Help Help Help! Gfx Card Troubles!

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 01:10:11 PM

Nooo not THAT hardware !!

I have my brand spanking new gfx card: Radeon X1650Pro (the best I could afford and that had AGP..apparently that's important)

and my two new sticks of RAM, 1 gig each.

I'm carefully reading the instructions for installing my card. If you have any suggestions I'd be glad to follow them.

Also, those who know how to do this stuff, if you'll keep a special eye out on this thread for the rest of the day, I'll post my progress and questions.

I'd really like to not screw this up. You know?

EDIT:

ARGH..I've already screwed up

Seems I have a PCI bus, not AGP. Does that matter? Can I use this card??

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 01:18:15 PM

If you have a PCI-E slot, then no, you can not use an AGP card.

Two completely different interfaces.

At this point PCI-E is far far prefereable, as motherboard manufacturers are phasing out models using AGP slots. Who advised you to purchase an AGP card?

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 01:19:30 PM

Also, what model computer are you referring to? I can look up its specs on line and then easier advise what needs to go where.

Gwenae · February 13, 2007, 01:21:17 PM

Yeah, my new ATI Radeon 1600 512 mb is a PCI-E. PCI-E Works fine. Plus, I only have so many slots. I'm almost out of them!

... and yeah, what Imeriel said.

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 01:33:19 PM

Ime I'm in the chat room... and my computer is:

Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2

((service tag number: C4YMW31))

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 01:37:32 PM

See, I was carefully reading every single word and instruction in the book before doing a thing.

It said to update my motherboard drivers.

So it told me to find out my motherboard driver by going to System, Device Drivers and to find AGP. I found PCI bus.

And freaked.

Guthric and Gwennie tell me to open the tower and look. I should I can get my laptop going here so I can report what I see.

Are you still around Ime?

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 02:09:29 PM

I am now.

Just got home.

One sec.

Namae Nai · February 13, 2007, 02:16:07 PM

Ah, the wonderful world of expansion cards.

About a year and a half ago they started phasing out the old AGP/PCI standard for expansion cards, and phasing in the new PCI-E standard.

On the old standard, you would plug most cards into PCI slots (sound card, modem, cable, wireless, NIC, etc) but there was a special AGP (Advanced Graphic Port) slot JUST for video cards.

Now on the new motherboards we have PCI-E slots for most card uses, and Graphics cards still have a special slot reserved for them, PCI-E x16.

PCI-E doesn't work with PCI and AGP designed video cards won't fit into PCI-E x16 slots.

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 02:24:39 PM

K. I popped into chat. Here's a quickie though, after scanning through Dell's tech specs.

Your AGP card you just got will do fine.

And you don't have to update your motherboard drivers. Well, its always nice to update drivers when possible, but all you ~really~ need to do is crack open the case and find a slot that is brown and shorter than the rest. Pop your now card into that.

The board you have has two expansion buses. PCI and AGP.

Here's a historical rundown.

Imagine a computer as being a growing girl- child, and the slots you put periphials in as shoes.

Back in the day, all computers used ISA slots (cute little black patent shoes) ... but, the little girl outgrew em and needed to be a bit faster on her feet, once she started playing around outside. So, a new type of shoe was in order, comfy gym shoes (PCI). For the most part, these work just fine for general purpose stuff. But the little girl, she got interested in soccer, and she needed something much faster when she played soccer specifically (graphics cards). So in addition to her standard comfy gym shoes, She acquired a special set of shoes for soccer ... (AGP).

Now the little girl is in high school / college, and is competing for soccer championships and scholarships (bigger and beefier video games) so the special competition shoes needed to get replaced with something even sleeker and faster (PCI-E).

And yes, I just pulled that analogy out of my ass. Crux of it is, all computers have a PCI bus. That's for regular cards like sound cards, network cards, etc that are not already built in to the motherboard. In addition, you can have either a AGP bus or PCI-Express bus for your graphics card. Really shnazzy and up-to-date motherboards converted ~all~ pci slots to pci-e. Many, though, are still the standard PCI, with a speshul slot for graphics.

The specs of your computer state you have a PCI bus and AGP bus. So, just crack that puppy open and put your new shiny card in the AGP slot.

