seeknpeace

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Currently I am reactivating a computer whose CPU went out. I had it replaced but just have drug my feet on getting it functional again. I noted in my bios settings that I have a choice of AGP ON Board or PCI for my video setting. I have an older model AMD video card right now, it is a Radeon x850. I plan to upgrade all of this, the card, windows from media ctr xp to windows 7 (maybe), etc. but for now, I cannot get the stupid drivers for the video card to install. When I tried, knowing that Radeon on this older model required complete removal of their software to update to newer drivers (I hate that) when I installed the last legacy vs of drivers for this video card I could only get to a black screen. I could not rectify it so I had to do a system recovery so that I could deal with this. My question is, should this setting in bios be for the AGP On Board or for PCI? It is set at PCI and I wonder if that is the problem. Thx.
 

seeknpeace

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Thanks but for me that is about as clear as mud. Sorry to say that I have not opened a case in over a year, I am not well, unfortunately a brain tumor and neurological disease that has taken some of the lingo, etc., away. So, this is the deal. The card is pci, I added it as an upgrade as what came was so awful. I plugged that card into the board. I have read several information sites that say one thing then the other, indicating that agp onboard will automatically do the right thing but I may not be reading about the same thing. My system and computer is older, but I really am partial to the media ctr edition and have not looked to see if windows 7 will be compatible with that, hence hesitation.

So, pci or agp? And, are there two settings for agp on newer models, is there one that is just agp and one that is agp on board?
 

jdenova007

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This site http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102606 Says your video card is AGP(so your card is AGP, not PCI)... which means you should have your BIOS set to AGP/onboard.

Your motherboard probably has an AGP slot and like 2 or 3 PCI slots(for sound cards an what not). The AGP slot is strictly for Video Cards, so that is what you need to set your BIOS to.

AGP is no longer used on newer Motherboards and graphics cards.
 
You don't have to open you computer case to do anything , you can do everything you need to do in the bios. The onboad AGP is a terrible video option and you will always get better results with a seperate card in a slot. If you are trying to update the drivers for the AGP on board video then set the video option in the bios to AGP.

AGP is no longer used in any new computers and it is very hard to find AGP cards for sale as the choices are small. There are two different AGP video options , there is the onboard and there is the seperate card that you would put in an AGP slot on the motherboard.
If you have the onboard then you have to make a setting change in the bios to use either the Pci card or the onboard AGP.
If you had a motherboard that had an AGP slot then all you would have to do is put the AGP card in the slot and you would not have to make any changes in the bios. You would also not be using a pci card.
 

larkspur

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It would help to know your motherboard make and model. As others have said there is a difference between AGP, PCI and PCIe. The x850 was made in both AGP and PCIe (PCI Express). Motherboards usually only accept one or the other. Regular PCI is a legacy interface that isn't used for video cards (or any modern expansion card) anymore.

It also sounds like you have "onboard video" which is like having a video card built onto your motherboard. Usually one disables the onboard video when using an add-in graphics card.

If your system turns out to use an AGP graphics card (and if you actually have one) then the regular drivers from AMD (the makers of the radeon x850) will not install properly. AMD stopped supporting AGP cards in their newer driver releases. Instead they provide a separate driver called the AGP Hotfix driver. You will need to find the appropriate one of those if your card is AGP.
 

seeknpeace

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Larkspur, I think that you hit on it. I was trying to remember and this card came either as an agp or pci and I bought the pci. Pcie was not available at that time or was way higher in cost, I cannot remember, but I remember not choosing it. Here is the source of my confusion, please bear with me.

I have all the paperwork from this card, box labels, etc., and cannot find it. One of those "saw it yesterday, God where is it" things. I do have the book. I addresses that this card can be an agp, pci or pcie.

I do not remember having to connect it to the power supply, so I do not think that it is agp, I do think that this card is a pci card, but NOT pcie.

With that said, I will continue to hunt that paperwork. When I find it, if this card is PCI, as I think, then PCI is the correct bios selection, but if it is agp, then the agp onboard option is what I use, or not? I am confused as to if that option is for a built in card, built into the motherboard and again, if this is not even something that is possible, like "she is so stupid", I apologize. It is just very confusing to me.

Where in the world would I find the agp fix for ati legacy drivers, and again, maybe the ATI cards that are problematic are newer? This card is old.

