci video card which was pretty similar ...an S3 trio
the problem was solved.

btw: i've used pci versions of the S3 pro savage in other
machines...without other problems.
 
Ok here is one specific example:

Asus A7VI-VM mobo which has an on-board S3 pro savage.
running win98se.

the problem was a real odd one...in that after several hours of use...
the mouse cursor would disappear (although if you could figure out where
it was...the mouse would still work)
Click to expand...

Ah, I've seen that happen. Different video drivers fixed
it but I don't recall the specifics anymore so it might not
even be the same integrated engine. IMO, issues like that
have become less common in the past few years.

by putting in a pci video card which was pretty similar ...an S3 trio
the problem was solved.

btw: i've used pci versions of the S3 pro savage in other
machines...without other problems.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I wonder if some of the all-integrated, low cost
boards simply aren't debugged/supported as much due to their
low cost. That's one of the reasons I try to avoid certain
<cough>PCChips</cough>, etc, boards and even dislike the OEM
reincarnations of a few due to how they make that extra
effort to prevent the retail bios from working, and don't
update their own (relabeled) bios as often as the board
manufacture does.

I'd do what you have though, throw a PCI card in an old
Win98 box, especially due to the memory bandwidth being so
much lower on older systems, it help keep them more snappy
for the more common "PC" uses.
 
snip<
Sometimes I wonder if some of the all-integrated, low cost
boards simply aren't debugged/supported as much due to their
low cost. That's one of the reasons I try to avoid certain
<cough>PCChips</cough>, etc, boards and even dislike the OEM
reincarnations of a few due to how they make that extra
effort to prevent the retail bios from working, and don't
update their own (relabeled) bios as often as the board
manufacture does.

I'd do what you have though, throw a PCI card in an old
Win98 box, especially due to the memory bandwidth being so
much lower on older systems, it help keep them more snappy
for the more common "PC" uses.
Click to expand...

Oh those PC Chips boards are really bad news...
anyway I always work with discarded junk around here
and just try to make the best of it.
I've found that by underclocking slightly...
I can even get PC Chips mother boards to work OK.
Anyway I just picked up a box of cheap pci video cards
and will have plenty to use if I get anymore crummy mobo's.

I am really trying to get away from P-1's as now P-III's
and even recently a p-IV has shown up in the trash!!!!
 
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