Radeon 9500 Pro F*&CKING up my system - I need some help.

[Megatomic]

I got my ATI Radeon 9500 Pro today. I installed it into the following system:

Epox 8RDA+ BIOS 3305/3402/3501 (I tried all 3 trying to fix this problem)
AthlonXP Tbred "B"
1GB Kingston HyperX
2 x Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 60GB
DVD and CD-R/W
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Antec SmartPower 400W

I then did a fresh install of WinXP Pro.

Install order:
1. WinXP Pro
2. WinXP SP1a
3. nForce2 Platform Drivers v.2.03
4. DirectX 9.0a
5. ATI Catalyst 3.2
6. ATI Catalyst Control Panel. Up til this point everything is PERFECT with regards to my upcoming problem.
7. Everything at Windows Update (except Q811493 of course).

And then I noticed strange and bad behavior. My Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB is not recognized on the USB port anymore. I had to use the ps/2 -> adapter to get the mouse working. And then I stumbled onto something even more wierd. I plugged in a ps/2 Intellimouse while the USB Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 was plugged into the USB port the USB mouse was detected fine by Windows! WTF???? This is blowing me away. Is the problem with the Radeon 9500 Pro or with the Mouse? Or does this involve my motherboard too? I never had this when I was using an nVidia video card on any motherboard (including this one) in the past. This is only evident with the Radeon 9500 Pro installed.

Also, I noticed when my system is POSTing that the memory is no longer counted as it did just prior to installing the Radeon 9500 Pro. The BIOS just states the amount of memory and doesn't check it. Is this normal?

Another also: for the rest of you all that have a Radeon 9XXX card - is there a VGA BIOS POST with your card? In the past, with my nVidia cards, the VGA BIOS would POST prior to the mainboard BIOS POSTing. Not so now. Is this normal?

Please help me out. I was a bit nervous about this in the first place as nVidia has lulled me into laziness with their easy to install cards. I appreciate any help you can give.

EDIT: I changed the thread title. This is pissing me off royally now. :|

 

[Viper96720]

Any exclamation points in device manager? See if you have Q312370 hotfix installed and uninstall it if you do.

 

[Megatomic]

No exclamations and that Hotfix is not installed. It must predate SP1.

Thanks for trying to help though.

 

[Megatomic]

No more help?

 

[Blain]

I think you may have run into the Radeon/AMD glitch. You'll have to go over to a Northwood or Prescott to get it lined out.

You could of course just sell off that old school 9500 Pro to a deserving young man, who's spent most of his vacation upgrading his plumbing. You've got to remember, the young man probably didn't bath for two days while his water was off.

 

[Megatomic]

As badly as I feel for that young man, I just can't bring myself to sell the "old school" 9500 Pro.


Oh and I may have fixed the problem. I reinstalled WinXP SP1a and the hard drive hotfix and my mouse is recognized on the USB bus once again. Yay! This was a bigger problem than what I had hinted at as my card reader for my digicam is a usb device and I take lots of pics.

 

[Megatomic]

The fix I had was only temporary. After I installed Office2k and patched it up USB mouse was dead again! :| wtf? I never had this problem when I was using a GeForce card (1,2, or 4).

:| :| :|

 

[nick1985]

:|

 

[Megatomic]

Hmmm, interesting. I turned off USB 2.0 in the BIOS and now my mouse is live again on the USB bus.

I did this because I saw over at nForcersHQ forums that there are some USB 2.0 issues with the 8RDA+. While I didn't have any when I was using my old GF4 I am having them now. Turning off USB 2.0 seems to have fixed things. We shall see if this too is a temporary fix.

 

[Megatomic]

Two more issues:

1) Why did I have to disable AGP8X? I got hard lockups when trying to do anything DX or OpenGL related with AGP8X enabled. This is just not right. Is this normal?

2) Why did I have to disable AGP Fast Writes? Same problem as above. I never had to disable this while using my GF4. Is this also normal?

With all these issues, why are these cards so popular? I may try to trade this up for an GF FX 5600...

 

[Viper96720]

My 9500Pro has fast writes enabled.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Two more issues:

1) Why did I have to disable AGP8X? I got hard lockups when trying to do anything DX or OpenGL related with AGP8X enabled. This is just not right. Is this normal?

2) Why did I have to disable AGP Fast Writes? Same problem as above. I never had to disable this while using my GF4. Is this also normal?

With all these issues, why are these cards so popular? I may try to trade this up for an GF FX 5600...

!) dunno, perhaps poor AGP 8x implementation on mobo
2) I don't think the Radeons support Fast Writes

At any rate, have you updated the BIOS for your mobo? That might fix the AGP problem.

Also, no, ATI cards don't post. As for why people buy these cards, they simply are the best out there.

 

[Megatomic]

I am using the very latest BIOS for my board, but I have also tried the last 2 official releases as well. None of them make a difference. About fast writes, if the card doesn't support it why is there an option to enable/disable it in the SmartGART tab of the ATI Control Panel? And I suppose it could be a bad implementation of AGP8X on the 8RDA+ but many people have this board and use that feature. I should be able to as well.

Maybe I need a new motherboard.

 

[Creig]

I really wouldn't worry that you're using 4x AGP instead of 8x. There is no real performance difference between the two.

 

[Megatomic]

I know, but there is a principle involved here that is more important than the actual performance gained/lost by using (or not) AGP8X. The motherboard is supposed to support and so is the video card. Yet I can't use it. Something is broken. I want to fix it.

 

[JBT]

I have heard 8X AGP messing up alot of cards not just ATI and I have a 9500 pro with fast writes works great.

