Help needed: problem installing XP on new system

That mobo doesn't have built in video.
Rather it has a 4x AGP slot.

"GJ" wrote in message
...

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:59:37 -0000, "GJ"

wrote:


may be a RAM problem


Hmm, I think you may have just hit the nail on the head. PC has
1 stick
of
128 mb ram installed. I had been using quick boot and skipping
the
memory
check stage. Just enabled it before and it came up with "98304KB
OK",
which
equals 96 mb. So it looks like 32 mb ain't working. Unplugged
the ram
and
plugged it back in again and still only 96 mb...

The system uses an integrated video mainboard, yes?
That missing 32MB is probably the video frame buffer allocation,
meaning
that's not a sign of any problem.

That's a cheap junk motherboard. You were taking a gamble with
it and
might've lost. Could be the board, or the power supply if it's a
similarly cheap unit, or the memory.

Don't mean to sound like I'm preaching or anything, but these are
some of
the reasons eveyone doesn't buy the cheapest parts possible.

I know it was cheap - my friend hates spending money so had to find
the
cheapest set-up for him ;-) Actually, I got the motherboard wrong
before -
I was going off the spec that was advertised on the vendors site.
Checking
the one they actually installed, it's the K7VM2. Don't know if that
makes
any difference to your comment. I tried disabling all the on-board
integrated stuff like sound etc. but couldn't see any on-board video
to
disable.

cheers

G.J.

"philo" wrote in message
...


Yeah, that's what I tried, but the RAM in my PC is SDRAM and it seems
that
this other RAM is DDR and, so, doesn't fit. I'm going to see if I can
get
hold of some tomorrow. I've spent my whole weekend trying to sort this
out - let that be a lesson to not do computing favours for friends.



If you run the mem test and the RAM is bad or flakey
I recommend getting a good quality RAM and not any of that low priced
generic stuff. Although XP will run with just 128 megs of RAM...
ideally you should go for 256 megs (or more)


I've just ran memtest, just on the standard mode, and let it do 4 passes.
It came up with no errors - however, it only seemed to test 96 meg (I
assume, since the message on the screen said "testing 96K - 96M") and also
next to Memory it said 96M, even though its a stick of 128 meg installed.
I'm even more confused...

G.J.

Do you have an idea where the missing 32meg ram has disappeared?

thanks

G.J.

"Pen" wrote in message
...
That mobo doesn't have built in video.
Rather it has a 4x AGP slot.

"GJ" wrote in message
...

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:59:37 -0000, "GJ"

wrote:


may be a RAM problem


Hmm, I think you may have just hit the nail on the head. PC has
1 stick
of
128 mb ram installed. I had been using quick boot and skipping
the
memory
check stage. Just enabled it before and it came up with "98304KB
OK",
which
equals 96 mb. So it looks like 32 mb ain't working. Unplugged
the ram
and
plugged it back in again and still only 96 mb...

The system uses an integrated video mainboard, yes?
That missing 32MB is probably the video frame buffer allocation,
meaning
that's not a sign of any problem.

That's a cheap junk motherboard. You were taking a gamble with
it and
might've lost. Could be the board, or the power supply if it's a
similarly cheap unit, or the memory.

Don't mean to sound like I'm preaching or anything, but these are
some of
the reasons eveyone doesn't buy the cheapest parts possible.

I know it was cheap - my friend hates spending money so had to find
the
cheapest set-up for him ;-) Actually, I got the motherboard wrong
before -
I was going off the spec that was advertised on the vendors site.
Checking
the one they actually installed, it's the K7VM2. Don't know if that
makes
any difference to your comment. I tried disabling all the on-board
integrated stuff like sound etc. but couldn't see any on-board video
to
disable.

cheers

G.J.

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:11:43 -0500, "Pen"
wrote:

That mobo doesn't have built in video.
Rather it has a 4x AGP slot.


Are you sure?
These mention integrated video even though one has an AGP slot:

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/M810LMR.htm
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M810LMR.html

The missing 32MB sure seems like video memory to me.

Its a K7VM2, as he explained later.

I know it was cheap - my friend hates spending money so had to find
the
cheapest set-up for him ;-) Actually, I got the motherboard wrong
before -
I was going off the spec that was advertised on the vendors site.
Checking
the one they actually installed, it's the K7VM2. Don't know if that
makes
any difference to your comment. I tried disabling all the on-board
integrated stuff like sound etc. but couldn't see any on-board video
to
disable.

cheers

G.J.

