AGP Speed for Radeon 9000 4

[kwunder]

Hi,
I've just installed a Radeon 9000 64MB DDR. In the advanced section of the disply settings, I can set the AGP speed to 1x, 2x, 3x & 4x. I have enabled 4x in the bios setup and then selected 4x in the display settings, and selected the FASTWRITE option, but after a prompt to restart, the settings have defaulted back to 1x and Fastwrite OFF. Am I missing something here ?

Thanks for any info
kwunder

 

[smah]

Do you have the neccessary AGP chipset drivers installed for your motherboard?

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, if you could post the make/model of your motherboard, that would help.

Also, make sure you have downloaded/installed the most up-to-date drivers for both your card and mobo.

___________________________________________________________

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab]- A. Einstein

 

[adkmom]

Hi-

Something I copied off a PC thread on the 'net:

I'd adjust your list like this:
1. Windows and service pack
2. Chipset driver (never from CD, unless on server board) (mobo driver and
chipset driver are same thing I think)
3. DirectX
4. Graphics driver
4 1/2. If you have a SiS chip mobo, install SiS AGP driver now
5. The rest drivers, start from basic (eg. SCSI, LAN, USB)

One issue I found is that the latest ATi drivers could crash windows if DX9
wasn't installed before it. And you are absolutely right about the sequence
is critical."

Hope this helps?

Mom

 

[kwunder]

AMD XP1800
mobo - Jetway 663AS
512MB Ram

Thanks guys.....
kwunder

 

[kwunder]

Correction. The motherboard is a Jetway 663AS Ultra
Been to their site but can't find an AGP driver

Any ideas ?
kwunder

 

[bcastner]

BIOS is what you want to upgrade, if possible.

 

[cdogg]

kwunder,
You mentioned:
"[blue]the settings have defaulted back to 1x and Fastwrite OFF[/blue]"

Are the settings you're talking about in Windows or the BIOS? Are the settings in the BIOS sticking, or do those reset as well?


___________________________________________________________

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab]- A. Einstein

 

[kwunder]

cdogg

Sorry. The settings that repeatedly default themselves are the ones within Windows under the Display settings / Advanced / SMARTGART TAB. The settings in the BIOS remain as I set them.

?
kwunder

 

[bcastner]

If I were you I would just ignore the Windows reported settings.

But:

1. Download the newest Directx version 9.0a
2. Run dxdiag from a CMD session.

Follow any advice given from dxdiag. Ignore anything else from Windows. (Well, sort-of)

 

[cdogg]

Try bcastner's suggestion, then if that doesn't work, do the following in this order:

1) Go to either Jetway's or VIA's site to obtain the latest VIA 4-IN-1 drivers. These drivers are meant for any VIA chipset to resolve issues with the AGP port.

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300

-OR-

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/driver/index-1.htm

2) Go to ATI's site and obtain the latest drivers for your card and install them.


After rebooting, all should be well. Only perform step 2 if step 1 doesn't resolve the problem.

___________________________________________________________

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab]- A. Einstein

 

[kwunder]

Not sure what a CMD session is, but I ran DXDiag, and it found no faults. I did notice under the Display tab that AGP Texture Acceleration was UNAVAIABLE though ????? Is this significant

BTW, I have the latest version of DirectX installed.

Have d/l the latest Hyperion 4 in 1's and installing NOW. Back in a moment !

Thanks !

 

[kwunder]

Sorry For the delay.
Installed the latest 4 in 1's (4.48). D/L the latest drivers from ATI (The ones the card were shipped with were Jan 2003 - the one's I just d/l were JUNE 2003 !) and also d/l a new control panel for the card. Restarted and BINGO!!!!! AGP x4 is ENABLED !!
BRILLIANT !

wait though..... Fast write still defaults back to off. Not a big concern though at the minute as I've been told that causes problems anyhow. Is that correct ?

Anyway, after all this, should I notice any difference in the smoothness / speed of my games now that 4x is enabled ????

Thanks a lot you guys
kwunder

 

[kwunder]

p.s. Voted for you's both !

 

[cdogg]

Thanks Kwunder for the generous star!

Are you sure the Radeon 9000 has Fast Write support? Being a newer card, I would think so. But you might want to check the specifications in the manual or on their website.

Here's an excellent summary of the different features that you can tweak and what each one does:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/hwGuides/article.php/1463741

___________________________________________________________

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab]- A. Einstein

 

[kwunder]

cdogg.
The start was deserved !
Got the card from Novatech, and as such, it came without any manual, except one on the driver disk. I would have though seeing that it installed the Fast Write on/off option that it would have been useable ?
I'll have a peruse around the CD and see if it mentions it.

Thanks for the link ! Looks interesting !
Thanks again
kwunder

 

[nickstaff]

Okay, I got it working...only thing is I did several things at once so I'm not sure which did it - but here's what I did:

1. I did a search on the folder c:\windows\inf (c:\winnt\inf if running 2000/nt). I searched for files containing the word catalyst (because I have an ATI) and deleted what I found.

2. I uninstalled my video drivers via add/remove programs.

3. I opened device manager and uninstalled my display adapters.

4. I rebooted.

5. When windows found my new hardware it couldn't find a driver for it (because I deleted the .inf files) so it listed it as vga with an exclamation point.

6. I went to AMD's site and downloaded and installed this registry fix:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/largePageMinimum.reg

It says it's only for Windows 9x/Me/2000 and not for XP but I used it anyway (I'm running 2003 server).

7. I went to Microsoft's site and downloaded directx 9.0a (even though I already had it installed). I got it here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/8/1/a81adbcd-3212-4cb7-b02a-183eee612bbf/dx90a_redist.exe

It's very important you download directx from that link because we need all the files for the next step (the normal download installs dynamically and won't help us).

8. I extracted the directx files to a folder and then I right clicked each cab file and extracted it's contents to a folder also (don't do the one ending in 98 if you're on 2000 and don't do the one ending in xp if you're on 98). I then went through each folder and right clicked on every .inf file and chose install. If you get an error on any of them it probably means your in a folder meant for a different OS so just go to the next folder.

9. After that I clicked on the Directx setup.exe and reinstalled Directx rebooting when prompted.

10. I reinstalled my display drivers rebooting as prompted.

11. I ran dxdiag and agp texture acceleration was enabled.

Before doing these steps I tried maybe 15 times uninstalling/reinstalling my drivers and reinstalling directx - I really think it was clicking on all the .inf files that did it but I can't be sure. Please let me know if you try this if it works for you. My e-mail is nicholaspstaff@hotmail.com

Thanks,

Nick

 

[hunkachunka]

cdogg & bcastner: Maybe you can help me. I'm trying to install an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. After install I get NO post; no screen, no keyboard, no mouse, nothing. I have a Nvidia Geforce3 installed now and it works fine. The 9800 is good; I tried it in another (older computer) and it came right up on boot. I have an Intel 850 mobo and I'v updated the BIOS; there are no integrated graphics on the mobo so no updating of drivers, but I did install Intel's Chipset Software Installation Utility, which is rsuppose to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as AGP. I ran 'Sandra' to look at my system and here's what I can see: AGP Multiplier=1/2X (the tech notes say that this mobo is compatible with 2X/4X and the 9800 is 4X/8X. AGP Aperture is 64; Fast-Writes is enabled. On the older computer the only thing that is different (other then the operating systems 2000 Pro vs. Win98, is that the Fast Writes in the older machine is Disabled, but I don't know where to go to turn Fast-Writes off. It's not an option in the BIOS. Any ideas? Thanks