 

[Megatomic]

Ok, well I got my AGP8X to work finally. I haven't tried Fast Writes since my little "fix" but I will after some UT2003.

 

[Zanfib]

My 9500 Pro has fast writes enabled, but dislikes my PS (I think), I get weird visual glitches (not artifacing) but almost as if I have some source of EMR nearby.

Maybe 9500 Pros are the rush job the were rumoured to be:frown:

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Ok, well I got my AGP8X to work finally. I haven't tried Fast Writes since my little "fix" but I will after some UT2003.

Aren't ya glad that you went with AMD? I wish I had your problems, but I lost out because I went with Intel. I placed my Radeon 9700 in my system with a fresh install, works perfectly, not a single glitch, how boring. I wanted a challenge, so I guess I should have gone with AMD platform.

NOTE: this post was not intended to insult or aggravate the AMD user. Just for humor...

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Ok, well I got my AGP8X to work finally. I haven't tried Fast Writes since my little "fix" but I will after some UT2003.

Aren't ya glad that you went with AMD? I wish I had your problems, but I lost out because I went with Intel. I placed my Radeon 9700 in my system with a fresh install, works perfectly, not a single glitch, how boring. I wanted a challenge, so I guess I should have gone with AMD platform.

NOTE: this post was not intended to insult or aggravate the AMD user. Just for humor...

arnt you glad you went with intel? i wish i could spend 10* as much as i need to for a processor. i mean, a 200 dollar AMD will kick the crap out of your 350 dollar intel. i wanted to waste money, so i guess i should have gone with an intel platform.

(AMD user without ANY problems whatsoever.)

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Aren't ya glad that you went with AMD? I wish I had your problems, but I lost out because I went with Intel. I placed my Radeon 9700 in my system with a fresh install, works perfectly, not a single glitch, how boring. I wanted a challenge, so I guess I should have gone with AMD platform.

NOTE: this post was not intended to insult or aggravate the AMD user. Just for humor...

Well, I have to admit one thing: I was not ready to install the Radeon 9500 Pro. I didn't follow some of the advice I had seen in the past. Once I did things became much better quickly. IMHO, nVidia cards are far easier to install properly. I had to jump through some major hoops to get this card working properly whereas the first time I installed my GF4 it was perfect from the get go.

Moral of the story: DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE YOU INSTALL A NEW COMPONENT INTO YOUR PC!!!
I was yelling at myself more than anyone else.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Ok, well I got my AGP8X to work finally. I haven't tried Fast Writes since my little "fix" but I will after some UT2003.

Aren't ya glad that you went with AMD? I wish I had your problems, but I lost out because I went with Intel. I placed my Radeon 9700 in my system with a fresh install, works perfectly, not a single glitch, how boring. I wanted a challenge, so I guess I should have gone with AMD platform.

NOTE: this post was not intended to insult or aggravate the AMD user. Just for humor...

arnt you glad you went with intel? i wish i could spend 10* as much as i need to for a processor. i mean, a 200 dollar AMD will kick the crap out of your 350 dollar intel. i wanted to waste money, so i guess i should have gone with an intel platform.

(AMD user without ANY problems whatsoever.)

Nick, you can keep preachin till your blue. But as I am finding more often than not, we all truly do get what we pay for.
I am an advocate for saving dinero, but it damn well better be compatable and work when I get it home. Do you agree?
Did you read the Note at the end Nick? My disclaimer? It doesn't seem like you did. You seem agitated. Do you want to talk about it? I'm always here for you bro.

Athlon XP 2800+ currently retails for $225.00 (newegg)
Pentium 4 2.8 GHz currently retails for $305.00 (newegg)

Here is how your 225.00 (200.00) AMD kicks the crap out of my 305.00 (350.00) P4. This is in reality just an 80.00 dollar difference. And after you look at Anand's article on the AMD 2800+ 333 barton, you will have to choke on your words. Sorry Nick.

Sorry folks, have to defend my platform for video card compatability. Didn't mean to go off topic but someone forced my hands.

 

[selfbuilt]

Good advice on taking care to install any new card properly. I went from an Nvidia card to my 9500 Pro with only the basic precautions, and it worked fine first time (i.e. switched to default VGA, rebooted, removed the Nvidia drivers through the control panel, replaced card, installed new drivers on boot-up, and everything has worked like a charm since then). Of course, a more thorough removal is always a good idea.

As for 8X AGP/fast writes, neither gives a performance boost in my experience (benchmarked it serveral ways - absolutely no difference on or off on my system). And for the record, ATI *recommends* turning off fast writes, but still gives you the option (they can be very unreliable depending on the combo of mobo chipset, GPU, and system memory). Frankly, fast writes don't seem to be too relevant anymore with the speed of modern systems.

Enjoy the card!

 

[Keysplayr]

I agree, I disabled fast writes and noticed no degradation of performance in games or benchmarks.

 

[Megatomic]

I personally don't have a problem with not having fast writes either. I enabled it and was able to use it but I got some tearing and the system was actually slower so I turned it right back off. Good riddance.

But I wanted AGP8X just for the fun of it. Having an AGP8X capable motherboard and videocard, to me, kind of mandated that I use it.

keysplayr2003, from reading around the web I have determined that my problems had nothing to do with my using an AMD platform. Many people with Intel platforms report similar and different problems. I am very satisfied with my system, I chose high quality parts and as a result I have a very nice computer. I could be just as happy with a similarly configured Intel computer, too. As a matter of fact I am eyeballing the Abit IC7-G and a P4 2.4GHz 800MHz setup right now.