AGP disabled

My computer is a 400Mhz Intel Celeron with a PCChips M741 3.2 main circuit board (66Mhz) including an on-board 64-bit AGP Graphics Accelerator, 256MB PC100Mhz SDRam and Windows 98SE.

Everest reports the following:
AGP version: 2.00
AGP Status: DISABLED
AGP Device: Sis 86c306
AGP Aperture size: 64MB
Supported AGP speeds: 1x, 2x
Fast-write: Not supported
Side band addressing: Supported, DISABLED
PROBLEM: AGP is DISABLED. May cause performance penalty.

I've installed an upgraded AGP adapter (Sis620) driver.

What is the procedure to ENABLE the AGP Controller ???

Many thanks.


Aubrey Little

 

Hi,

Hopefully, this is an easy one. You need to go into the BIOS/CMOS settings during startup and enable AGP. You usually enter the BIOS/CMOS settings by pressing a key immediately after you see the first screen (I just try tapping F1 and the Delete key alternately, if I don't know the machine). If you have the motherboard manual that came with the machine you could read through that to find the setting. You should see a setting for AGP 1X or 2X (the onboard video should be 2X). If the 1X/2X cannot be changed, you will need to enable AGP itself first by another setting. You will need to "save changes" when you exit the BIOS.

Just be careful of what you change in those settings, you could disable the video itself (not a disaster). Post back with any questions.

If I've confused you at all, post back and let me know. Sounds like you have a pretty good knowledge of the machine by the specs that you posted.

Mmmmm??...sounds like you are interested in how to defeat these things (If I looked up the motherboard manual and gave you a walkthrough, you would be unable to solve the next problem). Read here:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1
(You are welcome to post back and abuse me )

Matt

 

AGP Disabled - BIOS settings

Many thanks for your reply. It is much appreciated.
No reference to AGP/Graphics in the Standard or Advanced CMOS Setup Page.
Two references in the Advanced Chipset Setup Page:
1. Graphics Win size: 64M
2. VGA Frame Buffer - USWC: Enabled
In the PCI/Plug and Play Setup page:
Primary Graphics Adapter: Was: PCI - I changed it to AGP
But Everest still reports that AGP is disabled - (I did save the change).
Except for the above, there are no other references in any of the BIOS Setup pages to Enable/Disable the Onboard Graphics card. There is a Peripheral Setup page with references to Onboard devices such as Floppy Disk, Serial Port, Infrared Port, Parallel Port, PCI / IDE etc.... BUT NOT AGP!

Aubrey Little

 

Just curious but:

I have the same results in Everest as Aubrey has. In my BIOS AGP is enabled but Everest reports it as disabled. Is it possible that Everest (and formerly AIDA32) is falsely reporting AGP as "disabled" on some types of motherboards?

Is there another test that can be made to determine if the video card is AGP enabled?

PS: My video card is a ATI 3D-Rage-IIC. Specs for m/b in signature below.

 

BTW Everest version 1.51 is available.

 

Aubrey, this may be the closest you can acheive:
"Load Best Performance Settings
If you select this item and press Enter a dialog box appears. If you
press Y, and then Enter, the setup utility is loaded with a set of
best-performance default values. The optimal default values are
quite demanding and your system might not function properly if
you are using slower memory chips or other kinds of lowperformance
components. "
The AGP does not appear to be adjustable and that may effect the way Everest sees the settings (it can't read an on/off or adjustment setting that appears in most other BIOSes?).
Try testing at PcPitstop www.pcpitstop.com that may tell you more.

PcChips produce basic motherboards for value. If it seems to be able to run programs made for those graphics specifications (AGP 2X with 8mb RAM) then it will be doing it's job. PcPitstop will probably be able to give you a benchmark against similar systems.

Matt

 

AGP not enabled

Matt:
Many thanks for the info. The only recommendation form PitStop was to use a better video mode - I'm quite content with 800x600.
Ran 'Fresh Diagnose' - same result as 'Everest' re. the AGP adapter not being enabled.
I'd previously tried the 'Best Performance' BIOS setting as you suggested - as you said, it's bloody demanding.
I don't quite understand how the graphics can work on the computer at all if the appropriate adapter is not enabled. Something (AGP or IDE) is grabbing the 8MB of RAM, presumably using it to manage the graphics within the computer framework. I just do not know enough about it. Was interested to see that another post on the thread said that he too experienced the same phenomenon. Apart from 'Bridge Baron' I have no other games on my computer so I suppose I'm not too badly affected - I would never have known about it if it were not for Everest.
Thanks mate.

