AGP ATI Radeon 9600SE Installation - Need help!

[dvd-dude]

Someone please have pitty on this newbie....

I just purchased the ATI Radeon 9600SE AGP video card. I followed the instructions and updated my motherboard chipset driver for AGP (VIA), installed the ATI software provided on the CD-Rom, and shut down. Then I physically installed the drive, rebooted with the monitor cable plugged into the new Radeon drive and like magic it worked! So what's the problem you're wondering? Every time I boot up Windows (XP) it sees new VGA display hardware and wants to install a driver for it. I've tried letting it look everywhere (including the CD-Rom), I've tried specifying, and I've tried typing in F:/winxp like the manual suggested... all to no avail. It can't find a driver for it. So now I'm really confused... if I'm seeing out of this new card doesn't that mean it's working? Then what the heck am I being asked to install drivers for? A related issue (well, it might be related) is that if I try to start any program of the ATI multi-media bar (i.e. the VCD player) it will say EASYLOOK cannot be started because of out-of-date display drivers. I also looked through my device manager and I can't seem to find the ATI AGP video card listed anywhere.

Does anyone know how I can solve these two issues? I'm downloading the display driver file from ati.com for Windows XP Radeon series cards right now... 8MB file so it's taking a while on my dial up. I'm going to try running that file when it's done. Who knows, that might fix the problem but in the meantime I wanted to post this message in case anyone knows how to easily remedy this problem.

Thanks for your help!

-DVD-Dude

[808smokey]

Try it backwards.

Uninstall the drivers and software. Reboot, then let windows find the driver it needs off the CD. Then reinstall the software.

[Solarjetman]

So now I'm really confused... if I'm seeing out of this new card doesn't that mean it's working?

Yes and No.

Technically it is working, however windows may not be using it as an ATI 9600. If it is installed incorrectly, Windows may be deafulting to a generic video card setup. If that is happening, you are not using your video card to its full potential. Generic drivers tend to be very inefficient and do not take advantage of the extra abilities of the hardware.

Follow 808smokey's advice and try agian. That will be easiest. If it doesn't work, you should look in the Hardware device manager and see if your card is identified as "RADEON 9600" (that is good) or is shown as "VGA Device" (that is bad, you are using generic drivers).