HELP! Major 9800 Installation problem

[MA_Moby]

I've just installed a 9800 pro to replace my creaking 7500, but it's all ended in tears.

The install went fine up until system rebooted following the insrtallationof the drivers.

I then got the following message.

GRAPHIC BUS FAILURE. THE DISPLAY DRIVER HAS DISCOVERED INCOMPATABILITIES WITH YOUR SYSTEM AND IS UNABLE TO USE ANY ACCELARATER GRAPHIC RENDERING. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR PC MANUFACTURER OR RETAILER FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE.

Which i promptly did.

Now I know i did everything correctly. I made sure the correct chipset drivers were installed, i uninstalled the old drivers. I followed the instructions to the letter.

Not only to I get the above message, but but my PC will also not startup properly. It gets to the moment where I should be hearing Brian Eno's windows music and stops - nothing - zilch. I can access windows in safe mode only.

Well I do occasionally get this message. WARNING. SYSTEM MEMORY IS RUNNING VERY LOW. NORTON ANTI-VIRUS AUTO-PROTECT MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RUN PROPERLY.

Or more alramingly. EXPLORER.EXE cannot run - reinstall windows.

The nice people at Dell (my system is a Dimension 8100) guided me through lots of hardware troubleshooting (admittedly not helped by the satellite bounce and crackly phone) and concluded it was a software problem (no **** einstein).

I've been given the number of software support, and hope they might be able to solve my problems.

But, do any of you lot have any idea what's going on?

[Zathras]

Reinstalling windows is a start. Try that. Helps with all sorts of seemingly unrelated problems.

[mike_w]

Reinstalling windows is a start. Try that. Helps with all sorts of seemingly unrelated problems.

I'd probably do that first, but you might want to check that you've got rid of all the old drivers by running something like Drivercleaner (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner)

[Romanov]

Hate to say it but reinstalling XP is best , you do have XP right?

I'll qualify that statement a bit Ive built my own machien from parts of a Dell dimension nearly every time my pc wouldnt work was that I was using a previous install of windows and it sisnt like the new hardware, so it seems dull but reinstalling is the best route - worked every time for me.

[MA_Moby]

I've got Windows ME.

I'm not sure about a reinstall. I an identical problem about a month ago when I changed back from a G-force to a ATI 7500. Reinstalling windows didn't help one bit then, unfortunately. In the end I had to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch.

I don't really want to do that again, as I'm certain this issue can be resolved.

I found this page which descibes the problem and the potential causes ~

http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4274.html

Dell software support (who charge £29.99!!) basically told me what i already knew and got slightly confused when I mentioned AGP functionality!

[Zathras]

You'd be surprised what reinstalling can solve! I recently installed an XP1500M and couldn't get it to load windows at anything above 1300mhz. Under that it'd work absolutely fine. A mhz over and it would crash on loading. I was loath to reinstall as it would require an awful lot of messing around to get my setup working, but I took the plunge in the end and now it's loading and working fine.

[MA_Moby]

I think I'll check the CMOS settings and try to reinstall with the latest catalyst drivers before trying the windows reinstall.

I'm fairly sure my chipset drivers are all ok, so I don't think that's the problem?

VGA maybe? Would that cause a conflict?

I don't really understad or know anything about BIOS, or indeed where I could get a BIOS update as the ATI site suggest

[MA_Moby]

I reinstalled with the latest catalyst drivers, and the system seems more stable - but unreliably so. I even got it playing IL2 FB for a while.

However when I rebooted the same crash occurred. Very weird.

I'm not quite sure where to go next.

Any advice on how/where to check/change the CMOS settings?
Likewise, how to get a BIOS update?

edit: in Device Manager I'm showing two entries for the graphics card, the second of which says RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary. Does anyone know if this is right?

[Steve]

It's a dual head card, hence the "secondary."

[ed^chigliak]

Do you have a windows ME install CD or just a system restore image CD from Dell?

