Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

HELP! 9600 Pro not working!

It seems my computer won't let me run Windows XP with the card in. I should explain what happened:


I uninstall my Detinator drivers like the manual says I should, then I turn off my computer and pull out my GeForce MX. All is right with the world.

I plug in my Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB and turn on my computer. All is right with the world (though at 800x600 resolution).

I install the software that comes on the CD. It prompts me to restart, so I do. All seems right with the world.

My PC powers up again and nothing happens. The lights indicate the PC is in fact on, it just seems to refuse to do anything. It's just a black screen. No noise. No activity. Just a black screen. I'm like "what?"

I power down the PC and power it up two or three times. Nothing. I unplug the power, wait ten seconds, plug it back in and then turn the PC on. Same black screen. I remove the Radeon, reinsert it, and power it on. Same result. I want to cry.

I remove the Radeon and turn on the PC. It starts up Windows. I uninstall the drivers and software I installed. I turn off the computer, plug in the card, restart it, and get a black screen that does NOTHING for me.

I remove the Radeon and turn on the PC. Windows starts. I disable my onboard graphics accelerator, turn the PC off, reinsert the Radeon, and turn it back on. Black screen. Something innocent must die.

I power down, remove the Radeon, place it back into its little static guard bag, power on, register my ATI, come here, and post this forum.

Somebody please, please, please help me. I asked a fairly knowledgable friend of mine on AIM what my problem was, and he just said my comptuer doesn't like my card, despite working with it that one time. He also said he could probably say more if he came over and looked at it, which would be quite some time from now, depending on when he's available.

One among you surely must know what the heck is going on.

And in case it matters, here are my specs:
Compaq 4090US
Windows XP Pro
900MHz Duron
384MB RAM
(Lame) Integrated Savage4 8MB accelerator now that my MX and Radeon are out.

If the ATI site cannot help me, or if no one can identify my problem when I'm done with the ATI site, I will attempt to install the latest drivers I downloaded and THEN insert the card. If that is a bad idea, let me know soon.

Comments

  • BekennBekenn Sinclair's Duck
    Did you remember to plug a wire from the power supply into the card?
  • MTMT Ranger
    There's no need to (or way to unless I've missed something). According to the manual, that only has to be done with 9500s, 9700s, and 9800s.

    Another question. How can I get information on my motherboard. I've decided to update my BIOS (whatever the hell that is) at the Compaq site, and while searching under the 4090US stuff (or so it says), it gave me a whole bunch of downloads to choose from (e.g. GL_VE Motherboards, P4SD-LA Motherboards, A7N8X-LA Motherboards...).
  • MTMT Ranger
    Oh yay. I just figured out that Compaq computers update their BIOS with something called ROMpaqs, but it won't work because everytime I try, "Checksums do not match in file HAWA7K31.47C"

    I tried asking Compaq customer support, and after quite a while, they could only suggest I try again with another disk. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I haven't had this much fun since the last time I tried to get an ATI accelerator to work properly (to be fair, my last ATI actually let me use Windows more than once).

    Anyone have anymore suggestions? Or should I just commence with the murdering of innocents. Something MUST DIE for this.

    In vain I will try plugging the Radeon in again.
  • MTMT Ranger
    Well, finally got it working, thanks to "Joshy" at Compaq's customer service chat. I didn't have another floppy to try, but formatting the old one seemed to work just fine.

    But now I have another problem. Aside from my desktop being a little off to the left, which I can fix in the settings, I now have what appears to be scanlines of some sort that make everything look really bad. Does anyone know how to fix this?

    The only thing that seems to work is lowering down the color depth to 16 bit (from 32 bit). Since I consider this to be nothing more than a temporary solutin, we will call this plan B.
  • I dunno man, but it's one of the reasons I HATE company manufactured PCs...

    *Thinks* maybe check ATI's site, and download the Detonator 3.9s

    also, there is a good chance ATI's tech support can help, or someone at ATI's forums
  • err...
    also try [url]www.rage3d.com[/url] they have a HUGE forum userbase there, and TONNS of information. you might try a forum search, somone else has doubtlessly had the same problem.

    good luck man!
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
    [B]*Thinks* maybe check ATI's site, and download the Detonator 3.9s [/B][/QUOTE] Is this some sort of an inside joke or what? Detonators are nVidia's video drivers (and ATi's drivers are named Catalyst).

