Do I need a new video card?

Suggest:
1. Uninstall all video drivers.
2. Go to Driverheaven.com and use their driver cleaner to remove all remnants of ATI drivers.
3. Mount only the PCIE card and install Catalyst driver.
4. Mount other ATI cards without installing more drivers. The Catalyst should handle ALL Radeon cards.

_______________________________

The above is a post I made earlier. Did you try that?

If you did and your other ATI cards didn't work with your "x series" card, then it's possible you'll have to forget ATI entirely. (ATI is not really in the multi-card, multi-monitor market... they are into gaming. It would be no surprise that they are no longer viable for trading with more than 2 monitors.)
 
I've got a new dell 5150 dual core processor. The video card is an ATI Radeon PCIe X600 256MB. It has both a VGA and DVI output which i currently have 2 monitors connected to which work fine. Aside from all of the bad info I've received, I would like to be able to add at least 1 monitor now, and possible 2 in the future. I would now like to get this done as cheaply and as easily as possible as I have already purchased 3 cards (1 which i ruined and can't be returned) and have spent almost 3 weeks trying to do this. I also paid dell an upgrade fee for this video card which i was assured would work. thanks gnome
 
Quote from hilojack:

I've got a new dell 5150 dual core processor. The video card is an ATI Radeon PCIe X600 256MB. It has both a VGA and DVI output which i currently have 2 monitors connected to which work fine. Aside from all of the bad info I've received, I would like to be able to add at least 1 monitor now, and possible 2 in the future. I would now like to get this done as cheaply and as easily as possible as I have already purchased 3 cards (1 which i ruined and can't be returned) and have spent almost 3 weeks trying to do this. I also paid dell an upgrade fee for this video card which i was assured would work. thanks gnome
More...

If you have installed other drivers than the Catalyst for your X600, follow the instructions above.

If you have not installed other drivers, then try to mount your other ATI cards WITHOUT installing other drivers. If this doesn't work, then I think you might have to (1) abandon ATI altogether, or (2) use a Matrox or Quadro NVS card for the other.
 
I haven't tried your suggestion yet as I was told that the Radeon card I purchased was not compatible with the catalyst driver. When i get the correct card, I will try your suggestion. There is a list of cards that are supported by the catalyst driver on the ATI website (wish I had seen that before i bought the most recent card). My only question is if I use your suggestion and it doesn't work, will i be able to get back to my old settings prior to using the driver cleaner? The 2 monitors I have now work fine and I would hate to have nothing while I figure this out. thanks again gnome
 
Quote from hilojack:

I haven't tried your suggestion yet as I was told that the Radeon card I purchased was not compatible with the catalyst driver. When i get the correct card, I will try your suggestion. There is a list of cards that are supported by the catalyst driver on the ATI website (wish I had seen that before i bought the most recent card). My only question is if I use your suggestion and it doesn't work, will i be able to get back to my old settings prior to using the driver cleaner? The 2 monitors I have now work fine and I would hate to have nothing while I figure this out. thanks again gnome
More...

Can't promise you that. Whenever you get incompatible video drivers on one machine, you are at risk for having to reinstall the OS, at worst. However, you should be able to get back to functional by reinstalling the Catalyst driver with only your x600 installed.
 
I have a Radeon 9600 Pro AGP card and recently added a 9250 Pro PCI card. I had problems at first, but I got the second card to work by allowing Win XP to install a generic driver, instead of the driver that was provided with the 9250. Works like a charm now. I pulled the new card out of the machine, did a System restore to get rid of the new driver, and then put the card back in and allowed windows to install the new hardware.
 
Quote from Triple X:

I have a Radeon 9600 Pro AGP card and recently added a 9250 Pro PCI card. I had problems at first, but I got the second card to work by allowing Win XP to install a generic driver, instead of the driver that was provided with the 9250. Works like a charm now. I pulled the new card out of the machine, did a System restore to get rid of the new driver, and then put the card back in and allowed windows to install the new hardware.
More...

Unfortunately, there's a question about more modern Radeon cards... the "x---" series. It is possible that the XSeries cards don't work with older Radeon card simply because ATI didn't plan for multi-card and do the drivers accordingly.
 
Quote from hilojack:

I haven't tried your suggestion yet as I was told that the Radeon card I purchased was not compatible with the catalyst driver. When i get the correct card, I will try your suggestion. There is a list of cards that are supported by the catalyst driver on the ATI website (wish I had seen that before i bought the most recent card). My only question is if I use your suggestion and it doesn't work, will i be able to get back to my old settings prior to using the driver cleaner? The 2 monitors I have now work fine and I would hate to have nothing while I figure this out. thanks again gnome
More...

Worst case... you have to sell your ATI cards on eBay and get new Nvidia cards. Hassle, I know, but there is a solution.
 
I don't think this is going to work with ATI. I think you're right gnome. There are NO ATI Radeon PCI cards that are compatible with the catalyst driver, only PCIe and AGP. I was told by Dell that I would not be able to use the open PCIe port as the guy said it was for something different. My mobo doesn't have any AGP slots. So lets start talking something else.

Ideally, I would like to run my monitors via DVI. I would eventually like to be able to run 4 at a time. I have port replicators if need be. Any suggestions? Gnome?
 
Quote from hilojack:

I don't think this is going to work with ATI. I think you're right gnome. There are NO ATI Radeon PCI cards that are compatible with the catalyst driver, only PCIe and AGP. I was told by Dell that I would not be able to use the open PCIe port as the guy said it was for something different. My mobo doesn't have any AGP slots. So lets start talking something else.

Ideally, I would like to run my monitors via DVI. I would eventually like to be able to run 4 at a time. I have port replicators if need be. Any suggestions? Gnome?
More...

My best suggestion would be Nvidia Quadro NVS 285. You can get that in a dualhad PCIE x16, a dualhead PCIE x1, and a dualhead PCI (NVS 280). Those would be less than a quad, and you can get the x16 for cheap on eBay... maybe not the x1, as they are newer.

Be sure to use Driverheaven's driver cleaner to remove all the ATI schmutz before installing the Nvidia cards.

Port replicator will not be necessary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top