MSI G41M-S03 Graphics Issues

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5th July 2011, 03:39 PM
Stuart_C

MSI G41M-S03 Graphics Issues

It's technically a Viglen 625M Motherboard but in reality it's a rebranded MSI board. My issues however is this.

It comes with an onboard twin graphics output (VGA and DVI) which is great as I want to have two outputs to the monitor and a projector. My problem is that I also want to make use of both the PCI-E slots. When I plug anything into the PCI-E x16 slot the motherboard decides to disable the DVI socket. I'm not even plugging in a Graphics card! I've tried it with two different cards and in both cases the DVI port stops working. I'm guessing it thinks that I'm putting in a graphics card and so diables part(??) of the onbard. I've tried setting the BIOS to use the Internal as the primary graphics adaptor.

So any suggestions on a way round this before i have to give up the ghost and buy a video splitter.
5th July 2011, 04:06 PM
synaesthesia

not much I can suggest if you've already played in the BIOS to that effect - however it might be worth a poke at Viglen/MSI as not fit for purpose.
5th July 2011, 04:24 PM
3s-gtech

On many boards, the x16 slot is either marked or specified as graphics only - seems to be the case on that one too. By plugging anything into that slot, you're disabling the on-board graphics. Is that x1 slot alone no good for what you need?
5th July 2011, 05:18 PM
Arthur

There isn't a workaround since it's a limitation of the chipset.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/319970.pdf

Quote:

The GMCH uses a UMA configuration with DVMT for graphics memory. The GMCH also has the capability to support external graphics accelerators via the PCI Express Graphics (PEG) port but cannot work concurrently with the integrated graphics device.
5th July 2011, 07:47 PM
synaesthesia

Dang - that's odd, it isn't the case on the 3 series - and the two are very, very similar (in fact I use a 4 series bios on my 3 series board to allow SSD's to work). Wonder why they've done that - the x16 slot is the first place I bang in a RAID card.
6th July 2011, 08:51 AM
Stuart_C

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3s-gtech

On many boards, the x16 slot is either marked or specified as graphics only - seems to be the case on that one too. By plugging anything into that slot, you're disabling the on-board graphics. Is that x1 slot alone no good for what you need?

There is a PCI-E 1 slot, it's got something else plugged into it. I'm trying to use both PCI-E slots (and neither with a graphics card) and both graphics outputs. It just seems to disable the DVI if you Plug ANYTHING in. as you say It's like it's detecting the presence of something rather than the presenance of a graphics card.

My first message to MSI technical support has not gone well as they have asked me which external graphics card I am using despite me clearly stating I am NOT using an external graphics card. Oh well.