Sapphire Radeon 9100 installation/problems

[Renton]

I got a Sapphire Radeon 9100 128Mb yesterday.
I installed it and after that none of my games would work anymore: Unreal2, Americas Army...
I wiped my harddrive and reinstalled Win 2000 with service pack 3, DirecX 9, Via 4in1 the latest and the latest video drivers.
I get the same problem, Unreal 2 crashing to desktop 2-5 seconds after I start the game or sometimes I get the blue screen of death.
Is there anything else I'm supposed to install that I don't know of ?
My specs:

Shuttle AK12A
Athlon XP 2000+
1024 Mb PC133 SDRAM
Sapphire Radeon 9100 128Mb

The system ran with no problems for a long time now before the upgrade.
Thanks in advance for any input.

:|

 

[Renton]

Is everything I did correct?
Do you think the card might be defective ?
Anyone please ?

 

[HappyNic]

yup, your card might be defective.
Have you try it on another system?
What's your power supply?

 

[Renton]

My power supply is an enermax 350W.
I took the card back and it worked there with one of their computers in a game demo, i don't remember the name of the game.
I'm really confused, is it possible for the card to be incompatible with my motherboard or memory ?

 

[rogue1979]

Is your fsb overclocked? The Radeon 9100 (even though it is an updated 8500) is just like the 9500-9700 series, it does not like a high AGP bus speed.

 

[Renton]

Nope, no overclocking. Everything is default.
I have a Athlon XP 2000+ and my FSB is 266.
AGP aperture in BIOS is 128 (maximum I can set).

 

[rogue1979]

Maybe try Catalyst 3.0, not 3.1 or 3.2?

 

[Renton]

Maybe I should've tried that but now I took the card back and I'll get an Asus Ti4200 instead.
Thanks everyone for helping me.

 

[gtd2000]

Here is my experience with a Sapphire Radeon 8500LE 64MB (but actually a 128MB):

Install it into my Abit KT7A motherboard - installation smooth as silk did not even remove nvidia drivers - installations was actually EASIER THAN NVIDIA Games are running perfectly - performance boost from my GF2 Pro is significant - very impressed

Format and Rebuild my system with ECS K7S5A motherboard - problems loading ATI drivers.

Eventually get the drivers installed and the graphics card running - cannot play OpenGL games without HUGE graphics problems - D3D games play but after 10-15mins the rendering goes rainbow coloured...

I try new drivers, new BIOS, new radeon BIOS (9100) and after a week of constant evenings spent f@cking around I'm still in the same situation. The GF2 Pro goes back into the system and all is well - there are NO ISSUES WITH THE ECS BOARD.

A week later a Sapphire Radeon 128MB arrives from Amazon.com - take out the GF2 install the new Radeon Card and it works perfectly.

Conclusion - there was some type of conflict between the ORIGINAL Radeon 8500 and the ECS motherboard - Now the ORIGINAL Radeon 8500 works fine in other systems - why it would not work with the ECS board I have absolutely no idea.

 

[Renton]

This happend to me before with other ATI cards.
That's why I don't want ATI anymore.
I know they beat Nvidia but what good is that if it's conflicting with my motherboard/ memory or
whatever it's conflicting with.
I'm just going to get an Ti4200 and hope the headache will be gone.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Renton
This happend to me before with other ATI cards.
That's why I don't want ATI anymore.
I know they beat Nvidia but what good is that if it's conflicting with my motherboard/ memory or
whatever it's conflicting with.
I'm just going to get an Ti4200 and hope the headache will be gone.

Don't worry, you're not alone The Ti4200 will be very nice, I miss mine and I have a 9700pro.

Chiz

 

[HappyNic]

Originally posted by: gtd 2000
Here is my experience with a Sapphire Radeon 8500LE 64MB (but actually a 128MB):

Install it into my Abit KT7A motherboard - installation smooth as silk did not even remove nvidia drivers - installations was actually EASIER THAN NVIDIA Games are running perfectly - performance boost from my GF2 Pro is significant - very impressed

Format and Rebuild my system with ECS K7S5A motherboard - problems loading ATI drivers.

Eventually get the drivers installed and the graphics card running - cannot play OpenGL games without HUGE graphics problems - D3D games play but after 10-15mins the rendering goes rainbow coloured...

I try new drivers, new BIOS, new radeon BIOS (9100) and after a week of constant evenings spent f@cking around I'm still in the same situation. The GF2 Pro goes back into the system and all is well - there are NO ISSUES WITH THE ECS BOARD.

A week later a Sapphire Radeon 128MB arrives from Amazon.com - take out the GF2 install the new Radeon Card and it works perfectly.

Conclusion - there was some type of conflict between the ORIGINAL Radeon 8500 and the ECS motherboard - Now the ORIGINAL Radeon 8500 works fine in other systems - why it would not work with the ECS board I have absolutely no idea.

hmm, I have a Built by ATI Radeon 8500 on my ECS k7s5a board and it works fine, same as 2 of my frends. same card, same board. The only cards that seem to be giving us problems are ati 9000s that were made by Sapphire. So it could just be the Sapphire "power by ATI" card that has problems witht he K7s5a and not the built by ATI 8500.

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: HappyNichmm, I have a Built by ATI Radeon 8500 on my ECS k7s5a board and it works fine, same as 2 of my frends. same card, same board. The only cards that seem to be giving us problems are ati 9000s that were made by Sapphire. So it could just be the Sapphire "power by ATI" card that has problems witht he K7s5a and not the built by ATI 8500.

Yeah but the second Sapphire Radeon worked perfectly - I think Sapphire must have QC issues or something?

Now running the 128MB GF4 Ti4200 ($70.99+tax) from Circuit City. Actually although this card clocks to 300/600 the Radeon actually feels smoother in Soldier of Fortune 2 - which I am playing at the moment.

A built by ATI Radeon 9000 Pro also worked perfectly in the ECS board too.

The thing that confuses me though is why the original 8500 works fine in my other systems....