PCTech Forums

Hi!

I just bought a Radeon 9200 SE AGP 8X 128MB video card. This seemed like a great idea as I was running an old 4MB S3Virge card which was appaling. But the new card doesn't really give any clues as to set up - its default setting appears not to be so good. I don't play games at present, but general windows performance seems to quite often be very slow - for instance I will double click on a desktop shortcut and it will take a long time to open - but sometimes it is completely instant. This is not die to programs running - all of this takes place under normal conditions. I am spyware-savvy and definately not suffering, so I am out of ideas. I am geting frustrated - as you will see below, my specs are quite impressive - so why should it be so slow!

Also - since nstalling the card, WINAMP's fullscreen mode looks wierd - there is a large black border which was never there before!

Does anyone have any idea?

Thanks

Hi Jazzman

Your drivers are installed correct? Make sure there is no yellow in Device Manager. You could try changing your settings like make sure its True color(32bit) and your screen area pixels are adjusted correctly.
Have you checked for updated drivers on the manufactures website?

Let us know if this helped.

Well, the updated drivers on ATI's website were installshield packages, which claimed they would install, restart and automatically test my system. Instead they installed, restarted and seemingly did nothing.

Another odd thing that is happening is as Windows loads up, the Windows loading screen is squashed from top and bottom and is slightly of-centre. And when windows finally does start, it takes a long time before any desktop shortcuts work.

Does this sound like graphics card problems, or more serious system problems? It is somewhat depressing since I have put alot of money into creating a top system but this machine seems cursed!

Thanks.

Hey Jazzman

Did you make sure you motherboard supports an 8x video adapter?

I FINALLY found the settings for Winamp so that is sorted.

Yes, my motherboard does support 8x - I checked. I did notice that the AGP function is turned off by default though - would it help to switch it on?

As for this being a RAM/CPU issue, i agree - only I have 256MB of RAM and for most people that works just fine, so I am stumped! CPU is 2.6GHZ so it cant be that!

Thanks for the tips- keep throwing them in - SOMETHING'S gotta work sooner or later!

Any reccomendations on settings for the video card?

Thanks to everyone for their help - it really is so appreciated.

Is this graphics card AGP or PCI?

it is AGP, and definately compatible with the motherboard

Unfortunately I cant turn it on or off anymore, as once I updated the drivers it insisted I upgrade the control panel, and the new one doesn't seem to allow AGP to be turned on or off.

As for RAM/CPU issue, as I already said my processor runs at 1.92ghz, which as it is AMD is equivalent to 2.6ghz. My RAM is 256MB. Whilst I know that this is hardly earth shattering, I know people running this amount who dont have anything like the speed problems.

My latest idea is it may be something to do with Norton SystemWorks, as now I have removed it from MSCONFIG's Startup menu things are getting a little better.

One thing that may account for the long boot-up time - i noticed that in MSCONFIG my computer is set to 'Selective Startup' rather than normal - is that bad?

Cheers again