Radeon 7200 fails to display more than BIOS

[eapache]

I have an old Dell Optiplex GX150. I recently salvaged a functional ATI Radeon 7200 PCI graphics card (I know it's not much, but it's better than my onboard). When I booted using this card, my BIOS recognized it and displayed fine, and so did GRUB (I'm running a dual boot XP and Ubuntu Edgy). I booted XP, and the splash appeared fine. When the splash disappeared however, the screen just went blank. I heard the boot music, so it worked fine internally, however, I didn't get any graphics. Exactly the same thing happens in Ubuntu. The splash appears, then the screen goes blank. I checked all my drivers etc. and I'm up to date.

Because of my motherboard configuration, I have no regular PCI slots, just this one weird slot that has a PCI splitter card coming out of it. Because I still get basic graphics, my first assumption is that either the splitter can't handle the required power/data for advanced graphics, or my BIOS is too old. However, I recently flashed my BIOS to A11, the most recent version. As far as I can tell (excepting my weird PCI setup) my hardware meets all the required specs.

Does anybody know if the PCI splitter is the culprit, or if there's something else I can try?

 

[mesarectifier]

Have you uninstalled your previous display drivers first? I don't think there would be any power issues with that card.

 

[eapache]

I was previously using my onboard intel graphics card (from six or seven years ago) and it didn't really do much other than very basic stuff. I'm not really sure if I have any drivers to uninstall. I don't know if your suggestion would help, but if it didn't work, then I'd be stuck permanently without graphics.

I'd like to try to avoid that (I'm typing this from the same computer, but switched back to onboard). I thought it would be a fairly simple upgrade, and this is my only computer right now, so I can't do anything at the moment that would endanger the functionality of my onboard if the fix didn't work. I'm trying to get my hands on another more standard motherboard to see if it's just the card itself, but no luck so far.

 

[blunc]

have you checked the Dell forums to see if anyone else has tried putting a PCI video card on their mobo?

have you checked the mobo or bios to see if a jumper or setting needs to be changed?

 

[eapache]

I have checked the dell forums. I got nothing, because my model is too old.

I haven't looked for jumpers or other hardware switches, but my BIOS recognizes it as fully functional, and when I'm running off my onboard and go to Device Manager in XP, it shows up as there and running correctly.

I did fiddle with my BIOS settings, to no avail.

 

[navysealbrian]

... Okay, once the Windows loads (when the screen goes black), try unconnecting the monitor from the Radeon and plug it to the onboard. If then the image comes on, then I think I know the solution. Only one graphics display is on at a time. And yes, you should have Intel Graphics drivers, which then you could remove, don't worry, you still will see things. Only thing that happens is that you are limited to the lowest resolution because Windows loads up a generic graphics driver if there are none present.

 

[Turbo_VE_Max]

try moving it to another pci slot on your riser card.

And hunt through the bios and online manuals for any settings and jumper settings.

 

[Turbo_VE_Max]

from your online dell manual.

Primary Video Controller: determines which video controller to use when the system boots. When Auto is selected, the system uses a video expansion card, if one is installed or the onboard video controller if a video expansion card is not installed. When Onboard is selected, the system uses the onboard video controller even if a video expansion card is installed.

 

[pat]

Press F8 before windows start loading(after BIOS post) to enter safe mode

Once there, select "boot in VGA mode"

If everything is OK, then it is a driver issue

 

[eapache]

NavySEALBrian, your idea makes sense. I don't know why it would suddenly switch cards, but I will try your suggestion as soon as I finish responding to these posts.

Pat, I haven't tried booting XP in safe mode, but I will try that too. I did try booting Edgy in recovery mode (command line only) using the radeon, and it worked fine. It said in the boot log that the driver loaded correctly, so I don't believe that it would be a driver problem, but it never hurts to try.

Turbo_VE_Max, I have already tried both bios settings as well as moving it to the other PCI slot. Unfortunately, neither of these worked.

I'll post again when I have tried all of these suggestions.

 

[eapache]

All right, this is really weird.

Booting in VGA mode via F8 works fine (terrible resolution notwithstanding).

Switching back to my other output port after the screen goes blank also works. (haven't tried this in Edgy, but that's what it does in XP, so I'm assuming it does the same)

I'm confused. Any suggestions :?:

 

[pat]

All right, this is really weird.

Booting in VGA mode via F8 works fine (terrible resolution notwithstanding).

Switching back to my other output port after the screen goes blank also works. (haven't tried this in Edgy, but that's what it does in XP, so I'm assuming it does the same)

I'm confused. Any suggestions :?:

Then you have to set "first init display" in BIOS to PCI in BIOS

 

[eapache]

My BIOS doesn't appear have that exact setting, however "Primary Video Controller" seems comparable. Unfortunately, the only two available settings are "onboard" which I am using right now so that I don't have to keep taking my card in and out, and "auto" which is supposed to automatically detect the best card. When set to auto, then I only get basic VGA out of the radeon.

