Radeon HD 2600 Pro install problems

[venturebrower]

Hey guys. I'm trying to install a new ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP into my old Dell Dimension 4500 to use as a HTPC. It's a Pentium 4 with 1Gb of Kingston Hyper series Ram and XP Pro (single user). I've tried all I know to do, but every time I swap from the old card to the new, I get the initial boot screens, including the XP logo, and then it seems at the point when it wants to load the video drivers, the screen goes to black with only the cursor displayed, then nothing... The very first time I put the new card in (before installing any software, only swapped hardware) I got all the way to the desktop, but then it froze saying something about the screen res being incorrect via a bubble out of the task bar. I've tried uninstalling the drivers for the factory video card through Device Manager, powering down, swapping cards, powering back up, but still the same thing. I've tried to install the included driver while the factory card is still in place, then swap, same thing. The CD install included DirectX9 and .NET 2.0. I can see the .NET framework and ATI software uninstall utility in the Add/Remove Programs but no DirectX9. I can't tell if the actual driver is getting installed when I try or not as I don't know which is which when exploring the CD to discover the name of the driver. I don't think the setup is completing properly, as I can only see to run it while the factory card is in. Also, I've looked online for the driver and ATI only has the PCIe version for the 2600 listed on their site and the AGP for the 2000.

Oh yeah. Almost forgot. I changed out the PSU to a Raidmax 400W as the Dell factory is 250W. The requirements on the box recommend at least a 300W. The change still didn't make a difference though.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[venturebrower]

Resolved...Thanks anyway...

 

[chaplinchaplin]

Hi venturebrowe,

I am having the same issue with my Dell Optiplex GX270, using the same graphics card.
Can you advise how you resolved this issue, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[venturebrower]

Hi venturebrowe,

I am having the same issue with my Dell Optiplex GX270, using the same graphics card.
Can you advise how you resolved this issue, any help would be greatly appreciated

chaplinchaplin,

The only thing I could do to resolve my problem was to wipe my system and install Windows 7 Pro (from XP). I think probably the included graphics drivers in 7 better supported my old AGP slot. I'm not sure if the install also includes chipset drivers or not. If so, that could have been the fix as well. I would check first to see if Dell offers a newer chipset driver than you have now just to rule that out before looking at a different OS.

Sorry I'm not more help. I'm still learning all this stuff myself

 

[chaplinchaplin]

Thanks, will give it a try. Have fun!