I've got the 9550 blues

Trotter

Hokay, from the top.

I have bought an AGP ATI Radeon 9550 (duh). I have been trying to get the stinking thing to work with my system, but so far zilch.

My system:
eMachine W2040 (yeah, yeah, I know)
--Athlon XP 2000+
--512 MB
--FIC AM37 motherboard w/ VIA KM266/VT8235 chipset
--BIOS version VLB44 (I updated it)
--S3 ProSavage8 onboard video w/32 MB shared memory

I followed the instructions in the manual to the letter. I disabled to onboard video by following my PC makers' instructions. I have instaled, uninstalled, reinstalled the software on the CD and the latest available from ATI's site.

On startup I get "The ATI Control Panel failed to initialize because no ATI driver is installed, or ATI driver is not working properly. The ATI Control Panel will now exit." In Device Manager, the Radeon 9550 is flagged, and says "This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use [Code 12]." In View Resources by Type, the Radeon and the VIA AGP to CPU bridge overlap in "Input/Output" and in "Memory."

I have uninstalled all the ATI stuff and downloaded the Omega drivers for the Radeons. I don't get the "Control Panel" message (obviously), but I still have the conflict in DM.

I contacted by PC vendor again (third time, actually), and was advised to disable the modem (remove it, actually...I'm on DSL), disable the parallel port, and disable the serial port in order to free up resouces. Yeah, right. I'm still in the same place.

The card is working some. My monitor is hooked to it, and I have basic graphic capabilities, but no 3D. I can start up The Sims and get black screen through the intro, but the game itself plays (you can see it).

Am I just going (more) nuts? Does anyone have any suggestions? If additional specs/details are needed, let me know (post or email).

Thanks...I think.

In Christ,
Trotter

saberj

i don't know if this'll work..
but try settings in ur bios
BOOT FROM 'AGP'

Trotter

Saberj,

Good suggestion. I was able to Enable VGA Mode, but it didn't chnage anything.

I've got to find a way to resolve my resource conflicts.

In Christ,
Trotter

saberj

were there nvidia drivers before ati? maybe u have to clean them...
check ur hardware manager if there are other VGAs detected or if ur card is even detected...

Trotter

No nVidea, just onboard (which has been disabled).

In Device Manager, under View Resources by Type, I found:

Input/Output
[0000C000 - 0000C0FF] RADEON 9550
[0000C000 - 0000CFFF] VIA CPU to AGP controller

Memory
[C0000000 - CFFFFFFF] RADEON 9550
[C0000000 - DFFFFFFF] VIA CPU to AGP controller

Both have the same starting addresses. Either they are trying to use the same resources, or it shows up like this because the card is installed in the AGP slot. I dunno which, but if it is the second, I'm back at square one.

Anyone know if the addresses are supposed to be this way (what are they on YOUR machine)? If not, how can I change them?

In Christ,
Trotter

The_Neon_Cowboy

What is you OS? XP?.... service pack2?

Have you installed the latest chipset drivers?
http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/dr...n1_v455vp1.zip

Also in you bios make sure PNP OS installed = yes or enabled
Other wise windows cant shuffle resourses/irq's etc as it sees fit and they are otherwise chosen by the bios.

Try reinstalling the ATI drivers....

Trotter

Neon,

I'm running XP w/sp2 and each and every update available.

I have update the BIOS from VIA, as well as my motherboard drivers.

I'm pretty sure the PnP is enabled...I just checked my BIOS settings when I booted up earlier.

I've installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the drivers/software from teh CD and ATI's website (newest set, and an older one as well). I have also tried the drivers from Omegadrivers.com.

I figure it is something simple that I am overlooking. That, or the card is just incompatable with my board.

In Christ,
Trotter

reholli

Even though you were using onboard video, there will still be drivers associated with the onboard GPU (S3 ProSavage8?). Make sure those are uninstalled (check Add/Remove Programs). Just disabling the onboard video in the BIOS is not enough if you were actually using it at one point...the drivers will have been loaded and can cause conflicts. You may have to resort to a driver cleaner.

The_Neon_Cowboy

Have you tried manually installing the drivers via the device manager?

.......................

Also could help but it's iffy it worked real good for a sound card resource issue.

In the bios Try disableing COM1 and COM2. Don't use a printer? Disable LPT1
Don't use USB? Disable it... any thing you don't use....

It will free up IRQ's and resources

Trotter

Thanks for all the help, everyone. This has been a true learning experience for me...in more ways than one.

I did solve my 9550 blues, however. I packed it back in the box, took it back to Best Buy, and exchanged it for a BFG GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 128MB card. The GeForce installed without so much as a hiccup.

ATI might kick hiney with the big dogs, but this Tennessee boy will stick with this old nVidia. I giess I'll blame it on eMachines for using a cheap, outdated motherboard (never mind that I'm the one who bought it). But it least it works.

In Christ,
Trotter

Trotter

Neon,

Been there, done that, didn't help. I've disabled everything from my parallel port to my serial ports to the PS/2 for the mouse (keyboard is PS/2, so it stays).

In Christ,
Trotter