gaikokujinkyofusho Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Hi I got a server (the "bigtower" setup in my sig) with a mobo that didn't have integrated video so I had to get a card from the place (goodwill store). In retrospect I am thinking "why can't it just run without a card?!" as i just want to run it headless anyway but when I try to start up the computer without the card installed it just gives an error and won't go any farther. The card I had gotten runs pretty hot which isn't helping as I have some 5in1 cages which need to stay cool as possible (already having heat issues even with 5 fans going). so. as I see it for starting to address my heat issues (without spending a boatload on water cooling or something similar) i either need to definitively figure out if i can run the computer without a vid card which would be great or find a really dinky/cool-running pcie video card (which has not been easy so far). Thoughts? Quote Link to comment
meep Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Not sure about your specific MB but my Gigabte FXA-UD5 requires a card or won't boot either. It's a pain as it's a waste of a slot. I have AMD HD5xxx series fanless cards in mine but they do get toasty. Quote Link to comment
HellDiverUK Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Pretty much every motherboard needs video of some sort to boot. Best card for a headless server machine is probably an old PCI ATI card, they're basically free if you look hard enough, and they use next to no power. The RageXL is the best, it's the most modern card, so it uses the least power. The RageIIc is pretty easy to find too. Quote Link to comment
gaikokujinkyofusho Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Pretty much every motherboard needs video of some sort to boot. Best card for a headless server machine is probably an old PCI ATI card, they're basically free if you look hard enough, and they use next to no power. The RageXL is the best, it's the most modern card, so it uses the least power. The RageIIc is pretty easy to find too. doh, somehow I was hoping that I was missing some obvious BIOS setting but oh well. I noticed a few ragexl's on ebay for around $10ish so I should be able to take out my pcie card and pop in a pci card and hopefully (almost surely as the card I have now has a big heat sink and fan etc) have a cooler running case? Quote Link to comment
gaikokujinkyofusho Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 just a thought, I know little to nothing (ok, nothing) about it but would underclocking a graphics card be realistic? I seem to remember looong time ago hearing that it was possible to overclock graphics cards but it seems to me most of the solutions were software based, I took a glance at the BIOS and there doesn't seem to be a way to underclock the graphics card from the BIOS though it has been forever since I have played around with overclocking (CPU) and a whole lot has changed since then. Quote Link to comment
HellDiverUK Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Just go with the PCI ATI. Underclocking a "better" card is still going to use more power. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Check your BIOS for the "Halt On" settings. Most Asus BIOS versions have a setting that allows you to set the "Halt On" to [All Errors], [No Errors], [All but Keyboard], and a few other options. If you set this to [No Errors] it should boot even without a video card. Obviously you'll have to install a video card first so you can get to the BIOS and change this setting ... but you can likely then remove the card and run headless. Be CERTAIN, of course, that all of your other settings are correct while you have the card installed [i.e. your boot device is set to your USB flash drive and working properly]. Personally, I think it's a lot better to simply install a very low-end video card so if you ever need to get to the BIOS you don't have to install a card to do so ... but you SHOULD be able to boot without one if you want to. Quote Link to comment
HellDiverUK Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 My server board uses the AST1300 PCI-E VGA chipset (basically it's a cut down version of the AST 2300 without the ILO-style remote KVM/management stuff). It'd be nice if some company stuck one of those chips on a PCI-E 1x card for exactly this situation. Two chips - the AST1300 and a 32MB RAM chip is all it needs. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 My server board uses the AST1300 PCI-E VGA chipset (basically it's a cut down version of the AST 2300 without the ILO-style remote KVM/management stuff). It'd be nice if some company stuck one of those chips on a PCI-E 1x card for exactly this situation. Two chips - the AST1300 and a 32MB RAM chip is all it needs. Yes, that would be a nice solution. On the other hand, there are quite a few older low-end fanless cards on e-bay for ~ $10 that would work fine for this situation. Quote Link to comment
Paul_Ber Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 I have an Asus M5A97 R2.0 MB with no onboard video. I tried getting a low end PCIe video card to go in the 2nd PCIe x16 slot(runs in x4 mode). The BIOS only has the option of PCI/PEG or PEG/PCI for the boot video card. There is no option to tell BIOS to boot with the 2nd PCIe slot. So I may need to buy one of those ATI Rage XL PCI cards. I want to run VMs on the PCIe cards. Is there a way to change something on the UnRaid USB to boot off the 2nd PCIe video card? I still want the terminal window just in case. Sent from my XT1563 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment
Fireball3 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Hey guys, interesting thread here. I also have issues with a board not starting w/o graphics cards. It's a nice Gigabyte board with 2 PCIe x8 slots, several PCIe x1 and some PCI slots. Unfortunately no onboard GPU. But I have some spare PCI video cards lying around here. The board won't boot without a card in the PEG slot. It will boot and give me video output from the PCI card if the PEG slot is occupied by a PCIe video card. I also tried with a plugged HBA card in the PEG slot but it doesn't start. Any ideas? Edit: I wonder if this could be a solution to my problem? http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=43948.msg463972#msg463972 Quote Link to comment
roberth58 Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Fireball, check your BIOS there is usually an option to pick PCIE or PCI for the videocard. Quote Link to comment
clevoir Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Paul I have R1.0 of your motherboard, and confirm that I am using a cheap PCI video card fine, as I needed all three PCI-e slots for HBA's. I don't remember altering the BIOS, just put the card in and it worked straight away. Quote Link to comment
Fireball3 Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Fireball, check your BIOS there is usually an option to pick PCIE or PCI for the videocard. The board is GA-X38-DS4 I updated to the latest BIOS revision. I have the options called "init display first" to choose PCI, PEG, PEG2 I double checked it to be set on PCI. No further display related settings. When pressing the power button with only the PCI card plugged in, the power LED will flash once, the CPU fan will spin a few revs and no further reaction. Quote Link to comment
METDeath Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Try PEG, you will likely have to clear your BIOS settings, PCI tends to mean PCI Express. Quote Link to comment
roberth58 Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Nope, PCI means PCI. PEG=PCI express graphics slot 1, PEG2= PCI express graphics slot 2. Quote Link to comment
Fireball3 Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Try PEG, you will likely have to clear your BIOS settings, PCI tends to mean PCI Express. Well, I'm desperate and tried this although it's not very plausible. PEG=PCI Express for Graphics --> works as intended, that means there is no output on the PCI card if selected. Set BIOS to default and tried again with PCI as primary display. No output as long as the PEG slot is not occupied. Tried x4 and x8 PCIe HBA cards in the PEG slot --> no output on the PCI graphic. Last option is to short the PCIe presence pins at the end (x16 card length) Quote Link to comment
Fireball3 Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Here I am, shorted the presence pins with no effect. But then I disassembled the board to change some spacers. After putting everything together again, the graphics is working with the PCI card. It's working even completely headless without graphics card. Just need to set "halt on no errors". Problem solved, without even knowing the cause... Quote Link to comment
METDeath Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Here I am, shorted the presence pins with no effect. But then I disassembled the board to change some spacers. After putting everything together again, the graphics is working with the PCI card. It's working even completely headless without graphics card. Just need to set "halt on no errors". Problem solved, without even knowing the cause... Lack of video card is typically a problem. Quote Link to comment
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