    Btw did you uninstall those old Detos with [url="http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/"]Driver Cleaner[/url]? If you didn't, there might still be some leftovers in Winblows Registry which can cause trouble...
  • TyvarTyvar Next best thing to a St. Bernard
    The scanline problem isnt uncommon, I have it with my card, which is a saphire Radeon 9500, frankly I want to replace the card but I dont have the cash too.

    What it seems to come down to is that the hardware is slighly fubared, to the point where the card is suseptable to a certain about of em interference.

    check the rage 3d forums, they are still hasing out its causes and solutions.

    Frankly the best bet seems to RMA it.

    also, avoid off brand cards, Ive only noticed the problem with things like Saphire and Powercolor, none of the ATI made and branded cards seem to have the problem.
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Tyvar [/i]
    [B]also, avoid off brand cards, Ive only noticed the problem with things like Saphire and Powercolor, none of the ATI made and branded cards seem to have the problem. [/B][/QUOTE]
    [u]All[/u] Radeon cards except Asus, Hercules, Triplex and Tyan are made by [url="http://www.pcpartner.com/"]PC Partner Limited[/url]. So it doesn't really matter, if you have an ATI "made" or Sapphire card, the problems almost always depend on every single card's individual quality.
  • Oh man, I can't believe I said Detonator drivers...

    Gah, owned a NVidia card to long I guess...I ment Catalyst...
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
    [B]Oh man, I can't believe I said Detonator drivers...

    Gah, owned a NVidia card to long I guess...I ment Catalyst... [/B][/QUOTE]
    Errare humanum est.
  • BekennBekenn Sinclair's Duck
    You might try bumping up the refresh rate to get rid of the "scanlines."
  • MTMT Ranger
    Tried messing with the refresh rate. My monitor seems to only support 60mhz or whatever the value was. Same with the GeForce.

    Anyway, the problem is somehow now gone. Just for the hell of it, I tried switching from 16bit back to 32bit and for some reason it's all groovy now. For no reason.

    ATI cards are weird.

    Now my only problem is getting my morrowind patch to get past 33%. But that's not graphics card related, I'm sure. Maybe.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    If your monitor only goes up to 60Hz (and isn't an LCD), might I recommend buying a new monitor before your eyes burn out?
  • MTMT Ranger
    why? I've had no problems with it? what's wrong with just 60?

    (got the patch to finish installing, but now the game keeps crashing when I get my first glimpses of the wonderful, wonderful water. the problems just keep piling on and on and on. i just deleted it.)
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    60 is incredibly low and is a cause of serious eyestrain due to the flickering. You may not even notice it, but your eyes do.

    Personally, I can't even use a PC with less than 85 hz, and I prefer 100.
  • heh, I have the same problem, a monitor that gets wiggy after ohh...70 hz, and proforms best at 60 hz.
    I don't mind, no problems, don't notice it, and no headachs/ whatever
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    I refuse to use anything less than 75Hz, but I prefer much higher. Both my monitors at home run at 85Hz.
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    My handy little sony monitor here runs at 100 hz at 1280x1024x32. :D

    I need to get another one sometime. It's a great monitor for one made in 1994
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    I'm really going to get a LCD screen next, they are so much better.
  • Compaq = Satan's understudy. Not only is it evil, it's inept.

    And you think that's fun? I spent two weeks troubleshooting for a "System Failed CPU Test" error, which wouldn't allow me to get past the BIOS, only to find out it's because certain Asus motherboards are built so that the heatsinks PRESS TOO TIGHT ON THE PROCESSOR! :mad:

    And Asus is the only company I know of, which has to put out [i]second[/i] version of the Final version of their BIOSes.
  • TyvarTyvar Next best thing to a St. Bernard
    I have a viewsonic that Im looking to retire, its an older A90f and I need to go to something that supports a higher refresh rate, which will probably eliminate my scanline issues, right now you top above 85 hz and the thing goes "frequency out of range"
  • Next, I think I'll replace whatever piece of FVCKING HARDWARE is causing my PC to randomly restart. :mad:
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by the_exile [/i]
    [B]Compaq = Satan's understudy. Not only is it evil, it's inept.