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:11:43 -0500, "Pen"

wrote:

That mobo doesn't have built in video.
Rather it has a 4x AGP slot.


Are you sure?
These mention integrated video even though one has an AGP slot:

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/M810LMR.htm
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M810LMR.html

The missing 32MB sure seems like video memory to me.

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 21:19:09 -0500, "Pen"
wrote:

Its a K7VM2, as he explained later.

LOL, ok, but...
it DOES have integrated video, Savage8.


http://www.amptron.com/html/Motherbo...vm2_frame.html
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7vm2_r3.htm
http://images10.newegg.com/productim...157-018-04.JPG

Paul L wrote:

looks like there's onboard video
download the manual

Name: k7.JPG
k7.JPG Type: JPEG Image (image/jpeg)
Encoding: x-uuencode

Please do not post binary (or other) attachments on newsgroups.
This is a text only medium.

--
Chuck F ) )
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
http://cbfalconer.home.att.net USE worldnet address!

Not sure what is going on here. Asrock says no video in
their manual on the web site. Also it even looks entirely
different than the version your link shows. Very strange.
http://www.asrock.com/support/index_manual.htm

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 21:19:09 -0500, "Pen"

wrote:

Its a K7VM2, as he explained later.

LOL, ok, but...
it DOES have integrated video, Savage8.


http://www.amptron.com/html/Motherbo...vm2_frame.html
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7vm2_r3.htm
http://images10.newegg.com/productim...157-018-04.JPG

Apparently there are 2 versions. If there is
on board video then the monitor will be
connected over near the mouse/keyboard connectors.
Then memory allocation is done on the advanced bios
menu under chipset configuration.
There won't be a way to turn off the onboard, except
to not provide memory for it if you have a PCI or AGP video
card inserted.

"Pen" wrote in message
...
Not sure what is going on here. Asrock says no video in
their manual on the web site. Also it even looks entirely
different than the version your link shows. Very strange.
http://www.asrock.com/support/index_manual.htm

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 21:19:09 -0500, "Pen"

wrote:

Its a K7VM2, as he explained later.

LOL, ok, but...
it DOES have integrated video, Savage8.


http://www.amptron.com/html/Motherbo...vm2_frame.html
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7vm2_r3.htm
http://images10.newegg.com/productim...157-018-04.JPG

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 10:04:32 -0500, "Pen"
wrote:

Not sure what is going on here. Asrock says no video in
their manual on the web site. Also it even looks entirely
different than the version your link shows. Very strange.
http://www.asrock.com/support/index_manual.htm


http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/Manual...R30_UM_v31.pdf

The KM266 chipset is essentially a Via KT266A with the S3 video added...
there would be no reason to use KM266 without utilizing it's video
function. The AGP slot isn't significant, I used to have a KM266 board
that also had the AGP slot on it. Until there is some major catastrophe
affecting chipset supplies, we can simply assume that any chipset
featuring integrated video has that feature implemented... you just have
to read the "fine print" to see which chipset you have with some of them
(nForce "IGP" comes to mind).

Page 7 of above linked manual shows VGA port on drawing. Drawing is VERY
similar to the picture I previously linked. The earlier revision manual
does indeed show a quite different picture, but it's layout drawing also
shows the VGA port, and it was still the KM266 chipset.

Page 8 (still looking at later manual revision 3.0/3.1) also shows VGA
port.

Page 23, bios setup, shows "Onboard Share VGA Memory", "32MB". That is
where the video memory size is adjusted. Probably the OP wants a smaller
value if trying to run the system from 128MB total memory since that's too
little for WinXP to begin with, but I'd leave it at 16MB if 256MB of
memory were installed, or 32MB for 256MB of system memory (on WinXP, on
Win9x it might be worthwhile to use 32MB vid mem with 256MB system mem).
That is, unless the system has an AGP video card installed, in which case
that BIOS setting should be adjusted to minimum possible value ("None").
However, when an AGP video card is installed the onboard video will be
disabled, because it's AGP-port based, only one device can use the AGP
port. On the other hand, installing a PCI video card should not
automatically disable the onboard video... drifting a bit off the central
issue but perhaps useful info to the OP.