Windows ME is a really buggy version of windows second edition that never did work right. Perhaps it's time to upgrade to XP. You can buy an OEM copy for XP home for 50 notes and it's a much more stable platform. Redstore.com will sell you OEM no hardware purchase neccessary.

IMO £30 notes on Dell support would be better spent on XP so don't phone them again is my advice.

What mainboard do you have? Have you flashed to the latest bios for your board? Have you installed the latest chipset drivers for your board?

edit> Dell Bios page
http://support.dell.com/support/down...l=en&s=gen&cs=

You will need a utility to flash it from a floppy so have a search on Dell's support driver downloads

DELL DIMENSION 8100 P4 SOCKET 423 MOTHERBOARD
DELL P/N: 5E692
ALT DELL P/N: D-5E692

QUICK MFG INFORMATION:
QUICK SPEC'S:
INTEL 850 CHIPSET
SUPPORTS SOCKET 423 P4 CHIPS
(1.5GHZ AND UP)
4 RDRAM SLOTS
AGP VIDEO CARD SLOT
5 PCI SLOTS
ATX FORM FACTOR

ONBOARD FEATURES
DUAL IDE CHANNELS
FLOPPY CHANNEL
9PIN SERIAL PORT
PARALLEL PORT
2 PS2 KEYBOARD / MOUSE PORT
4 USB PORTS

[MA_Moby]

Have you flashed to the latest bios for your board?

Ed, thanks for all this.

I have a Windows ME reinstallation disc. Yes, I suspect an upgrade to XP would be a good idea. I got my dimension 8100 in December 2000, so XP wasn't an option back then!

At the risk of sounding like a wannabe dirty old man - what is flashing?

I totally agree regarding Dell soft support. Soft indeed.

As far as I know my motherboard is an Intel - but what variety is an unknown. My CPU is a P4 1.3.

Chipset drivers should be up to date, but I can double check this.

[MA_Moby]

ok - I've flashed the BIOS. to version B8100_09. chipsets are up to date. So fingers crossed - no more problems!

[ed^chigliak]

Problem with buying a ready built system is you often don't know exactly what it is you have bought. Look for serial numbers etc printed on the various components and you can google for information.

Good luck with the bios upgrade.

Your 9800pro requires a power connector which you must have connected so now your PC is drawing more power from the power supply unit. All manner of weird things happen when your power supply unit is not up to the job. This could be the problem if your PSU is only 200-250W and if you take a look at the stickers on the PSU you should be able to find a rating. Solution is to upgrade your PSU to a good quality 350w-400w PSU. When you run games you graphics card needs extra power so if everything is OK up until you start gaming then it is probably a power related problem. If Dell have used a standard ATX PSU then it's fairly easy to upgrade.

edit> You have an intel 850 chipset and they have drivers on the intel website

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...e&submit=Go%21

Chipset drivers are for your motherboard and not for your graphics card and makes things like your USB and AGP work properly.

[MA_Moby]

Ed,

the chipset drivers are up to date - i made sure of that before i installed the graphics card, as previously my AGP slot wasn't being recognised when I ran dxdiag. But I'll triple check.

EDIT: TRIPLE CHECKED AND SURE ENOUGH I'D GOT OUTDATED DRIVERS FROM THE DELL SITE RATHER THAN THESE UP TO DATE ONES > THANKS AGAIN!

all seems ok so far - so maybe the BIOS update has helped

yes the 9800 pro is rigged up to the PSU correctly. I'll check out its specs - i think it's ok though.

thanks for the help

[Flash]

Ed,

the chipset drivers are up to date - i made sure of that before i installed the graphics card, as previously my AGP slot wasn't being recognised when I ran dxdiag. But I'll triple check.

EDIT: TRIPLE CHECKED AND SURE ENOUGH I'D GOT OUTDATED DRIVERS FROM THE DELL SITE RATHER THAN THESE UP TO DATE ONES > THANKS AGAIN!

all seems ok so far - so maybe the BIOS update has helped

yes the 9800 pro is rigged up to the PSU correctly. I'll check out its specs - i think it's ok though.

thanks for the help

check the PSU rating though mate as these really suck the juice!