Onboard Video AND External GPU

[KT888]

My system HAD 2 external GPUs in it. One just died (I think)
Anyway what happened is there was a power failure here and when the power came back on my PC was intermittently shutting down. When it boots back up windows doesn't try to start there is a message instead
"A disk read error occurred"
"Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

I did a memory check. I have no idea how that came out as I wasn't there when it finished and even though the screen where the check is taking place SAID there would be results available when windows booted back up I saw NONE.

When Windows crashes or reboots itself arbitrarily which it's doing now, the SSD with Windows is gone.
I get instead
"Reboot and Select proper Boot device"
"or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

It turns out that now I have to "shut down" my PC from within windows now as my SSD with Windows on it is not found if I try to do a reboot now. It's not even in the bios.

If I do a "Shut Down" from within Windows or just power down the PC and go into the bios the SSD is there.
I have no idea what causes this I'm hoping one of you might. As I said this is all new after the power failure.

What I am trying to do currently is add back one of the monitors I lost when my 2nd GPU died temporarily until I can replace the Card. I need it for something I'm working on and need it now.
I'm trying to do this using the onboard capability of my MB and 3770K CPU.
I can't figure out how to get windows to recognize that it should utilize both.

System Specs
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H MB
16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
3770K CPU
Intel 520 SSD
Gigabyte Radeon 7870OC GPU
Windows 7 Ultimate

Although it would be great if someone could help me with the other issues I'm now experiencing as well if you happen to have expertise.

It's now blue screening as well which is new and is happening even after pulling the GPU that I THOUGHT was causing the problem.

 

[VincentP]

The graphics processor is disabled when you install an external graphics card. This is a BIOS feature, not Windows, and I don't think it can be changed.

For the other issue, your SSD is most likely faulty. It is possible it is the motherboard or poser supply, but more likely the SSD.
I suggest you test the SSD in another machine (just as a data drive, not a boot drive).

 

[KT888]

I've seen on other sites (using Google) that it IS POSSIBLE to run an external GPU WITH the onboard graphics enabled AS LONG AS the monitors attached to the onboard graphics are enabled as EXTENDED monitors and not as cloned displays or some OTHER configuration. I just couldn't find specific information that helped with configuring MY system to achieve this feat.

 

[VincentP]

Sorry, but no.
It doesn't matter how you configure the desktop in Windows, the CPU graphics adapter is disabled at a motherboard level.

 

[KT888]

Sorry, but no.
It doesn't matter how you configure the desktop in Windows, the CPU graphics adapter is disabled at a motherboard level.

https://communities.intel.com/thread/42192

"I've managed to make it work. I've set Intel Integrated Video as Primary in BIOS and now both graphics can be used. By default it was set to Auto."
"So there are two things to do in bios:
1. set integr video to Always Enable
2. set Primary video to Intel integr

Unfortunately I don't have anything called integr video so I can't enable it.
But this does tell me it can be done.

 

[VincentP]

Check your BIOS settings, this is the only place it could be.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

 

[KT888]

Check your BIOS settings, this is the only place it could be.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Smile.
That's good advice. It IS right off the Intel site so... I guess I gave it the benefit of the doubt. You would think if it was impossible Intel would KNOW that and not be giving advice on how to enable it.
I don't believe everything I read. But personally I just can't see the logical reason it can't be done. It just seems like something that the industry would be going out of their way to disable a useful function.
A lot more people would be able to use 3 monitors if they could do it using one external GPU and the integrated graphics capability built into the CPU anyway. I mean tell me, do you personally know EVEN ONE person who has a high end CPU with integrated graphics that DOES NOT have a external GPU. So EVERY MB manufacturer has put 3 to 4 monitor connectors on your motherboard and Intel has built in integrated graphics into most of their modern CPU lines and yet almost NO ONE will ever be able to utilize them. Especially all these d*** monitor connectors on all my motherboards. It seriously p**ses me off. Not you?

BTW I did try enabling my onboard graphics as the primary and nothing happened. I mean NOTHING happened. I couldn't see a thing on any of my screens. I had to reset the BIOS. So much for that advice.

By Sylvia from Intel
If combining the on board Intel® HD Graphics with a external PCI/PCIe video card, Windows will allow using the two graphics controllers at the same time, but the only dual display mode available is "Extended desktop". If you are looking for other dual display options like "Clone display" then it will be necessary to connect the two monitors into one of the graphics solutions, the on board or the video card so Windows will give you the dual display modes available depending on the graphics adapter.

