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[Varche]

I bought a new(to me) PC and brought it back with me as hand luggage much to Jet2's consternation.

It is a dual core HP with SATA drives. No sign of an IDE connector on the mother board so I am guessing I cant use an IDE hard drive in it somehow as a 2nd disk.

It has an Nvidia Quadro video card with twin monitor output. Great so far. Just tried powering it up with my VGA monitor connected to the motherboard on board graphics output(8 rows of three pins approx HDMI,ADI, HDV?). Nothing though the keyboard and mouse light up.

I am guessing that as there is a dedicated video card installed by the previous user (running Vista) that I won't get anything till the card is removed. Is there a simple VGA to ? convertor cable I can buy?

 

[Martian]

It is a dual core HP with SATA drives. No sign of an IDE connector on the mother board so I am guessing I cant use an IDE hard drive in it somehow as a 2nd disk.

You can buy a PCI add-on disk controller.

I am guessing that as there is a dedicated video card installed by the previous user (running Vista) that I won't get anything till the card is removed. Is there a simple VGA to ? convertor cable I can buy?

Your guess is correct, the onboard video is disabled by default as soon as you add a dedicated card.
You can buy a DVI to VGA adaptor for a couple of quid.

[Kevin Wood]

.. If you remove the video card it should revert to the on-board VGA*, though, at least enough to get you into safe mode and sort out the display device drivers.

Why are you not using the display card's output, though?


* - Except if the motherboard VGA interface is just designed to support Intel HD Graphics integrated into the CPU, and the CPU fitted doesn't support Intel HD.

[cem_devecioglu]

It is a dual core HP with SATA drives. No sign of an IDE connector on the mother board so I am guessing I cant use an IDE hard drive in it somehow as a 2nd disk.

You can buy a PCI add-on disk controller.

I am guessing that as there is a dedicated video card installed by the previous user (running Vista) that I won't get anything till the card is removed. Is there a simple VGA to ? convertor cable I can buy?

Your guess is correct, the onboard video is disabled by default as soon as you add a dedicated card.
You can buy a DVI to VGA adaptor for a couple of quid.

some boards dont/cant do that or later mess up, so its better idea to visit bios , disable on board vga and save the configuration ..

[Martian]

some boards dont/cant do that or later mess up, so its better idea to visit bios , disable on board vga and save the configuration ..

I've not yet encountered a PC that doesn't default back to onboard graphics once a 3rd party AGP/PCI-E is removed regardless of how the BIOS is configured, although that doesn't mean to say that all of them will obviously.

If it is the case that the BIOS can't (or won't) default back, removing the CMOS battery for a few seconds will sort that though.

[Varche]

.. If you remove the video card it should revert to the on-board VGA*, though, at least enough to get you into safe mode and sort out the display device drivers.

Why are you not using the display card's output, though?


* - Except if the motherboard VGA interface is just designed to support Intel HD Graphics integrated into the CPU, and the CPU fitted doesn't support Intel HD.

Because I only have a VGA monitor. I will get on EBay and send off for a DVI to VGA adaptor. rather than upset whatever config it may have. I can wait a week for it to turn up.

PCI add on disk controller - something as simple as this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CF-3-5-IDE-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-PCI-Adapter-mini-ITX-/220635964095?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335eeda2bf

[Martian]

PCI add on disk controller - something as simple as this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CF-3-5-IDE-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-PCI-Adapter-mini-ITX-/220635964095?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335eeda2bf

No mate, that's an adaptor for CF memory cards.

You want this.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PCI-IDE-Ultra-2-Ports-ATA-133-RAID-Controller-Card-/290501092220?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_InterfaceCards&hash=item43a336e37c


PS

I know it has the option to run in RAID as well as being bootable, but you tell your PC BIOS that the first boot device is the current hard disk and all will be fine.

[cem_devecioglu]

some boards dont/cant do that or later mess up, so its better idea to visit bios , disable on board vga and save the configuration ..

I've not yet encountered a PC that doesn't default back to onboard graphics once a 3rd party AGP/PCI-E is removed regardless of how the BIOS is configured, although that doesn't mean to say that all of them will obviously.

If it is the case that the BIOS can't (or won't) default back, removing the CMOS battery for a few seconds will sort that though.

one of the asus boards in home does that unfortunately   and even I disable if from bios it can hardly switch to the choosen card..