    And you think that's fun? I spent two weeks troubleshooting for a "System Failed CPU Test" error, which wouldn't allow me to get past the BIOS, only to find out it's because certain Asus motherboards are built so that the heatsinks PRESS TOO TIGHT ON THE PROCESSOR! :mad:

    And Asus is the only company I know of, which has to put out [i]second[/i] version of the Final version of their BIOSes. [/B][/QUOTE]

    Heheh... Amen, brother! I freakin' HATE Compaq. (I once had one of those horizontal ones.... and it was built all weird. There was a motherboard AND a daughterboard thingie that the perephirals went into.... I couldn't do a THING with it! lol) It had Win NT something on there when I first got it, but I formatted the drive and stuck Win '98 (what I was using at the time) on there. Little did I know then, that Compaq stores their Bios on the HDD, NOT a CMOS chip!!! hahahaha... Everything went to hell after that. It worked beatifully for a while, even tho I had no BIOS/CMOS.... all I had was a slow memory count at the beginning, then a "Starting Windows 98..." Course, it was IMPOSSIBLE to upgrade anything in there, as it was a Compaq, and they use all their own weird stuff, that is incompatible with just about all other memory/perpherals.

    Anyway, let this be a lesson to you, MT.... NEVER EVER USE COMPAQ! Under NO circumstances are you to BUY a pre-made computer. Just buy your own hardware, chassis, etc... and build your own! :D

    Then you only have what you WANT in there, and you can easily upgrade whenever you need to. It's also a lot of FUN, too!!! :D:D:D:D

    I have never, EVER, bought anything pre-made. (Compaq, IBM, Gateway, etc...) I buy my own cases (chassis) and hardware, and put it all together myself. =)

    Usually, tho... I don't have to replace the case. I just upgrade when I really need to, and that's it.

    Currently running:

    AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0-GHz) with 1-Gig DDR RAM
    60-Gig Harddrive (which really is MORE than I actually need).
    And a GeForce 4 Mx 420.

    Operating system: Windows XP Pro w/ Service Pack 1. (Never EVER crashes. Wonderful system.... me loves it.)

    The whole thing ran me about $300. heh 'course that's including the most EXPENSIVE CPU fan I could find at the time. (Add another $30 to MB, RAM, and CPU price.)

    That Compaq system I mentioned earlier, was actually a FREE gift to me, from someone. :p I don't buy shit like that. (Can I say "shit" on here?)

    -Zoltan
  • I used to buy them pre-built, before I became a geek. My first PC was a Compaw Presario, but I was too much of a n00b to know what was going on when it messed up every 7 seconds, ruining my game of StarCraft. Then I got an HP, which I just replaced a few months ago with my new, 1337 rig. :D
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    I've noticed a few things about compaqs:

    1) Don't ever mix their business systems with their consumer ones

    2) don't ever mistake their business systems for their consumer ones.

    3) Compaq consumer systems are shit.


    I've got a compaq DeskPro and four Proliant systems, and they're just fantastic. In fact, the deskpro is an incredibly well designed system. Electronic case locking, *complete* servicability within five hand motions (you can remove any component with only a few screws), network-based system monitoring and maintanance. They're neato! (Although the proliants are a bitch to deal with, drive-wise)

    Plus, they're decent sized and quiet
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Sanfam [/i]
    [B]I've noticed a few things about compaqs:

    1) Don't ever mix their business systems with their consumer ones

    2) don't ever mistake their business systems for their consumer ones.

    3) Compaq consumer systems are shit.


    I've got a compaq DeskPro and four Proliant systems, and they're just fantastic. In fact, the deskpro is an incredibly well designed system. Electronic case locking, *complete* servicability within five hand motions (you can remove any component with only a few screws), network-based system monitoring and maintanance. They're neato! (Although the proliants are a bitch to deal with, drive-wise)

    Plus, they're decent sized and quiet [/B][/QUOTE]

    Well, whatever... I still prefer to just B.M.O.... Build My Own!! :D

    Plus, it's a lot cheaper that way too, then buying a new system everytime (when you need an upgrade) for like $990-$1400.

    Just my opinion.

    -Zoltan
Sign In or Register to comment.