[Nephilem]

so this obviously isnt about emulators...

i just got a graphics card from a family memeber who is no longer using it. its pci-e and its a radeon x1600 pro 256 mb. i installed it onto my motherboard pci-ex16 slot and changed my bios to make the main display come from the pci-e slot, witch there is only 1 on my mobo. i restart my computer and hook the monitor up to the graphics card and the monitor acts like its not hooked to anything and just kinda turns on and off on and off. also the computer lower right toolbar doesnt even say "new hardware" on your computer from me to install anything officially on my computer. plus i tried going to the ati site and downloaded the driver and tried to install that, but it says that it didnt pick up any hardware that would need the drivers...

very fustrating seeing how the new graphics card has shader 3.0 and i can now download crack and play more advance games... please help

thanx in advance

 

[lagunareturns]

make sre the drivers support the exact video card, if you are 100% sure it supposed to get older drivers and see if it makes a difference or open the drivers in winrar or 7zip and extract its contents to a folder and within that is an inf file... goto device manager and look for a hardware with a yellow exclamation mark if so goto it and update the driver, so you have your own and point it to the inf file and viola its installed...

remember to run the driver again to ensure additional components (aside from the basic driver) gets installed....


its annoying i know but that crappy hardware detection in the drivers software is crap as i have to do it for my soudblaster soundcard

 

[Nephilem]

make sre the drivers support the exact video card, if you are 100% sure it supposed to get older drivers and see if it makes a difference or open the drivers in winrar or 7zip and extract its contents to a folder and within that is an inf file... goto device manager and look for a hardware with a yellow exclamation mark if so goto it and update the driver, so you have your own and point it to the inf file and viola its installed...

thanx for a quick reply
ok how do i get the drivers in winrar form? and where would i go to get the old drivers exatcly? would it be found at the ati website as well? and again if it is how do i get it in winrar form? and im guessin i can just make a folder and it doesnt matter what i name or where i put it

 

[masta.g.86]

Usually you can right-click on the file and then "Open with > WinRAR" -or- "WinRAR > Open Archive".

7-zip is done in a similar manner.

 

[Nephilem]

make sre the drivers support the exact video card, if you are 100% sure it supposed to get older drivers and see if it makes a difference or open the drivers in winrar or 7zip and extract its contents to a folder and within that is an inf file... goto device manager and look for a hardware with a yellow exclamation mark if so goto it and update the driver, so you have your own and point it to the inf file and viola its installed...

ok so i looked and theres no yellow marker no where. it just doesnt show any signs that the video card exists. the graphics card is running though because i can hear the fan turning so i know its operational. but any other ideas?

 

[masta.g.86]

Try reseating the card. (Remove and reinsert) Make sure that it is inserted fully into the slot. (Sometimes it can seem to be fully inserted but it's actually inserted crooked.)

Otherwise, it might just be a dead card.

EDIT: Check to see if there is an addition power connection on the card itself. You may need to plug it in.

 

[Cid Highwind]

You should get the Catalyst 9.3 drivers, not the latest ones. ATi dropped legacy support back then, unfortunately, as the high end models could still get along with the latest games nicely.

Download: ATI Catalyst 9.3 driver relased (XP|Vista|Win7)

Try that link and see if it picks up your card before doing some crazy hardware stuff

Moving to hardware

 

[Nephilem]

You should get the Catalyst 9.3 drivers, not the latest ones. ATi dropped legacy support back then, unfortunately, as the high end models could still get along with the latest games nicely.

Download: ATI Catalyst 9.3 driver relased (XP|Vista|Win7)

Try that link and see if it picks up your card before doing some crazy hardware stuff

Moving to hardware

ok i downloaded that file from the link. when i went to use it and it got to the ati screen it said that it couldnt find any hardware on my current system that needs it... so its still not picking up the GC at all... would the fan still continue to run if the GC was dead?

 

[nanaya]

Uninstall the driver then use Guru3D - Driver Sweeper before you restart, use it again to make sure there aren't any old files then install the 9.3 Cat after everything have been cleaned out.

 

[Cid Highwind]

ok i downloaded that file from the link. when i went to use it and it got to the ati screen it said that it couldnt find any hardware on my current system that needs it... so its still not picking up the GC at all... would the fan still continue to run if the GC was dead?

The fan should always start, otherwise it will most likely overheat very quickly.

 

[Nephilem]

The fan should always start, otherwise it will most likely overheat very quickly.

no what i was saying was the fact that the fan on the GC is still running means the card isnt dead right?

but there has to be something i can do or im not doing right for the card not to work... the mobo instruction booklet didnt help any on the "installing expansion cards" section. ive takin the GC out and re-installed it as well... still nothing

 

[Nephilem]

Uninstall the driver then use Guru3D - Driver Sweeper before you restart, use it again to make sure there aren't any old files then install the 9.3 Cat after everything have been cleaned out.

uninstall witch driver nanaya? the ati driver or the onboard VGA driver because th ati driver i dont believe is installed because it wont let me and uninstalling my onboard VGA wont cause problems?

 

[nanaya]

Ah sorry didn't fully read your post if it doesn't even show up with monitor I bet the problem lies with the hardware, either bad : vga, pci slot, bios or motherboard.

Also check whether your card require sadditional power.

 

[Nephilem]

Ah sorry didn't fully read your post if it doesn't even show up with monitor I bet the problem lies with the hardware, either bad : vga, pci slot, bios or motherboard.

Also check whether your card require sadditional power.

well the mobo is brand new, hasnt even been used for 2 weeks. so im assuming that the pci-e slot is ok as well. if it is a hardware issue then it hast to be the GC. it has been used in another computer before mine, its pretty much a hand me down. well then again it may need additional power as you've stated although i doubt it because its not a strong card its only a radeon x1600 pro 256mb. usually a card that needs a separate power plug in needs 400 watts or more so the 300 watts i have should do the trick but then again who knows better to check right. by the way i do appreciate everyones help on this so thank you

hmmm i may need a 350 watt Psu... but that was said for a "sapphire ultimate" x1600 pro 256 mb i cant seem to find one for my exact GC but going by that it said 350 watts for system stability

 

[masta.g.86]

LOOK FOR AN ADDITIONAL POWER CONNECTOR

Your current power supply has nothing to do with whether or not your card has an additional power connector. PCIe supplies up to 100W without any additional power.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

75 for pci-e 1.x and 2.0

 

[masta.g.86]

Well that makes it even worse and all more the reason to check for an additional power connector.

 

[ElijahTW]

 

[Haithm]

Hm. It says you only need a power connector for the AGP version of the card. Look here Nephilem Radeon™ X1600 Series - ATI Products

System Requirements

• PCI Express® based PC is required with one x16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
• Connection to the system power supply is required (Adapter Included)
• 350-Watt power supply or greater recommended (assumes fully loaded system)
• 512MB of system memory
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
• DVD playback requires DVD drive and decoder software (not included)
• Connection to the system's power supply is required for AGP configurations only.

 

[tuanming]

I had that card back in around 2006 or 2007 it was "okay" but it is not a decent gaming card nor a pcsx2 or dolphin emulator friendly...

Anyways, why don't you put that card into another pci-e slot (8x) because it make no difference what so ever whether it is in 16x or 8x lane or slot. The performance will be the same for a budget card.