Aubrey

 

Aubrey, Matt: I also ran Pitstop and it said the AGP card was running OK. So my guess is that for some reason Everest (and Aida32) do not detect the AGP card correctly on this particular motherboard setup, thus the "disabled" reading. In the DMI section of Everest "Computer>DMI>Memory Modules it shows Bank 0 128MB; Bank 1 64MB; Bank 2 0MB (empty) and Bank 3 Type FPM, Speed 70ns, Installed Size 64MB, Enabled Size 64MB which I think is the AGP adapter memory as there is only 3 slots on this MB and I have only 192MB memory installed.

Having said all this, everything seems to be working OK and I do have a picture on the screen!!!

 

Just to say that the 8mb of RAM that is "missing" is the shared part of your system memory that is used for the graphics. Onboard graphics shares system memory, it does not have it's own.

Those upgraded (620) drivers are the correct ones for your grahics chip? Was Windows happy to install them?(no "these are not the correct drivers for your hardware" message?). If you may happen to have the wrong drivers installed, that may be causing incorrect readouts by FD and Everest. You can do a (basic) check of video drivers using dxdiag (enter dxdiag at the Command/Run line) and go to the Video tab.

Did you find the benchmarks at pcpitstop where your results are compared to other PCs of the same standard? If those are on-par then you will have the system set as well as it can be. (I ran the tests after upgrading a video card and got around 40%. Removed all traces of old drivers in Safe Mode. Rebooted using "standard" drivers and installed the proper drivers again. Now get about 120% compared to others).


Matt

 

Dxdiag

Thanks Matt.
I ran dxdiag. The Sis620v driver reported as OK and the two Directx tests reported as successful. To echo JohnB 'I do have a picture on the screen' !!!
Aubrey

 

No problem Aubrey. Sounds like it does not cause a lot of problems for you.

In case you are interested or maybe John is, there was no other indication that the new drivers were badly installed apart from that 40% result. My "informed guess" would be that if you install new drivers with (ANY type) of old ones around, some files get updated and others don't, the different versions will work with each other, but not very well. I have found this quite a lot.

Sorry John, I did not see your last post. I have a machine that has one stick of double sided RAM. Everest reports that total RAM is 128mb (correct) but bank 0 has 64mb, so it is not reading one side of the stick (the stick may be defective?). Anyway, I have noted some other discrepencies in the reporting on different machines. I don't think that a software program could be expected to be completely accurate (at least I always double check if it is important...note the trouble Windows sometimes has identifying some hardware).

Other system info programs are Sandra (in my sig) and Belarc Advisor. Nothing will beat opening the case and taking the model number off the hardware itself though.

Matt

 

Hi Matt: Just to be more clear on the RAM issue, I have one stick of 128MB and one stick of 64MB Ram in Banks 0 & 1. Bank 2 is empty. Everest is reporting this ram correctly. In Bank 3 (which physically does not exist) it reports 64MB of Type FPM Ram. I am assuming (maybe not correctly) that this is ram located on the AGP Video Adapter. Can't think of where else it would be as this box has no cards in the PCI or ISA slots and the modem and sound is on-board.

 

I think you would be right John if the RAM specs on the graphics card were 64mb. Why it would read like that I would not know (if you are really interested I think the maker of the Everest/Aida32 program is contactable by email). Personally, I would check and upgrade the motherboard/chipset drivers, then remove and reinstall the video drivers like I said. If your current Windows install has been around for a while now, you may want to consider a "refresh" if a lot of old drivers may be hanging around. Get all your new/updated drivers installed as soon a Windows has been installed successfully.

When I installed WinXP as a dual-boot with Win98, it went through and installed all the drivers happily...except...most did not really work properly and so i had to find and reinstall a lot. Windows may report that the drivers are "working properly ", but that does not mean that they only "just" doing their job or that newer ones could do it a lot better.

Good drivers can make an old machine fly, bad (wrong, badly installed) ones can make the best machine run like molasses (treacle? , what about **** ).

Sorry, drivers may be off-topic, but you may want to check them if you have not done so in a while.

Matt

 

Thanks for the suggestions re drivers. I have checked the video card driver and have the latest available for this card. For what I use it for (Word processing, spreadsheets etc. and surfing the net this computer works fine. I think I will go by the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory. Not into gaming so super speed etc. not a concern.