Also, my motherboard is an ASUS K8S-LA, is that what you need?
 

jdenova007

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Your motherboard says it has no 'onboard graphics'... and the graphics adapter it has is the AGP slot.... also has 3 PCI slots. So now you have to make sure your card is AGP. if it is then choose AGP/onboard for your graphics default in BIOS.
 

seeknpeace

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Okay, that is what I remembered as well, there were pci slots and that was what I chose I think. Where in the world is that stupid paper with the labels stapled to it?
 

larkspur

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Yes, very helpful. As said above, your board wants an AGP card. As far as the PCI vs PCIe thing does: I seriously doubt there were any legacy PCI cards made with the x850. It was a pretty good chip at the time and was too powerful for the legacy PCI interface (I think). But you said that you plugged the card in? I didn't think a PCIe card would fit in an AGP or legacy PCI slot... I think you have an AGP card and your problem is finding the right drivers.

I looked at the latest "AGP Hotfix driver" at: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/CatalystAGPHotfix.aspx

It doesn't list the x850 or any of that series of GPUs. The oldest it says it supports is the HD2000 and up. Have you tried that one? If that doesn't work then you need to find previous versions of that same "AGP Hotfix" driver until you find one old enough to work... I don't know what dusty old repository AMD keeps them in. Maybe your card manufacturer might actually provide the original driver that came with the card - Try finding that or using the original disk that came with it. That might get you going.
 
The option you are referring to is the VGA post order. If the computer detects two video cards, one attached over AGP and one attached over PCI, it has to choose which one to use. Modern chipsets also have this (well, the ones that still have PCI) as well. If you only have one graphics card, then this option will not do anything
 

seeknpeace

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Ok, this is what I have done, I downloaded the newest legacy, or last, catalyst control/driver software. I installed it and my machine is booting now. If I get a black screen, then I am going to go back in and change the video setting in the bios and restart and see if that works. The edition of CCC that I tried to install that did this before was one that I had downloaded and saved to my computer. It appeared to be the exact same thing as the one for download. This time I used the new one in download, beit the same or not.

Ha, black frigging screen. At least I can get to bios...

No go. Nada. Black screen even with the agp onboard chosen. I hate this. I just want to run this stupid computer again. I am going to have to do a system recovery again, I guess. Shoot. me.
 

seeknpeace

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I cannot tell for sure, there are three cards. I am not sure which is the video card. Honestly, I used to be able to do all of this and it is very frustrating now. Thank you for your help, I took pics but I have no idea how to send it. I tried the insert pic thing here and it asked for a url and I was lost.
 
The card closest to the cpu is usually the video card and since you have an old computer then the other cards are probably a sound card and modem card.
If you put the picture on your desktop then when you want to add it you just slect browse and select the pic.
 

seeknpeace

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select browse from where? The drop down for insert pic brings up the need for you to define it, as in a url or something and that is way beyond my scope.
 
If you go into your profile and select modify my picture the you should see an option to enter an address in a box and at the end of the box it says Browse. If you select it then you can clic on the picture that is on your desktop or navigate to my pictures and select it there.
 

seeknpeace

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Could I have left the old card in there, could the agp slot have the old one in it, and then the pci next to it is my video card that I am trying to update? The smallest card is added memory, right? there are three. One is green and it is the pci, I think, and then one is red, and a larger card. There is a smaller green one, looks like the size of added memory to me, on the other side of the green one.
 

seeknpeace

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Oh, ok, I understand that and that is what I did. It is not showing, it must be too big or something. I added it but all I see are the red x's
 

larkspur

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Ok so since the card gets you to BIOS you aren't having a problem with the hardware per se.

You are having a problem with your Windows graphics driver. You definitely have an AGP graphics card and it is definitely installed correctly since you can get to your BIOS screen.

You need to try to boot Windows in SAFE MODE. Do so by pressing F8 repeatedly as soon as your turn on your system. Then select "Safe Mode".

If your computer won't boot in safe mode then you do have a problem with your config. If it does boot to safe mode then you have a driver problem. You need a program like "Driver Sweeper". Boot into safe mode and run Driver Sweeper. Tell it to remove all of the "ATI Graphics" drivers. Then reboot the machine normally and try to install the AGP Hotfix drivers. If the drivers don't work (ie you get the black screen again) then you need to fully repeat this process (remove the drivers in safe mode) and try a previous version of the AGP hotfix driver.

Like I said earlier you might need to get older versions of the drivers since the 11.12 AGP Hotfix edition doesn't list your card. Previous versions (probably like 10.x (maybe) or 9.x (definitely) WILL support your card. If you are having trouble finding an older AGP hotfix driver then try some of the AGP card manufacturer's websites (preferably your own card's manufacturer).