New Graphics card (install problems)

xlex

Hello,

I'm no expert on computers. I need a nudge of advice and all I can really offer is some vague information about the machine.

I've installed a Radeon 9600se in my XP machine. The display is finally fine. Had some problems and sorted them out. Principally, the machine restarts after running the game for 5 mins.

Hopefully it's something small. A mate at work reckons I'm missing an update. Machine was updated aout 4mts ago.

What ya think?

Dr. Dre

I assume you have installed correct drivers.
Try it with the side(s) off your computer case, this will help you elliminate or identify a heat related issue, this is what I had to do with my GF4 recently.
I dunno if the Radeons have heat issues like the GF4.

Sir Random

What card did you have before this?
Did you completely uninstall the old drivers before installing the ATI drivers?
What drivers are you using?
What game crashes?
What cpu/mobo/psu are you using?

If the old card was nvidia, then you need to d/load "Detonator Destroyer" to get rid of the old drivers (uninstall the new ones first). That should work, but it's best to reformat the drive and reinstall XP after adding a new gfx card.

leeroybrown

Cleaning off any old drivers off your machine as suggested would be a very good start. The next thing I'd do is make sure I've got the latest version of the Radeon drivers.

Does the machine blue screen when it crashes and if so what library/file does it say is the problem?

There are of plenty of things that might help but Windows does get kludged up with crap over time and sometimes a reinstall (or a System Restore of some form) is the cleanest approach if a little awkaard for some people.

xlex

Thanks folks for the initial offerings. I totally forgot the uninstallation of old drivers. I let the wizard take care of installation and then I installed the offerings of the disk.

I tested Direct draw etc and passed all tests. I start Halo and three minutes laters bang....

I'll get back to you with the info...

netman

What power supply have you got? Most of these issues are usually power-supply related.

And have you checked the temperatures in your system?
For example after Halo crashes, can you get into the BIOS and check what the temperature readings are?

I doubt they'd go very far up in those 3 minutes but you never know.

Another thing that sometimes helps is turning off fast writes and going to AGP 4x.

po0k

What wattage is your PSU?

Try running some non-gfx benchmarks to stress the CPU (and raise the power usage) ie Prime95, ScienceMark etc.
It sounds very much like what netman said above, a power shortage issue.

xlex, you really need to give more information so we can narrow down the variables

xlex

it's a ATI Radeon 9600SE 128Mb. I've been speaking to a buddy about it and he's mentioned the power supply issue and I've just got the latest drivers from ATI.

I've set the card to 4x AGP and disabled the fast write.

I will be home tomorrow and I'll try out the suggestions. BTW. Anyone any idea what sort of power requirements exist?

quarryman

just wanted to tag a question onto this rather than starting a new thread. If i was to remove an Radeon and install a ti4200 would the simple display-> properties -> device -> unistall method work.

Basically just uninstall it. remove the card. put in the new one and install the detonators?

should i be concerned about conflicts related to installing an nvidia card over a radeon and all the little driver file that might be left behind?

Col_Loki

Ive been switching my hard drives between my two systems of late, i just installed all the drivers and it works fine with both sytems. Other system is an A7N8X with a Ti4200 and ive had no problems at all.

I dont think its advised but worked a treat for me. Would be better to get driver cleaner to fully remove all traces of old drivers but eh it should be fine.

Sir Random

Originally posted by quarryman
just wanted to tag a question onto this rather than starting a new thread. If i was to remove an Radeon and install a ti4200 would the simple display-> properties -> device -> unistall method work.

Basically just uninstall it. remove the card. put in the new one and install the detonators?

should i be concerned about conflicts related to installing an nvidia card over a radeon and all the little driver file that might be left behind?

You can download cat-uninstaller to remove ATI catalyst drivers:
http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/misc/catalystutils.html
Uninstalling through windows doesn't remove the registry keys and other components.

Having two different graphics drivers installed at the same time is just asking for conflicts, especially in games.