Problems installing ATI Radeon 9550

[ctortola 0]

I have a Gigabyte K8U939 motherboard that doesn't want to accept my graphics card. The Radeon instructions say to download the latest chipset from Gigabyte, which I think I'm doing, but maybe not, since their website doesn't have the best English.

 

It's turning into a pain because my computer has only one AGP slot, so I'm spending a lot of time on my hands and knees swapping out my current card (Asus 7000) with the new one to see what works.

 

I'm doubly confused because Gigabyte seems to have a ton of graphic card drivers available, so I'm not sure if I should be downloading drivers for the card or for the motherboard.

 

Thanks for any help you can throw my way

[Sampson 0]

Before you go changing the bios for your machine, you should see if your new video card will work. Put your old card in; boot up. When you get to the desktop, go to the Control Panel, then Add/Remove software and remove the graphic card drivers. Sometimes, XP will want to immediately install new drivers or ask you to reboot. Don't install any drivers, just shut the system down.

 

Take the old card out; put the new card in. Boot up. If you get to windows desktop, pull out the CD that came with your new card. Use it to install your drivers. If you want to upgrade your video drivers, go to the website of the company that made the card.

 

If your machine rejects the new card by not letting you get back to the windows desktop, put the old card back in, boot up, but don't install any video drivers. Let it stay as it is. Then, go to the Gigabyte site and find the latest BIOS for your motherboard. Do not download any video drivers. You are looking for the BIOS update. Generally, Gigabyte has a "live" install for new Bios's. It is a little utility to will allow you to access their site and find the BIOS for your motherboard. If you can't find that, then find your motherboard and step through finding the latest BIOS. Follow the instructions they give you.

 

Have more trouble, come back to sort it out.

[ctortola 0]

Still having trouble -- the display won't even work when I have the new card in -- Windows boots up and I'm able to login (blindly moving my mouse and clicking the login) and I hear the Windows startup music.. but no display.

 

Checked out the Gigabyte website as well. I'm up to date on the BIOS, looking at the BIOS list they have (latest ver. is F5). The BIOS came preloaded with that version when I bought the motherboard.

 

Any other suggestions?

[danleff 0]

Assuming that you removed the old drivers, as Sampson suggested, are you sure that the card is firmly in place and the lock tab is secure on the AGP port? From the users manual;

 

Quote:

Please carefully pull out the small whitedrawable

bar at the end of the AGP slot

when you try to install/uninstall the VGA

card. Please align the VGA card to the

onboard AGP slot and press firmly down on

the slot. Make sure your VGA card is locked

by the small white-drawable bar.

 

Also, make sure that the Optimized Defaults are selected in the bios. Assure that the Frequency/Voltage control settings in the bios is set to auto.

[ctortola 0]

Finally got it to work -- had to run Driver Cleaner to get rid of all the ATI display installations from the last couple of months. Works pretty well now, except the Catalyst Control Center is telling me that my AGP is off. My Gigabyte K8U939 motherboard has an 8x slot, so I'm not sure what the problem is. I check the BIOS when starting up and it indicated that it is on.

 

Anyway to force it on?

[danleff 0]

Take a look at this article which should help.

[airbrenes 0]

I'm having similar problems:

Every time I uninstall my drivers, windows always reinstalls them on reboot. I read the www.playtool.com article and I was told to disable them in device manager, but that didn't seem to work either. I'm pretty sure this is the only reason why I'm having trouble.