If you used the integrated video card, you ~may~ have to tell the BIOS (motherboard brain) to use the AGP card as opposed to the integrated. It may be smart enough to switch over if it senses something there.

okies ... got to run for a bit. will check back later.

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 03:51:30 PM

ok popped in the new card in the old slot. Put in 2 gig of ram for a total of 3 gig (could do upto 4 gig)

computer makes very sad meep meep sound on start up. I've opened it up twice and checked the seatings of all new hardware and wires. All just fine.

I think the mother board doesn't know to use the new card. Do I have to reinstall the old, update chipset and then try again?

FYI I am moving from radeon to radeon.

/sigh

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 04:01:14 PM

Leave the new card in. Take out the ram and replace it with the old ram. If you had a card already in the AGP slot, your motherboard already knows to use the AGP instead of the integrated graphics.

You've got a ram mismatch going on sounds like, from the sound of the meep meep.

If the machine boots up with no meep meep, then take out old ram completely and put in new ram only ... do not mix old and new sticks.

Also, make doubly sure that the new ram is 400-MHz DDR SDRAM or what is called PC 3200.

going to take a nap. will check back when I wake up.

If ~none~ of this works, then take out video card and repeat above process again.

First one needs to find out what new hardware ~will~ work. Ram upgrades can often be the trickiest of the lot.

Gwenae · February 13, 2007, 05:31:05 PM

Per Rosemary:

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 05:42:33 PM

Per ATI:

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=20870

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 06:07:16 PM

driver info

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 06:27:13 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en

net framework something

Imeriel · February 13, 2007, 07:04:33 PM

Mer. I've never installed an ATI card. Nvidia cards plug right in and go. And only time I needed to install the .Net Framework dealies was when I installed DDO.

But if Dell is telling you to install all that, I guess go for it.

Lyrima · February 13, 2007, 07:41:42 PM

No matter what I do or in what order, I get the same error message.

I have no VGA display drivers. I can't 'force' them as explained in the help from Microsoft.

I'll be calling Radeon tomorrow.

/sigh

Lyrima · February 14, 2007, 05:08:08 AM

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/searchresult?c=us&l=en&s=gen

support at dell

Chika · February 14, 2007, 05:18:55 AM

http://www.ccleaner.com/

you asked me to post this here for you..

<hugs> good luck.

Imeriel · February 14, 2007, 06:38:17 AM

I'm going to assume a lot occurred between my next to last post and now. Seeing as how a meep-meeping non-booting computer would not say that it has no compatible VGA Display drivers

I'm going to hazard a guess that the computer boots now, but when it does so, it won't permit the installing of the new ATI drivers (I am also assuming you were given a disk when you purchased the new card). It is, I am guessing, saying that it needs to have a VGA controller first.

A VGA controller is, (sorta) the underlying thing that forms a bridge between your OS and the hardware. Kinda like a translator. Many manufacturer built computers have OEM, or Specific - to -Themselves motherboard / OS / driver setups. Why? Because it keeps people paying for support

At any rate, I took the time to Google this morning, and it seemeth that you are not alone in the world, with this XP Home + ATI + VGA Blues thingie. Seems to happen a lot on Gateway / HP / Dell etc. I do remember having somewhat of a similar problem with IDE controllers on Tan's old old computer. After 3 hours of frustration, however, I simply decided to build a new box from scratch. I honestly dislike using Manufacturer OEM parts.

Aaaaanywho. I've not had enough coffee so am rambling.

Here you shall find the Chipset driver, this tells Win XP which INF files to load. This is from Dell, and is for your service tag specifically. You cannot use the Microsoft files. Or generic files. The files MUST be from Dell.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R58201&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_XPS_G2&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=3268&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=1&formatcnt=1&libid=27&fileid=70069

After installing, RESTART your comp, then, try installing your new video card drivers again.

I will say, however, I encourage you, and anyone else having driver / hardware issues like these, systematically, and thoroughly work through each problem that arises, as it arises. Trying a multitude of things all at once can muddy / worsen the problem. If the matter is very ~urgent~ then call the Support line of your Computer Manufacturer.

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Help Help Help! Gfx Card Troubles!

Gwenae

Gwenae