Help going insane

[0zzie]

Hi guys,
its 3 am in the morning in the UK and im struggling to get my new graphic card working. Finally got my hands on a saphire Atlantis radeon pro 9700 and I cannot get the settup exe to run either via the auto load or the run command - it just crashes my pc and i get the message error OD:3106:0000FEDF - any idea what this means???
I can install the driver OK manually and so have got my screen looking alright although on 3d mark 2001 it crashes at test 6 but basically i cannot get the ATI control panel to load on my PC from the supplied disk - any ideas - im going nuts here - thx

 

[rook]

I'd try downloading the newest drivers/control panel from ATI. Tho it sounds more than just a driver issue.

"Quotes are for people that can't think for themselves"
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=23900" target="_new">My PC</A>

 

[0zzie]

Thx but it appears the driver is installed and working okish - I just have no way of altering any settings etc bc the settup wont run so i cannot load the ATI control panels. Is the settup data available anywhere other than on the installation cd? eg via a download?
thx

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Just go to ATi.com

Pictures of my PC & Me!<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/THGC/html/Genetic_Weapon.html" target="_new">http://www.lochel.com/THGC/html/Genetic_Weapon.html</A>
<font color=red>Melb_Angel</font color=red>=<font color=blue>The other white meat!</font color=blue>

 

[mrface]

<A HREF="http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4117.html" target="_new">click here</A>

-=[ AHH forget it. ]=-

 

[0zzie]

OK - Im still going insane.
I have narrowed it down somewhat - when i try to install my system hangs and it says in the faultlog...
IKERNEL caused a general protection fault
in module ATI2DRAG.DRV at 0002:00000bcf.
Registers:
EAX=04000010 CS=036f EIP=00000bcf EFLGS=00000606
EBX=0000ffff SS=3a87 ESP=00000f58 EBP=f5fe0377
ECX=00000000 DS=05b4 ESI=c2a003f1 FS=0083
EDX=0000036f ES=3a87 EDI=006d0377 GS=117f
Bytes at CS:EIP:
ca 08 00 45 55 8b ec 1e 56 57 06 0f a0 b8 8f 03
Stack dump:
c0000000 00870fa3 7e30118f 0304c2a0 0000006d 0001117f 00030000 0fa20000 0000f5fe 05d80000 000a117f 493a0000 000011af 117fc000 c2a07e30 00000001
I have tried everything ATI has suggested.
I have only a 300w PSU - but the card appears to function fine on say unreal tournament - I just cant load the conteol panel or online manual etc without it crashing.
I could really really use some advice.
I have cleared my temp folder and tried deleting my install shield to no avail
Any ideas????

 

[RCPilot]

Couple of things.

Did you do a clean install of Windows & what Windows are you using? I've herd that if you've had a Nvidia card installed prior to installing ATI most times you've got to do a clean install.

Did you get the downloads from the ATI site? The included disk is probably bad it sounds like. You can probably get it replaced if that's the case. In the mean time I'd use the current downloads off the ATI site & screw the disc like Punk said.

Could very well be your PSU. But it sounds more like a Windows / ATI disk problem. At 300 w your on the edge with that system. You can do the math & to learn 1, if what you've got is an adequate PSU & 2, if you definitely need to change it out, <A HREF="http://firingsquad.gamers.com/guides/power_supply/" target="_new">here</A>. I don't think that's going to help with this problem of the control panel though. It will avoid running with fringe problems you can't quite put your finger on or duplicate the same way each time.

My feeling is your going to have to do a clean load & use the drivers off the ATI site you've burnt to a disc. That's my feeling on it.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[0zzie]

Thanks RC
I havent done a clean install of windows as yet. Im using ME and did have a nvidia card beforehand (and have removed all its drivers)
I have dowloaded additional drivers from the ATI site and tried others too without success - my PC always crashes when tryin to load the control panel.

I also have the corrupted screen icons an di couldnt fix that with the info I received from ATI - but i wasnt sure if that was bc I simply hadnt completed a full install of the control panel (unlikely I Know)

 

[tombance]

Sounds like its your PSU. My friend had the exact same problem with it running fine in some games and not at all in others, it was his PSU at fault.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

 

[RCPilot]

Ug. Oh ME!!!!!! Well there's a big part of the problem right there. I don't want to bash anybody. These modern cards & MOBO's seem to need XP to get running right. I know some can get them going on either OS, but for the most part it's trouble by the basket full. I looked for you MOBO & CPU but didn't see it in your posts. I know that to run the Nforce 2 you have to be up to XP SP1 to make that work. I'd invest in a copy of XP Pro. If you can't invest in it I've herd it can be had (Cough) on Kaza, but I know nothing about that myself. Do a clean install with XP & you'll be amazed at the OS. Got to remember ME was a bad Band Aid for 98SE. Your vid card wasn't even though of when both of these OS's were put together. Sorry, for what it's worth I believe there is a big big part of the problem, if not the problem, ME.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[RCPilot]

