Ok...
I have a compaq 5711 which has onboard graphics (Intel 82810-DC100 Graphics Controller) and no agp slot, so I bought a pci geforce 4 mx440 64mb ddram (got it for cheap).

what i did was go to device manager and uninstall the onboard graphics. the i shut down my computer, put the geforce4 into the pci slot, and turned my computer back on.
windows detected the geforce4 and also detected the onboard graphics. so I uninstalled the onboard graphics again, but before i restarted i installed the drivers for the geforce4.
after the reboot, windows recognized the onboard graphics again and reinstalled it automatically.

so I am having trouble disabling the onboard graphics.
I emailed compaq and they told me to go to device manager and disable the device. So I went back to device manager, under dispay adapters, and the only option i have for the graphics controller (Intel 82810-DC100 Graphics Controller) is to uninstall the device. the device usage box is greyed out for some reason so i cannot disable it. I also looked under systems devices and there is a thing called "Intel 82810-DC100 System and Graphics Controller." This has the option to uninstall and disable, but I'm not sure if a system and graphics controller is the same as the graphics controller. Any ideas? Should I try disabling this or do I need it?

I also did a search on this forum and found that the onboard graphics can be disabled from bios, or by jumper setting on the mobo.
The only jumpers on my mobo are for the cmos, so i went into bios.

The only option i found in the bios relating to the onboard vga graphics was an option to change the IRQ to 3, 5, or 11. There is no option to disable it. Currently it is on 3. I should also note that I have the newest bios update.

so I'm pretty much going crazy (and bald from ripping my hair out) trying to disable the damn onboard graphics.
I'm wondering if I can disable it by changing the IRQ in the bios, but I have no idea what that is so I thought I should ask here.
also, is there any other way to get windows to stop detecting the onboard graphics and reinstalling it???

I am using windows 2000 pro.

Please, someone help me before I go completely bald!!

You shouldn't change your IRQ's it won't disable it...
Sorry I can't help you though, my only suggestion is that it has to be somewhere in the bios...

thanks for the reply,
I know it is not in the bios. There are not many options in the bios.
I was thinking maybe I can have dual monitors, but only use the geforce card to connect my monitor.
The reason I am thinking this might work is that when I put the geforce into the pci slot, the bios automatically sets it as the primary graphics controller. The monitor will not work unless I plug it into the geforce card.
I'm not quite sure how to set up a dual monitor system, but I'll see what I can find.

And to everyone else, I know this post is long but please read it if u think u can help me. :)

ok, i figured out the problem and everything works fine now.
i went into safemode and it let me disable the Intel 82810-DC100 Graphics Controller from device manager. i dont know why it didn't work from normal boot, but it worked from safemode.
now i can stop stressing

It is working now, but as an FYI to prevent future problems... you need to disable your onboard graphics... it might be in your BIOS, but I would look for your mobo jumper info.. usually you just set a jumper on your motherboard and your onboard video is disabled. It may be fixed now but next time you reinstall/upgrade windows or your pnpisa.ini file gets activated your going to have problems all over again.

there is no way to do it from bios, and the only jumper on the mobo is for cmos.
check out http://h18000.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/5700/sbwdfp.html#T-Connectors for yourself.
i've been reading the cummunity forums on the hp/compaq site and people say there is no way to disable it other than through windows.
thats just the way compaq made it.

bummer.. well looks like your going the right route then :-)

yea, i know
i wasnt too happy when i found that out.
anyways, thanks for trying to help.