ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP 512MB

[skrewlose]

Perhaps a simple question, perhaps not.

Have two old computers that I am trying to get at least one to run Diablo 3. Diablo 3 requires Intel Pentium® D 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ ( http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-system-requirements ). The computer that I want to use has :

P4 3.0 GHz
2 Gig RAM, will upgrade to 4 Gig once i get the game to run.
It has a 350W power supply

So after much research, I found the best AGP card that Diablo 3 agrees to support, at least that i could find, is the ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/D3supportedvideo ).

I bought one off the web ( http://dx.com/p/agp-ati-radeon-hd-3650-512m-ddr2-agp-4x-8x-video-card-45922 ) and had to shipped to me.

So i went to install this card into the computer, from which i removed a PNY GeForce 6200 AGP. This card worded great for some MMORPGs but was not going to work with D3.

When I installed the new card I get only a blank screen (No Input) and it beeps 3 times, delayed a bit. I can tell that the computers is still loading everything and windows is starting up because of the CPU lights and the wireless USB lights. I took the new card out of that machine and put it into the other machine (which is much older and slower, 2.0GHz with only 1 Gig of RAM). The card works perfectly. Put the PNY card back into the machine that I tried to install the new card in, works perfectly.

This would be fine, except, the old computer can not run D3 because of the slower processor.

So, to conclude, I have looked all over and seen tons of issues with drivers and the such with the ATI 3650 AGP cards, but I do not seem to be having those issues. I was wondering if anyone has any idea what would keep the monitor for showing anything at all.

I did see lots of people talk about power supplies. The machine I want to put the card in has a 350W power supply. The computer that the card works perfectly in has a 250W. The box that the new video card came in shows that it requires a 300W power supply.

Any ideas, questions, answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[clutchc]

The power supply shouldn't be an issue since that is a very low powered card. As you probably know, the ATI card will take different drivers than the Nvidia card. I would start by leaving the nvidia card in and uninstalling the graphic driver for it. Let the O/S reboot and it should load a generic driver. Btw, what O/S are you using?

Then replace the nvidia card with the ATI and see if the system will boot with a display. If it does, install the latest driver for your card and O/S.

 

[skrewlose]

The power supply shouldn't be an issue since that is a very low powered card. As you probably know, the ATI card will take different drivers than the Nvidia card. I would start by leaving the nvidia card in and uninstalling the graphic driver for it. Let the O/S reboot and it should load a generic driver. Btw, what O/S are you using?

Then replace the nvidia card with the ATI and see if the system will boot with a display. If it does, install the latest driver for your card and O/S.

Using windows XP SP3 on both systems.

Thanks so much for the help!! Waited all afternoon yesterday.

I did exactly as you said. I uninstalled all video drivers (the on board IBM, the GeForce, and the ATI). Boot the system off the on board graphics. Everything seemed to run great minus not having any display drivers. Turned it off and installed the new card. The monitor never even turns on! It gives me a beep, followed by two more closer together beeps. That is all.

Now i did notice that when I went into the BIOS, just to have a peek while there was no video cards installed, it asked under graphics which slot to use and AGP was selected (even without any cards being in it) and it asked how large the RAM for the AGP card was and the largest that you could pick was 256MB. Both these cards I am switching around are 512MB. Is there perhaps something that I should do in the way of upgrading the BIOS...? I have honestly never had to do that before on any PCs.

Thanks again for the help!!!

 

[clutchc]

Your PC is a bit older than I am familiar with. But some older models require you to manually select the discrete card in BIOS and de-select the on-board graphics. I presume you did that? Once the BIOS is ready to use the discrete card, it should make no difference to it how much VRAM the card has. Could it be it was just asking how much system RAM you wanted to allow for the frame buffer? Besides... since the Nvidia card has 512MB and works fine, I doubt the BIOS would balk at the AMD card having 512MB.

The error beeps you get are the key to what is wrong. Normally there should be a single beep at start up signifying that all is OK. If you have a make/model no. of your motherboard, or even the make/model of the PC, we maybe can find the beep codes for that motherboard. Do you have the manual for the PC? The codes may even be in it. Normally, 2 beeps represents no video card present, but the codes aren't standardized, so that is just a guess.

 

[skrewlose]

Thanks again for the help!

I have :

Manufacture : IBM
Model : 8189
Type : QZU

I found the manual (http://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/74p2661.pdf)
Problem : 1-2 Search for video ROM failed
Suggested fix / problem : System Board

I looked on some other pages and found people suggesting to flash the bios. I downloaded the most up-to-date BIOS from IBM and flashed the BIOS. It appears to be the same version that I already had. Tried again, no dice.

Ironically the other card works perfectly .... so ... I am hitting a dead end it feels. Perhaps it is just not compatible...? Is that possible ...?

Anything else before I give up? Should I just give up on this old machine and wait till I can afford a newer machine. Unfortunately i have spent some money getting this far ... No a complete waste in that I can use it on the even older machine that I have, but I use it just to watch downloaded media.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

[clutchc]

That Search for video ROM failed result appears to indicate that the board is looking for the integrated video; which is disabled due to the discrete card being in place. But we know the card works, because you had it in a different machine. It is like the slot doesn't see the card. Yet, the nvidia card works when inserted. I'll have to ponder that for awhile. Are you sure you have the discrete card on the AGP buss selected in BIOS (if that's necessary)?

On a different note, if you have any desire to play modern games at anything other than low settings, by all means look into upgrading to a modern system. The AGP interface is severely obsolete.

 

[skrewlose]

Thanks for all your time and consideration. I would appreciate anything else you can think of.


Yeah ... I am sure that the AGP port is selected. I actually never deselected it. I have not had/needed to mess with anything in the BIOS even though I have looked through it half a dozen times now.

As for as another computer. This was going to be a machine for my friends to play at my house for LAN party nights with Diablo 3 so that they did not have to lug theirs over here. I have one computer that is able to run anything that I throw at it (3.2 GHz 6 core AMD, 8 Gigs RAM, ATI Radeon 5770, etc.). I just can not afford to pay for "gaming" computers for my friends. Was hoping to get this to work for "cheap".

Again, if you think of anything else, I would love to try it! And .... I really appreciate your help this far. I have learned a lot thanks to you!

 

[clutchc]

I did find this bit of wisdom pertaining to AGP cards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port
Scroll down to "Compatibility".

From the pictures I've been able to locate of your two AGP cards, it appears the Nvidia card is 'universal', i.e. will work on a 1.5v or 3.3v slot. Whereas your ATI card is strictly a 1.5v card. If that is so... it could be that the lesser machine has a universal slot, while the better machine is strictly a 3.3v slot. That would explain why the two cards work/don't work in the combinations you describe.

 

[skrewlose]

I had no idea there was anything like that ... with different voltage and stuff ... I always though AGP was compatible with all AGP.

You are correct on the look of the two cards.

GeForce 6200 is universal with both grooves cut into it.
ATI Radeon HD3650 has just the 1.5v groove.

Here is where it gets fun ....

[NEWER] The computer I want to put them in ... [Only GeForce 6200 works in this one]
(http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-51157)
Slot 1: three-quarter length, AGP 32-bit AGP 8X (1.5v)
Slot 2: three-quarter length, PCI 32-bit PCI 2.2 (5v)
Slot 3: three-quarter length, PCI 32-bit PCI 2.2 (5v)
Slot 4: three-quarter length, PCI 32-bit PCI 2.2 (5v)

[OLDER] The other computer ... [They both work in this one]
(http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00001661&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=307768)
Two PCI
AGP4x 1.5v

Both computers visibly have the 1.5v partition in the slot.

Anyways, your info is awesome. I suppose, perhaps, it is just a compatibility issue. I would not think that an 8x AGP card would have a problem with the 4x port, but perhaps in this case it does.

Awesome, huh?

Thanks again for all your research and help. I will let you know if i hear or read anything else. This has me even more baffled now ...

 

[skrewlose]

I would not think that an 8x AGP card would have a problem with the 4x port, but perhaps in this case it does.

Correction : It does not have an issue. It works fine in that machine. I can barely keep it straight. I have not idea how you are! <smile>

 

[clutchc]

Then my theory is wrong. The newer PC has the 1.5V slot and the ATI card is 1.5V. The card is 4x/8x. It should work in that machine too. Back to the drawing board...