With having Nvidia drivers in there prior to this new card is a bear as well as the OS.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[0zzie]

Thanks again - mother board is approaching 2 yrs old its the asus a7a266 and CPU is measly 1.333 AMD athlon (I was gonna upgrade that next but now im not sure whether to invest further unless I can get this baby going).
The Mobo is only AGP4x enabled but from what i have read that wont constrain things. I find it hard to beleive its a PSU issue bc i can run all my games (that I have tried so far - without a hitch) something just goes wrong with the installshield that causes the general protection fault and hence the hang. Perhaps I should consider changing my op system. Then again I do have the corrupted icons so maybe there is a PSU issue too. I just dont want to shell out cash on a new PSU if its not the problem.
Again - thanks for your time guys

 

[RCPilot]

Well if your going to upgrade further a good PSU is an investment for the future. Go through the article I gave you. You will be able to tell with out a doubt about you PSU. I've seen them do some dam funny things. Once I had one that would turn everything on, but the trouble was the OS. It would look for the HDD & the HDD didn't have enough watts to spool up fast enough. So everything was on however it didn't come on at the right time. I spent 2 weeks of hair pulling with that one. Now I use the math in the article I gave you & have never once had a PSU problem since. It's a combination of things,

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[cleeve]

PSUs are the easiest thing in the world to swap.

Find a buddy who has a decent PSU and borrow it for a couple hours to see if your machine runs smothly with it.

That's your best bet...

 

[0zzie]

I dont really know anyone with a PSU over 300 Watts.
I'll try to calc my power requirements and compare it to my PSU but is it really possible that could be causing my installation problems - after all - I have got the driver installed and games do work on the pc - its just the ocntrol panel etc which I cant get working and the corrupt icons which wont go away with the ATI fix?

 

[Beetle]

ive seen a whole crapload of general protection faults caused by bad ram. i would reinstall winblowz anyway (and for god sakes find somthing better than ME!) and if that doesnt work, either test out the ram (you can download memory testers) or test out the power supply (by finding another one). it honestly sounds like bad ram though.

 

[0zzie]

Hey Beetle - I just installed new ram (same night as I put my new card in) and had insanely difficult time getting it into the slots - perhaps i damaged something!
Can you point me toward the memory testers by any chance so I can check that area out.
Thankyou

 

[0zzie]

Hey RC - I was trying to calc my power requirements - I couldnt see ho wmuch amperage a full blown AGP card would draw - any idea what my 9700 Pro would draw current wise and whether its on the 12, 5 or 3.3 rail???

 

[Beetle]

http://www.bootdisk.com

somewhere in there should be a couple flavors of memory testers, although ive never used them. how many sticks do you have? try taking them out one by one if you have more than one. i had a very similar problem with a ram stick of mine that just went bad. it just became a little unstable, but if i switched the 2 sticks' slots, it wouldnt boot at all. switched them back and it was just unstable again. removed the larger of the two sticks and bloop, no boot at all. switched the sticks (removed the smaller one) and zoom she ran wonderful. so food for thought if you have more than one. IF you only have one, its only 40 or 50 bucks for a 256mb stick of ddr at circuit city. they carry sdram too. if thats NOT the case, then you wind up with extra ram....and a justifiable excuse for the hardware as well!

 

[confoundicator]

Here's a RAM tester for you. Turn off your computer, take out a DIMM. Turn it back on. If it works then problem solved. If it doesn't then swap DIMM's and try it again (I'm assuming you have more than one DIMM from your post above, you said "slots"). If it still doesn't work then there is always the unlikely possibility that you have more than one bad DIMM, but it's most likely something else.

<font color=blue>-What if the Hokey-Pokey really <i>is</i> what it's all about?</font color=blue>

 

[confoundicator]

Dammit beetle you beat me by like 30 seconds!

<font color=blue>-What if the Hokey-Pokey really <i>is</i> what it's all about?</font color=blue>

 

[0zzie]

LOL
right you are -
I do have 2*256 meg DDR's and id do what you suggest - except it took me about an hour to get my ram seated in the MOBO - the stupid retaining clips - almost snapped off and kept popping out of their seating - I thought i would never get it in there - I think i might break one of my dimm slots if i try to remove then re-install any memory.

 

[0zzie]

well - its after midnight again in the UK and I have to get some shut eye - ill keep plugging away tomorrow
thanks for your help guys - it is greatly appreciated.

 

[RCPilot]

Hey you got me there. I couldn't tell you for sure. I believe that it's on the 2 rails. I've got to dig a bit on that one. I'm running the TI4600 so it's sucking some juice somewhere as well. I'll see what I can find though. Get back with you.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[0zzie]

Im bringing it into the office tomorrow and will try loading XP - see if that works before I go ahead and buy it