Thread: Please Help
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Old February 26th 04, 06:19 AM
Mary
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"JLC" wrote in message
news:Mme%b.57809$Xp.288937@attbi_s54...

"Mary" wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
One important thing I left out was - on the pdf file on the install CD,

it
said at the top "Radeon 9800" so maybe the CD is for the wrong drivers

since
I have a 9000 Pro, but I thought maybe it used the same drivers. Also, I
downloaded new drivers (Catalyst) from ATI site, but they don't seem to

work
either. I can't figure out what is wrong.

Mary


Hi JLC: Thank you for answering. I was giving up hope that anyone would
answer and I tried for at least 3 hours tonight to get the card installed
and have given up for now, as I've tried everything I can think of.

Mary what happened when you tried to install from the CD? Did it get half
way then lock on you or what? If it failed during setup that's the reason
you can't install the ones you DL'ed.


Yes, it half installed from the CD. It got past the part about you agreeing
to the licence agreement, and you had to select Express or Customs install,
and I chose Express, and it looked like it installed some drivers, then an
error came up saying "Setup unable to complete installation - set up display
adapter to VGA before setup". I did that, and next time it seemed like the
drivers installed, but when I rebooted, the screen was black - no video at
all. Maddening!

Windows gets confused when an install
fails. You don't have to worry about the fact that the file says 9800,

what
you need to be sure of is that you are installing the drivers for '98 and
not XP or 2000.


I looked more closely at the CD and the 9000 Pro pdf file is there All 9000
series cards have pdf files on the CD. But its the drivers that count. I
just noticed, when I click on the file
called "Atisetup.exe" and the full ATI screen comes up - which says Easy
install, express install, and has Online users guide -when I click on users
guide, at the top it says "Radeon 9800 series -users guide". I guess when I
tried to install the Cd earlier, I didn't look at that part. So it looks
like the guy in the store gave me the wrong install CD, or it came to him
that way from wherever he gets it. Its OEM so just the video card and no
box. Also, as I said in my earlier post, the CD he gave me was Sapphire CD
but the guy in the store said they should work with my video card - and if
the drivers are for 9800, thats not much good. It doesn't say on the label
what Radeon model its for.It should so its clear.

Are you sure you got the right ones from ATI?

Yes, I'm pretty sure - http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html - thats where
they have Catalyst drivers for Win ME and Win 98. the file was called
7-981-040127m-013420c.exe. By the way I alwas thought Catalyst was drivers
that were used by people with ATI cards, but were not made by ATI, or is
Catalyst just a new name for graphic drivers by ATI.? But if the drivers I
installed from the CD were the wrong ones, the ones I downloaded might have
made things worse. Another problem is when you install the drivers from ATI
site, at one point it asks for the original ATI install CD that you got with
the card, and if it was the wrong install CD drivers as I now suspect, the
install is not going to work. It was looking for a "cat" file which was not
on the Cd.

I always thought you could install drivers from ATI site without having the
original CD. what happens if you lost the original? So without the correct
install CD, it doesn't look like I can install the drivers from the ATI
website.

Wouldn't all video cards such as 9000 pro, 9200, etc. 9800 all have
different install CD's and different drivers?

you do
have
the right ones, and it did fail during setup, try this.


Go to add/remove in control panel and look for ATI un-install the drivers.


I tried that several times and when I clicked on ATI uninstall display
drivers, it said "error" and wouldn't remove the line. . I clicked on the
same entry later, and it just did nothing at all.
So I don't know what to do about that.

What you need to remove is the setup inf file that was installed during

the
CD install. I'm not sure what it's called (I'm sure someone else knows in
this group) But first, before worrying about the inf file, reboot. Now

your
system should load up the default Windows VGA driver.


I had to put my old PCI video card back in my computer and disable the
Radeon in Device manager, otherwise, I just got a black screen when I took
the PCI card out. AT least this way, I get 16 colors, instead of none.

Now try and install the drivers you got from ATI (now that you're sure

that
they are for '98) You should be fine now. If not you're going to have to
find that inf file.


I don't know if finding the .inf file would help. But yes, the drivers I got
from ATI were for win 98 and also were for 9000 Pro, but it asks for the
original install CD which I don't have, so I guess you can't install the
drivers from ATI site without your original install CD?
I think the guy at the store gave me the wrong installl CD. And worse, was
it was the only 9000 Pro video card in the store, so I don't know what I
will do. I can bet he does not have an install CD for my video card. I just
took his word that the CD he gave me was for the Radeon 9000 Pro.

Hope this works for you, JLC


Thank you so much for your suggestions. I really appreciate you taking the
time.
This whole thing has been a mess for me. Its taken me all night on this.
I've done all my own upgrades on my own computer for 13 years, and never ran
into a mess like this - unless re-formatting, which is the worst.

Mary