ATI Radeon Pro & Soyo KT400 mobo

Hi,

Hoping someone can give me a hand with this problem I am having tying to install a new ATI Sapphire 9800Pro 256MB card.

Heres my system specs:

Windows XP HOME (SP2 + LATEST updates through windows update)
Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra Platinum (latest VIA chipset drivers (v. 4.53))
Athlon XP 2.1GHZ
768 MB PC2100 DDR RAM
400 W power supply
Directx 9.0c

Had lots and lots of problems trying to get the system stable enough to even be able to post this message. Ive tried the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI, as well as Catalyst 5.1 and Catalyst 4.1. Ive also tried latest Omega drivers.

Currently, the system seems to be stable with the ATI 6.14.10.6497 drivers installed (Catalyst 4.1130a). In Radlinker, Ive got the clock rate set to BIOS defaults, to match its clock. I believe this version of Catalyst does not include SmartGart, thus no way to toggle AGP 8X/4X in windows.

All direct3d/direct draw tests in dxdiag pass with no problems.

Soyo BIOS has Fastwrite disabled, AGP aperture at 256MB, "DBI output for AGP" enabled. I enabled DBI in hopes it had something to do with AGP 8X, which I understand is the main problem behind conflicts like this with a VIA chipset.

I have an almost certain belief that this configuration will stall on me anytime now. Ive read in several places that I should try disabling AGP 8X in the BIOS, and trying 4X or 2X, but I do not know where this would be in my BIOS, as the only thing related to AGP 8X Ive found is DBI. Turns out the option to toggle AGP 4X/2X/1X dissapears once the BIOS detects an AGP 8X card.

I dont want to return this card, since I am a big fan of ATI, and know this is a great card once it works.

Wondering about the AGP 8X issue and how it relates to DBI output.

Also, if anyone has any advice on this video card and the Soyo KT400 mobo, it would be greatly appreciated.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

Drivers. Did you remove the drivers for the old card before installing the new card? Have you been going to Add/Remove programs and uninstalling the ATI program before running the latest set?
I now boot into Safe Mode and uninstall an old set of drivers there. BadKarmaPT had some success:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=44735
Different symptoms, maybe the same cause. Once you overwrite an old set of drivers some files may get updated, others may not.

Working backwards . See if you can completely remove any drivers for the graphics in Safe Mode (see the link above).
Next, go to the VIA website. Some chipsets have special recommendations for which ones to install, check which ones are recommended for your chipset. If you are not sure of the chipset check your motherboard manual or the Soyo website. Go to Safe Mode and remove any "System Devices" related to AGP with VIA headings. Reboot and run the VIA installation program. (If you think that the drivers were wrong beforehand, run the VIA driver uninstall and try again.)
Basic Windows system files. The "changes" may have caused problems in Windows and I might wonder if it relates to your install of SP2. I have Win XP pro and can install it on other drives (not sure about Home). I would do a fresh install of Windows on another drive, install the VIA drivers, then the (CD) ATI drivers. That would show if it was a problem with the motherboard or with the drivers.

It think it would be a pity to run an 8X card at 4X or less. I would return and request another or another made by a different manufacturer.

Matt

 

Hi Gadfly: If you decide to go the install/uninstall again route with the drivers, I suggest you use the DriverCleaner and RegSeeker utilities at these links:
Run this first. It is specifically designed to get rid of ATI and Nvidia entries.
www.drivercleaner.net/

Then run "clean the registry" in RegSeeker and delete all it finds.
www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html


Getting rid of all of the last vestiges of the drivers, programs, cab files yeilds a clean install with no mix of updated/old drivers.

Good luck,

Martin

 

Ideas?

I am beggining to think this is more of a hardware problem than driver problem.

3dmark 2001 is crashing midway through, and some games are also crashing.

Ive been able to get good results by setting the DRAM clock in the BIOS to Serial Present Detect, so the timing is the same as the two stick ive got in there.

memtest is giving 100+ errors with my 768MB of RAM.

Im convinced I can get this issue resolved by tweaking the BIOS right...anyone got any suggestions.

Never thought it would take this long to get my video card up and running.

 

I would find the cause of those Memtest errors. Test running one stick at a time or even try reversing their order in the slots. It may not actually fix the graphics problem, but you really need to rule it out.

I have not come across any BIOS tweaks regarding graphics. You could enable Fastwrites if the graphics card has that ability. That should bypass the RAM, but the RAM would still have the "errors ". The graphics should run well with "standard" BIOS settings.

Matt

 

Hi All: I agree with Mattman, get the memory errors corrected. Then uninstall all ATI drivers and any vestigages of Nvidia drivers that may have been left on the machine by previous uninstalls. Use the utilities in my last post, after running them use the RegSeeker seach function to find anything with ATI/Nvida and delete them.

Then reinstall the original drivers that came on the Sapphire CD. If that doesen't work, and the memory errors have been corrected, send the card back.

The quickest way I can muck up my Sapphire ATI 9800 Pro video card is to update to the latest ATI drivers or any updated drivers inbetween. Crashes the card every time. It will only run with the original drivers from the CD. Yours may be the same.

Take care,

Martin

 

Got the card to be much more stable:

-Latest ATI drivers (Catalyst 5.5) installed after completley uninstalling old drivers.

-Latest Soyo 4in1 drivers

-DBI Output Enabled in the BIOS. This is apparently required for AGP 8X cards, but the default is disabled in the BIOS.

-Faswrites ON

-Most importantly AGP VOLTAGE 1.6 V in the BIOS. Went to the Sapphire website, and thats the first thing I saw, in bold, thought Id give it a shot, and wow, card runs great now.

3dMark 2001 is giving 11247 3d marks.

Farcry looks great!

 

Hey Gadfly: Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for letting us know the solution.

Take care,

Martin

 

Good result. Yes, thanks for letting us know.

You and Martin could start a "Soyo 400 with Sapphire 9800" club.

Matt