Radeon 7500 card install, did too many things at once...now, problems.

[kanin247]

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently installed (or tried to install) my ATI Radeon 7500 Video Card on my computer but I was a little mislead by some of the driver installs off ATI's website.

Here's what I did...
I uninstalled my old card from the device manager, shut down, installed new card, booted up. My OS (Win2K Pro) recognized new hardware and wanted driver info. The Installation CD did not have the correct video controller drivers (*.inf file) so I went to ATI's website to download them. I downloaded the WDM Capture Driver and the Display Drivers thinking the appropriate files would be in here. The directions said to run the executable of the capture driver first so I did so and then before restarting, install the display driver. Okay, done. But since the video controller driver hasn't been installed I do not restart as the directions state. So, I look for the *.inf file in the files I just installed and I get nothing. So, I search the web once again for the correct *.inf file and finally find it at some driver site. So, finally the video controller driver has been installed and I restart the computer. Here's where the "fun" starts.

I am able to see my OS load up (yes!) BUT once it gets out of the "Loading Windows" screen and tries to get to the login screen the screen goes black (The green light on the monitor is still on). I wait for a little while but still nothing. So, I restart again. Nothing. But this time, I decided to type in my login password, b/c I heard my computer open the login box (you know how you can tell when your computer's finished loading and stuff by its sound, it did it before, I just didn't try). So, I type in my password and what do you know, I heard my startup sounds play. So, apparently the OS is loading properly, its just my video card is not recognizing something after the Windows Loading screen. So, now I decide to boot in safe mode to uninstall those Capture/Display Drivers since they didnt even have the file I needed. BUT, once I get into Windows and try to open up my Control Panel, it won't open. The computer doesn't freeze, it just doesn't open. I check the Task Manager and it says its "Not Responding". Anyway, I End it and open up my Device Manager and notice that my Video Controller's *.inf file (Display Adapaters) has been recognized and the device is working properly (yeah, right!). Some of the support on the Capture/Display Drivers said that you could remove the ATI Drivers from the Sounds, Video Folder of the Device Manager. But I did not see any. So, I am wondering if there is some other problem.

What I do realize is that I should have installed the Capture/Display Drivers after getting the *.inf installed properly and rebooted. But I thought they would have that file, which is why I installed it in the first place. Anyway, if anyone could provide me with any assistance, I would really appreciate it. Thank you for your patience, I know this was pretty long but I needed to include the details for you to understand my problem.

kanin

 

[DBSSP]

Make sure your bios settings are correct as well, VGA Palette snoop should be off, and there should be a setting for using display memory, set it to off as well. Make sure the AGP speed is set to 4x. Then see what happens. Let me know. Jay

"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"

 

[kanin247]

Okay, I checked my BIOS settings and here's what I saw: The VGA Palette has been disabled (turned off), however, I could not see a setting for using Display Memory nor could I see a setting for AGP speed. I saved my settings and rebooted and the same thing occurred. Any other advise would be helpful. Thanks.

kanin

 

[DBSSP]

You should see a setting that says something like "video rom shadowing" or a setting that "shadows" , and your AGP speed would have something by it like "default",
"2x", and "4x". Try looking through all of your CMOS menus, I'm not sure where it's at but I know it's in there someplace. Also, it's possible that resolution and/or refresh rate in Windows got bumped outside of the video cards limits. Try toning them down a little and see what happens (in safe mode of course). After this, I'm as stumped as you are, so lets hope we get it this time! If not maybe we can someone in here to help out a little, eh?
Jay

"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"

 

[kanin247]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing...about how it might be the refresh rate. If I recall, I think the refresh rate was around 85Hz before I installed the card. I'll bump it down to 60Hz and see what happens. Although, I won't be able to mess with it until tomorrow (going out of town for the night). But I'll make the changes tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, if anyone else has any suggestions or experienced similiar problems, please feel free to post a response. Thanks for all your help!

kanin

 

[TomCologne]

You probably got it fixed by now. Anyway, did you install the standard Windows VGA driver first?
My ATI All Wonder 128 Pro gave me a hard time when I tried to skip that step or the old ATI driver had not completely been uninstalled. Even updating required this procedure.
The correct DirectX version is also important.
It's a pain, but I would not want to miss the little TV next to the program tables.
You're not alone,

TomCologne