The only other graphics option I remember having is Video DAC Snoop On/Off. Anybody know what it is and what I should do with it? (defaulted off, and that's where I left it)

I will poke around for anything else that looks similar.

 

[eapache]

I googled "Video DAC Snoop" and it looks like a weird option that one should only enable if one is experiencing blank screens with expansion video cards...

I'm going to try it, and if it works, I'm going to feel very stupid, as I googled all my non-basic BIOS options a while ago, and for some reason, that didn't trigger...

Wish me luck.

UPDATE
----------
No change with DAC Snoop enabled. :x

 

[pat]

When set to auto, then I only get basic VGA out of the radeon.

yup. it is normal if you did not install ati video drivers

 

[eapache]

I did install my ati video drivers. When I'm using my onboard with my radeon still plugged in, and I go to device manager, the radeon appears, and when I click on "update driver" it says I have the latest up-to-date driver... General windows update doesn't come up with anything either.

Because I scavenged the card I don't have a cd, but I would think that the windows update driver would still work. Edgy has also been very good in the past with automatically installing drivers, so I don't know why it would be a driver problem. Should I try reinstalling the drivers?

 

[pat]

I did install my ati video drivers. When I'm using my onboard with my radeon still plugged in, and I go to device manager, the radeon appears, and when I click on "update driver" it says I have the latest up-to-date driver... General windows update doesn't come up with anything either.

Because I scavenged the card I don't have a cd, but I would think that the windows update driver would still work. Edgy has also been very good in the past with automatically installing drivers, so I don't know why it would be a driver problem. Should I try reinstalling the drivers?

Problem is that the latest ATI drivers set don't support the old Radeon. Going to ATI web site and downloading the drivers from there, then installing it shoule do the job

 

[eapache]

I just tried the ATI driver install (using catalyst 6.11, which the ATI website says is the correct driver for the radeon 7200), and before the installation starts, the installer gives the following error message:

"Setup did not find a driver compatible with your hardware or operating system. Setup will now exit."

The card still shows up in Windows Device Manager though.

 

[pat]

I just tried the ATI driver install (using catalyst 6.11, which the ATI website says is the correct driver for the radeon 7200), and before the installation starts, the installer gives the following error message:

"Setup did not find a driver compatible with your hardware or operating system. Setup will now exit."

The card still shows up in Windows Device Manager though.

This is an error from ATI, because the last drivers set for your card is the 6.5 version. If you read the release note you will see your card is not supported.

This is the correct driver

 

[eapache]

Sorry, my bad. I just followed the instructions at

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

which pointed me to that version.

I'll try that link.

 

[eapache]

I'm currently kicking myself very hard, and I'm very sorry for putting you all through so much trouble. After installing the driver from Pat (it installed correctly), I rebooted, and still got a blank screen. I then switched the monitor plug, only to find that I still had video coming out of my onboard. I started wondering, and checked Control Panel -- Display. My onboard was still set as my default card there, so I switched it, and now it works fine. As I said, I'm really kicking myself. I now have functional graphics on XP, and I'm going to check Edgy for a similar setting. Edgy has always been very good for fetching the correct drivers, so I'm hoping that it is exactly the same problem there.

 

[eapache]

No luck with Edgy. When I booted Edgy with the Radeon and got the blank screen, I switched the plug, but I didn't have graphics coming out of my onboard either (just weird distorted lines). I tried booting from my Edgy cd and got exactly the same phenomenon. Since the cd is supposed to have all necessary drivers, and is supposed to auto-configure itself to work on any system, I'm starting to wonder if either Edgy or X doesn't support the card.

In the release notes, it says that the driver for older radeons (including radeon 7200) has been developed by the open-source community, while the driver for newer radeons has been developed by ati. It says that radeon 7200 is fully supported by the older driver, but not only is it not displaying, it's screwing up my onboard as well. I have also stopped hearing the Ubuntu bootup music when running off of the radeon.

I've tried fiddling with my xorg.config file, but I still don't get proper graphics out of either card when the radeon is plugged in. (I still get proper graphics out of my onboard when the radeon has been removed.) If I can't fix this, I may have to just give up on Edgy (which I really don't want to do), as I can't keep removing the radeon or changing a bios setting every time I want to switch between Edgy and XP.

UPDATE
---------
Even booting from Edgy cd in "safe graphics mode" doesn't work. Still nothing from the radeon, and those weird lines from my onboard.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey