New Graphics card won't work? Is my PC too old?

[djclarky]

Decided to try and breath a bit of life into my ageing PC, so I bought a new graphics card. Have bought a HIS Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 512 MB RAM. It's an AGP card as my motherboard doesn't support PCIE.

Not used my computer for gaming before, and it is knocking on a bit. I installed the card (and remembered to plug the power into it) but when I tried to run the game I'd just purchased, I get a FATAL ERROR - UNABLE TO INITIALISE DEFAULT GRAPHICS CARD message.

Am wondering if I'm either having some driver issues, whether I need a more powerfull power supply as the card recommends 450W, or whether my PC just aint man enough for the job.

Here are the specs of my PC:

MSI KM2M-L Motherboard with onboard graphics.
AMD ATHLON XP2400 Processer
512MB RAM
Windows XP Home
300W power supply

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't want to go and dig a hole in the back garden to bury the old girl just yet.

Cheers

Clarky

[lptech]

djclarky-

Looking at your specs, the power supply is the first problem that you should look into. 300-watts is not really enough to drive a systemboard that has onboard items like video and sound. You have too much power draw from the videocard that the power supply could not support since your power supply probably is maxed out from the beginning even before you installed the videocard!

Remember that upon bootup, all the attached items draw power (i.e. - Hard Drives, CD/DVD- burner, systemboard, memory modules, etc.). Your 300-watt power supply was probably overwhelmed but the extensive load!

LPTECH

[Midknyte]

FATAL ERROR - UNABLE TO INITIALISE DEFAULT GRAPHICS CARD

That sounds like a power problem, almost as if you forgot to plug in the power (yes i know you remembered it).

[djclarky]

Cheers guys. Took card out and plugged back in again just to tidy a couple of wires, and check card was in ok. When I put back in, forgot to plug power back in to card. Turned computer back on, and suddenly, leds on the card lit up (they weren't before). Computer wouldn't boot - put a message up telling me I hadn't plugged card in. When I plugged power back in again, system booted as before, but no LEDS. Certainly looking like a power issue. Any other city in the world, I'd zip down to local computer shop and buy an new power supply and install it now, but this is Perth and NOTHING is open on a sunday.

Will grab a new one tomorrow after work and let you know how I get on...

[djclarky]

Ok, new 550w power supply purchased and installed. Nothing. Still the same error! Any ideas. Blue LEDs on graphics card only light up when I pull out the power plug from the graphics card and switch maching on, but then it won't boot. Anyone?

[Lgbpop]

Put your old card back in, then go into the BIOS and check your graphics settings. If you have one for initial display, make sure it's on AGP and not PCI.

Also, have you plugged the 4-pin 12V connector into the mobo socket as well as the main 20- or 24-pin connector? (Actually, on the latest mobos it could be an 8-pin 12V socket.)

[djclarky]

Checked all that already, thanks anyway. Still no joy.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would return the new card and see about getting a different model or manufacturer.

I had similar issues with a new card for my friends PC and we finally found one that worked for his system. I think it was a BIOS compatibility problem since his system is 4-5 years old.

[rmanet]

Sterling's right - my bet is the new card is incompatible (for some inexplicable reason) with the mobo. It's happened to me at least 3 or 4 times. You may be also be buying a card that isn't backward compatible, or the mobo AGP settings 1,2,4,8x (look in your BIO setup program to see options) may not even keep up with the new card, so you'd be wasting $$ as well.

[Train]

Expansion Slots
One AGP(4X) / Three PCI

Chipset
• VIA® ProSavageDDR™ KM266 Chipset
- FSB @200/266MHz
- Integrated ProSavage8™ 2D/3D Graphic Controller.
- AGP 4x and high bandwidth V-link host controller.
- Advanced memory controller supports DDR266 technology

http://www.legend.com.au/modules.php...rticle&sid=304

[Lgbpop]

I can't find an HIS version, but other manufacturers' AGP cards for the HD 2600PRO/512 are 8x only - not backward-compatible to 4x. Better check your vidcard packaging to make sure; if that's the case you're out of luck.

[Midknyte]

I know some VIA chipsets had problems with fast writes. disable fast writes in the bios using your onboard video.

[djclarky]

After hours spent mucking around with it, I finally took card back to shop and they exchanged it for an MSI Radeon equivilent (only 256 MB though). Worked first time - lots of pretty colours.......

Just need a bit more memory now, as it's running a bit slow - told me virtual memory was too low...

Thanks all for your help!

Clarky