AGP error!!!

[rahvin666]

Hi All,
First post on here and i'm hoping someone can help me. i bought a new PC last year. It's an Athlon 2000+, 512DDR ram, Radoen 9200 256Mb 8xAGP card. I had a crash last month & i ended up formatting & reinstalling everything. I didn't have the original disks from when i bought it, so i used a friends copy of winXP and downloaded all the other drivers from the net. The problem i have now is that the AGP controller is off. I've checked in the bios and it's set to AGP, but the speed control setting is shaded out so i can't change it. The PC recognises the card for what it is and i have the lastest drivers installed. i've also tried changing the AGP speed setting on the driver, with no luck. I've done some reading over the last few days on the net, downloaded the minibus driver for the board, but the system won't let me install it. It comes up with 'cannot find software or hardware device etc'. I'm at a loss as to what to do, so i'm stuck with a fast-ish PC that struggles to play any games without the card working. Thanx in advance for any help or replys.

 

[GeforcebOY1]

Never heard of that one before what AGP is it X4 or X8 . Does it say anywhere what AGP rate it is at the moment.

 

[rahvin666]

the motherboard is MSI KT4V (i think) and it supports 8xAGP and so does the card. according to the software that came with the driver, AGP is off. And as i said before, it won't let me change the speed setting in the bios. i've tried downloading the miniport driver for ATI cards and also the chipset driver for the board, but neither of these will install. how can the system recognise the card if the AGP port is off? That's what confuses me.

 

[killerdoberman]

What is the chipset?

Do you have a VIA chipset?

If you do then try the following driver...VIA Hyperion drivers...from:

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

And see if that helps.

I had this happen once to me before and I am trying to jog my memory on how I fixed it.

 

[GeforcebOY1]

I am sure if AGP was off you wouldn't get a picture . Sorry i can't help someone else might though.

 

[rahvin666]

thats the website i went on last night. i don't know what the chipset is 'cause when i go to properties/hardware/system, there is no reference in there to AGP or chipset (that's where an nvidia manual told me to look). what other way is there of finding out the chipset?

 

[killerdoberman]

Open your system and take a look at the bigger chips on the mobo. The main modo processor is usually covered by a heatsink, so you have to look at the other chips.

You are looking for a names on the majority of the chips. Some names are VIA, SIS, Intel.

Or if you know that exact mobo you have, goto the manufacturer's website and they will provide that information.

 

[killerdoberman]

I think I got it...

I think I remembered how I fixed it. OK…you need to Uninstall all of the video drivers. I mean everything. It's an ATI so will include both sections of the driver. The software and drivers, they are both loaded in the Catalyst file.

Windows 98 or Windows XP?

READ ALL BEFORE PERFORMING!!!

This is where it gets a bit tricky. You need to have the driver down to the VGA level. Then do a reboot. When the system comes back up, you need to go into control panel-system-hardware and click on the vga adapter and delete it. This will ask you to reboot for changes to take effect. Reboot. When Windows comes back up it will detect the vga card. If you have a VIA chipset have the drivers downloaded from VIAARENA.com and extract them. Remember where you put them. Windows 98 will ask you if you have a driver or location…I think Windows XP will automatically load the most current drivers from the systems/inf directory. If you ran VIAARENA before you started this process you are in good shape. By this time the computer will be loaded ready to run in VGA mode. Reinstall the Catalyst driver and reboot – ENTER THE BIOS UPON REBOOT. You are looking for a line that says, “PNP OS Installed” select YES and also change the “Reset Configuration Data” to “Yes”. What this final step does is allows new IRQ settings and DMA settings for PNP to properly operate without confusing the BIOS vs. OS system. That should the trick.

One final check…if you have a video card on the mobo make sure it is disabled in the BIOS before you begin this process.

Good luck!

 

[rahvin666]

thanx for all your help so far. i've found the chip on the motherboard. It say VIA VT8235. Here's the link i found.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/southbridge/vt8235.jsp

but i can't find this chipset mentioned in the link you gave me to VIA. any ideas?

 

[rahvin666]

thanx for help guys. AGP now up and running at 8x. Retested on 3DMark2001 and got 5600-ish. That's up from 4500 when AGP was down, but it still seems too low to me. I had a 1.4 Thunderbird & GeForce3 64mb system last year and got over 6000 with that. Is there anything else i can do to check everything is OK or will i have to wait til i get my new PC in a few weeks?