Help! ATI Radeon 9250 install !

Hi,

I just recieved my ATI Radeon 9250 Video card today... I had previosly tried to install and it was too confusing .. So, I rolled back on system restore. My OS is Windows XP Home SP2, PC is an eMachines T2895, my current video card (built into the motherboard) is an Intel 82854g graphics card. The ATI card is already inside the computer (just no drivers installed, I think). Sorry, but this is the first video card I have installed and I am a bit of a n00b at this...
Thanks for ANY help at all
Joseph

Ok, I assume you know that it has the correct AGP version for your board?

Uninstall the Intel VGA drivers, turn the system off, put the new one in.

Leave the screen connected to the old one

You need to go into the BIOS and change the Primary Video Mode onto the AGP bus. You should ideally Disable the internal VGA completely, unless you are desparate for dual-head - but this will affect system performance.

Reboot with the screen connected to the new one

Boot int0 Windows, install the LATEST drivers for the card, forget about the ones on the CD, they'll be older than C:Amie at 5000 (lol)

Reboot

Set the screen resolution, refresh rate and colour depth how you would like them
Start > Run > DXDiag

Say yes to the WHQL check
Then go through each tab (you can skip the network one) and perform the diagnostic tests.
The main one is that under display, all three DirectX Features are Enabled

After that you should be done.

Thanks, C:Amie, but it is a PCI (not express) board..
1400th Post

oh...

I'm surprised you can still buy 33MHz graphics cards O.o

In that case the procedure is as above, however you need to set it to PCI as the primary and the AGP acceleration in the DirectX settings will be Disabled.

Anyone know if there is any benefit to putting a PCI card ontop of an embedded AGP?
It might release the CPU load... but the bus frequency

With a PCI on top of embedded AGP:

- Frees up system memory, as onboard graphics use system RAM as graphics RAM
- Releases some CPU load
- Usually provides much better acceleration

Way back in the day when I had a Celeron machine with no AGP slot and onboard graphics, I put in a (rather old-school) 3dfx Voodoo3 PCI (16mb), and my framerates in games were remarkably better.

Help! Help! Okay, I followed C:Amie's original advice almost.. This is what I did: I uninstalled my Intel Driver, shut down (video card was still in there), then I went into the BIOS, set the AGP to 128 MB (amt. of video mem), enabled the PCI video, and now the dreadful part , I disabled the internal VGA, and now when I turn on my computer I get no signal for both the ATI and intel card (intel was built in) and then after a minute, the monitor said 'vga mode not support' at 50 HZ, so is there ANY way to reset the BIOS WITHOUT formatting the hard drive?
Thanks so very much for any help at all and it will be greatly appreciated

Sure, just pull the coin cell off of the motherboard - like hard resetting, you may need to short JP5 with the cell in, depends on the BIOS type.

Also, don't change the AGP aperature size, I didn't say to do that!!
You need to set the Primary Video to PCI. Chances are the default on the ATI uses an unsupported refresh rate.

Formatting hard disks have nothing to do with BIOS's, don't even attempt it.

Thanks, C:Amie, very much .. I have my monitor and my TV set up as multiple monitors. And it works well .
EDIT: C:Amie, my internal VGA chip was an intel w/ 64 MB mem, I am going to buy a new gaming PC and I just wanted to upgrade mine so it is average. Besides, I do not think I have AGP or PCI express anyway..

Edited by tenjeangosi 2006-05-02 8:58 PM