It seems kind of retarded telling us that WINDOWS will allow if EVERY BIOS out there automatically and irreversibly disables the capability before windows can even see it is being requested.

 

[KT888]

Seriously Vincent, nothing.
I was sure you'd want to weigh in on the inane practice of the entire PC industry all updating their hardware specs to support something that can never be used. Not to mention Windows updates updating Windows handling of the graphics capability of my Intel CPU.
WHICH CAN NEVER BE USED.
And seriously, all these d**n monitor connectors taking up space on all my motherboards.

 

[VincentP]

Seriously Vincent, nothing.
I was sure you'd want to weigh in on the inane practice of the entire PC industry all updating their hardware specs to support something that can never be used. Not to mention Windows updates updating Windows handling of the graphics capability of my Intel CPU.
WHICH CAN NEVER BE USED.
And seriously, all these d**n monitor connectors taking up space on all my motherboards.

Integrated graphics are more of an alternative to a discrete graphics card. For many purposes, you don't need a discrete graphics card anymore. Sound cards and network cards went the same way years ago now. There are few situations where someone would want to use a discrete graphics card and still use the integrated GPU.

The Radeon HD 7870 supports up to six displays, but only two of these can be DVI, HDMI or VGA.
Beyond that, you need DisplayPort capable monitors, or to use an active DisplayPort adapter.
You particular card can support four displays without using a DisplayPort MST hub.

When there was disruption to your power, there was likely a spike. It seems multiple components have been fried.
Have a look at a surge protected power board as a minimum, preferably one with filtering and a decent energy absorption rating.

 

[KT888]

Integrated graphics are more of an alternative to a discrete graphics card. For many purposes, you don't need a discrete graphics card anymore. Sound cards and network cards went the same way years ago now. There are few situations where someone would want to use a discrete graphics card and still use the integrated GPU.

And so they should have along with the damn floppy drive that cluttered our systems for so MANY years past their usefulness.
But Still EVERY contemporary MB has 3-4 monitor connectors on the connector panel supporting something that is almost NEVER used. Cluttering up my connector panel with unusable tech. I still maintain that almost NO ONE who has a CPU that supports the internal graphics capability of today's CPUs will ever use it electing instead to add a Discrete GPU to their machine. Remember today's low end CPUs do not have this capacity so we're talking folks that are demanding more from their PC than these low end CPUs offer. And these types will NOT be using the internal capability of their CPU to render the graphics on their high end machine. (Even though it's getting better. You could be right maybe in the future it will be so good that it will be good enough. But not yet.)

The Radeon HD 7870 supports up to six displays, but only two of these can be DVI, HDMI or VGA.
Beyond that, you need DisplayPort capable monitors, or to use an active DisplayPort adapter.
You particular card can support four displays without using a DisplayPort MST hub.

I'm a Securities Trader.
The six display capacities of my cards are useless to me. I can only access this capability if I use Eyefinity which turns my 4 screens into 1 screen to Windows. The downside of this for me is that when I maximize a screen I need it to maximize to a single screen. Eyefinity will maximize the window to the entire screen meaning all four screens since Windows sees them as a single screen.
Eyefinity may be useful to a gamer who doesn't care about that but my machines are all work machines so Eyefinity can't help me.
Without Eyefinity enabled ALL contemporary GPUs ONLY support 2 displays. And I don't just mean AMD's.

When there was disruption to your power, there was likely a spike. It seems multiple components have been fried.

What do you base that on? It actually seems my system is stable again. I haven't had a crash since yesterday and I've been using this system all day even though it's not my primary system I wanted to tax it on purpose to see if it would continue to crash leaving clues as to the problem every time. I seriously have no idea why it's stable again. I even tried a reboot from within Windows which WAS resulting in my Windows drive disappearing until I completely cut the power from the system before starting it back up. But it handled the reboot as it should this time. As I said I have no idea what's changed because I seriously haven't done anything else since I removed the problematic GPU.

Have a look at a surge protected power board as a minimum, preferably one with filtering and a decent energy absorption rating.

I do have decent surge protectors on all my stuff. Including all my monitors. But that's still good advice. Thanks for taking the time to offer it.

 

[VincentP]

Nvidia surround is only used for games as far as I know. You can connect up to four displays with mid to high end Nvidia cards and each display should support full screen windows.
Saying that, it shouldn't be a big deal to resize windows manually with the AMD Eyefinity solution.