Dual Monitor Problem with ATI Radeon 9250 AGP

I have (2) 17" LCD monitors. I purchased an ATI Radeon 9250 AGP 8x w/ 128 mb of RAM which has VGA out and DVI out. I purchased a DVI to VGA adapter. I have both monitors up and running but.......

Monitor one (primary on VGA port) looks OK. Text is fairly sharp but it has considerable ghosting.

Monitor two (DVI port with adapter) looks crappy at best. Text is very blurry...colors look washed out....some ghosting.

I have the latest driver from ATI, I flashed the BIOS with the newest update, I have doubled check the BIOS and everything looks fine, I have tried different combinations of screen size and refresh rates....nothing makes a difference (except to make it worse). ATI says I don't have the card seated good. I checked that also...seems good to me. Monitors look great on an old GeForce MX4400 but of course it doesn't support dual monitors.

What am I missing? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi,

If there are any drivers around from the old video card you need to get rid of them. Boot into Safe Mode and remove everything related to the graphics in Add/remove programs and Device Manager.

If you have any trouble getting back into normal Windows, Cancel out of the hardware wizard at bootup and run the drivers installation program when you get into Windows.

Check the video card drivers removal "sticky" at the top of this forum. You may need to run the removal program for the nVidia drivers.

Take out and clean the connections of the graphics card with a soft pencil eraser.

I have recently tried to install a 9200se ATI card on this (Gigabyte) motherboard. It would run the primary monitor from the DVI connection, but not from the VGA connection (although this motherboard has had graphics compatability problems in the past). I had to put back the old graphics card. Hope yours is not a compatability problem.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt...

I'll try and re-seat/clean the card. That is what ATI said to check also. Maybe I have a little dust in the AGP slot or something that I have missed.

FYI...I have an ASUS P4P800-VM motherboard. No known compatibility problems that I am aware of and nothing on their site.

Thanks again for your suggestions..

 

Are both Monitors the same brand and model?

 

Yes...both are the same model and size.....

I took out the card, blew out the slot, brushed out the slot, re-seated card....same problems.

I beginning to think it is just a bad card. Oh well, you get what you pay for!!

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

JamesonProd, me thinkest you doth give up too easily

The card should have been completely tested before leaving the manufacturers.

If it comes back to a compatability problem, it will most likely be on the side of the motherboard (wish I had of insisted on another motherboard instead of another video card when I first found my compatability problem/s, although it works well apart from that). Edit: check the motherboard's BIOS upgrade information for graphics adapter updates.

I would suggest setting the card up on a friends computer, but you would have to remove the old drivers, test, remove your drivers, then replace the original card and reinstall it's drivers.

Are you using monitor drivers, they may be needed (in Display it will list "XXXXX monitor on YYYYYY (ATI Radeon 9250) graphics adapter "). mmmmm...Have you set up the secondary monitor as a TV instead of a monitor??

Have you checked that the refresh rate is not too high for the resolution you are using?

....just to name a few

Matt

 

I have seen some pretty crappy pictures with a RGB to DVI adapter.

I had a Viewsonic VG181 Monitor that had dual inputs (VGA & DVI) and before I got a DVI out card the picture was horrible in any resolution less that 1280 x 1024.

BTW, I have the same card and motherboard you have but I dont run dual monitors. EDIT: I have a 9600 card.