PCIe Graphics Card Dosnt work when Integrated graphics enabled

[Tigerpie_VS]

HI Mate,

Did you not read one of my last posts.

I have tried multiple video cards.. different NVS 310 cards as well as different make and models of video cards.
I have tired the different cards in combo with the PCIe slots.

AFAIK, A DVI Video cable is passive, as are the adapters I am using, ditto for the DP adapters, HDMI cables, VGA cables etc etc.

the only ACTIVE devices outside of the PC would be the monitor and TV.

As explained previously, these cables, adapters, monitor and TV have been used previously to setup other Z230 boxes.

If all of these devices, including the Video cards work with other Z230 setups then surely this dictates the issue is with the computer.

We have ascertained that the OS is not the issue as the issue occurs when the HDD is not plugged in.

RAM has been swapped out, but should not be an issue anyway as the PC in" POST mode" would use very little RAM..

If there is an issue with the vBIOS of the IGD and something needs to be changed, then fine.... but nobody has pointed me in this direction and what to check for.

But, if you think about it like this...

"Something" tells the IGD what signal to send out of the port, likewise, I would assume "something" tells the  vBIOS of the NVS card what to send out its port
When both the IGD and NVS are enabled, this is not happening.
So "something" is not working correctly.

That "something" is located on the motherboard.. be it the IGD chip (but again not likely, as the **bleep** thing works by itself)

not the NVS as the dam thing works by itself... so the SOMETHING must be somewhere else.

A PASSIVE monitor cable, or PASSIVE adapter, is not going to dictate to the graphics card what signal to send out. ditto with the TV and Monitor

hence why you will get an error similar to "unsupported display configuration" or "unsupported resolution" when your monitor cant display the resolution that the graphics card is sending out. 

granted, if any of those devices along the path or busted it could cause an issue so the output is not shown, but again the none of the devices are busted.......

A passive device will not change the video cards output, it may screw it up if it is busted, but it is not going to cause the video card to send out a different signal. it simply wont pass on the received signal from the video card to the monitor correctly.

The fact that the cables and cards all work independently proves that they work. And yes I tried a couple of spare DP to DVI and DP to VGA and DP to HDMI adapters I have and the issue was not resolved.

As there are no other forums that I am aware of, please go ahead and copy and paste whatever technical explanations you have.

I'm sure there is plenty of space and other people, including myself,  may find it useful.
Don't feel the need to reply back, but I will close this in a few days if nobody else comes along with any useful tips.

[ndroftheline]

Hi Tigerpie, 

I feel your frustration man. I've got a few of Z230s in various places with various configurations and they are infruriatingly close to being very good and flexible machines. 

To clarify, just because if you did say so in your most recent most I must have missed it, but have you tried a variety of monitors? Have you tried to use the other ports (e.g., use HDMI and DP and DVI on different boots)? There's a lot, like a lot, of low-level stuff that goes on and I think your assertion that a "passive" device can't affect the output of the monitor may be at least partly incorrect. It's also very difficult to know what a passive device is. For example, I don't think there's such a thing as a truly passive DP to HDMI/DVI adapter, because those are different protocols so the adapter would have to signal somehow (perhaps even just with different pins bridged or resisted to different levels) to the device that it needs to switch modes if it is able (like a DP++ capable video output device). Anyway it's tangential. 

I wonder what happens when you try to connect via vPro AMT? Try to set it up with Ctrl+P during boot (or pick the Setup ME option at the boot menu by hitting Esc), make sure to disable User Consent, then connect to the onboard NIC's IP using MeshCommander (One of Intel's open source tool for managing vPro systems). Does that show the boot screens? 

I discovered it would only show me boot screens on AMT when I set the IGD as the Boot Graphics Device in BIOS/SystemSetup (making sure to use the weird F5 and F10 keys to switch and confirm). Once I could see boot screens I was a happy camper, so you may be trying to achieve something else Until it stops working mysteriously next time.

As part of my troubleshooting process I also updated BIOS and ME Firmware to latest, set BIOS defaults to factory and reset to defaults, and toggled every other switch that seemed even remotely related. 

In any case, I have seen the behaviour you're describing in a Z230 SFF I have in production at one site, so you're not crazy and it's not just your equipment. It's just hard to really reproduce, because it seems to happen randomly. I'll was able to remotely manage and see the screens on that SFF for months until suddenly when I needed it, boom. Video signal dropped.