Hello, please, please help me. I'm just so very tired now. I'm NOT a newbie at all, have been trying to fix this All-In-Wonder Radeon problem since Last September (9 months now). Here's my setup:
Epox 8KHA+ motherboard
Athlon Thunderbird 1.0 Ghz processor
AIW Radeon 32MB DDR
512MB DDR SDRAM (2 X 256MB sticks)
40 GB 7200 RPM WD HD
SB LIVE 5.1 OEM card
generic ethernet
I have been wanting to get this to work for Windows 2000, having been so fed up with Win98 for years, and paying >$100 for Win2k, but never happened. After installing windows and all relevant drivers, the system boots up in 16 color VGA mode and prompts "The ATI driver failed to initialize ... not compatible with this display adapter or your hardware.." something to that effect. I've tried EVERY possible combination of hardware / software: 1 stick of RAM, No other PCI cards in, used to have SIS 735 (i believe that's what it is) chipset MB from ECS (K7S5A), tried regular SDRAM (128 MB stick), tried THREE different AIW Radeon cards, with SIS board and with this EPOX board, tried WIN98 SE, all give same error (tried clean install (format) multiple times, different configurations). (not a SB Live issue only, tried with ALL PCI cards out). Finally, the only way I was able to get it to work was to use Win98 SE and use the OLDEST, FIRST driver for the RADEON released by ATI (4.12.3056). This driver, however, doesn't seem to enable all the features of this card, much less the fact that I can't use WIN2K!!! The TV, when I capture using virtualdub, comes up with a thin line of video noise at the top (I know this doesn't happen normally with my system, b/c very VERY first setup I had, with ECS mb and SIS chipset, I got it to work and it recorded fine. But then suddenly after a month, stopped and this problem arose, and like I said, THREE ECS Mb's later, 1 epox MB later, 3 Radeon's later, whole 'nother type of DRAM later, problem is still there). I have come across NOW, 9 months after, vague mentions on the internet about some driver initialize problems, but everytime I try to look it up, the link is dead. I talked at great length with ATI tech support some time in Nov, Dec, and after telling the guy everything I'd attempted (which also included BIOS settings changes, including AGP driving value to "DA" or "68", ACPI on, install windows with ACPI off, running my athlon at 750 MHZ, 100 MHZ FSB, upping core voltage by .1 V, upping DIMM voltage by .2V .....), he finally said that even he was stumped, couldn't come up with anything else. Have tried most recent ATI radeon driver release, first time something different, the error message doesn't come up right immediately at startup, it lets other programs (systray) load and then at the end it comes, Different message, but same problem (at least this showed me that it was the ATI driver generating the error). Something about how the ATI enhanced desktop utilities could not start b/c display adapter...don't even remember competely. Also, with these newest drivers, all of my WDM's under "Sound, video, and game controllers" in Device Manager have yellow Exclamations marks next to them, this also previously never happened, although, this really doesn't matter since it's a core driver issue and not an AIW multimedia issue. I've come across some posting from some guy who had EXACT same setup as me, but his worked. Just don't get it, unless it's my Physical presence that makes this system fail!! The only thing left to change is the CPU, just seems like such a longshot...but much bigger problem is getting a hold of another Athlon, don't seem to know anyone who has one. Please, please help. Want to have system that works! Depressing when you love computers and yet poor hardware/firmware/software design causes such headaches and waste of time, and ...I'm sure you guys all get it. Thanks for listening and any help.
Epox 8KHA+ motherboard
Athlon Thunderbird 1.0 Ghz processor
AIW Radeon 32MB DDR
512MB DDR SDRAM (2 X 256MB sticks)
40 GB 7200 RPM WD HD
SB LIVE 5.1 OEM card
generic ethernet
I have been wanting to get this to work for Windows 2000, having been so fed up with Win98 for years, and paying >$100 for Win2k, but never happened. After installing windows and all relevant drivers, the system boots up in 16 color VGA mode and prompts "The ATI driver failed to initialize ... not compatible with this display adapter or your hardware.." something to that effect. I've tried EVERY possible combination of hardware / software: 1 stick of RAM, No other PCI cards in, used to have SIS 735 (i believe that's what it is) chipset MB from ECS (K7S5A), tried regular SDRAM (128 MB stick), tried THREE different AIW Radeon cards, with SIS board and with this EPOX board, tried WIN98 SE, all give same error (tried clean install (format) multiple times, different configurations). (not a SB Live issue only, tried with ALL PCI cards out). Finally, the only way I was able to get it to work was to use Win98 SE and use the OLDEST, FIRST driver for the RADEON released by ATI (4.12.3056). This driver, however, doesn't seem to enable all the features of this card, much less the fact that I can't use WIN2K!!! The TV, when I capture using virtualdub, comes up with a thin line of video noise at the top (I know this doesn't happen normally with my system, b/c very VERY first setup I had, with ECS mb and SIS chipset, I got it to work and it recorded fine. But then suddenly after a month, stopped and this problem arose, and like I said, THREE ECS Mb's later, 1 epox MB later, 3 Radeon's later, whole 'nother type of DRAM later, problem is still there). I have come across NOW, 9 months after, vague mentions on the internet about some driver initialize problems, but everytime I try to look it up, the link is dead. I talked at great length with ATI tech support some time in Nov, Dec, and after telling the guy everything I'd attempted (which also included BIOS settings changes, including AGP driving value to "DA" or "68", ACPI on, install windows with ACPI off, running my athlon at 750 MHZ, 100 MHZ FSB, upping core voltage by .1 V, upping DIMM voltage by .2V .....), he finally said that even he was stumped, couldn't come up with anything else. Have tried most recent ATI radeon driver release, first time something different, the error message doesn't come up right immediately at startup, it lets other programs (systray) load and then at the end it comes, Different message, but same problem (at least this showed me that it was the ATI driver generating the error). Something about how the ATI enhanced desktop utilities could not start b/c display adapter...don't even remember competely. Also, with these newest drivers, all of my WDM's under "Sound, video, and game controllers" in Device Manager have yellow Exclamations marks next to them, this also previously never happened, although, this really doesn't matter since it's a core driver issue and not an AIW multimedia issue. I've come across some posting from some guy who had EXACT same setup as me, but his worked. Just don't get it, unless it's my Physical presence that makes this system fail!! The only thing left to change is the CPU, just seems like such a longshot...but much bigger problem is getting a hold of another Athlon, don't seem to know anyone who has one. Please, please help. Want to have system that works! Depressing when you love computers and yet poor hardware/firmware/software design causes such headaches and waste of time, and ...I'm sure you guys all get it. Thanks for listening and any help.