Question for Radeon users (or anyone familiar with installing video cards)

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:27 pm

First off, sorry for posting here. I tried three times today to post on the elder scrolls site but kept getting errors on their forum. Figured some of the nice folks here might be able to help.

I have an e-Machines system that I've had about six months. I was running an nVidia Ti4200 on it but it wouldn't run Oblivion (of course) so today I bought a new Radeon X850 Pro.

Looking at the direction, it is very specific to check my control panel/system/drivers for any AGI (Radeon) drivers and installing those before uninstalling my current nVidia drivers and removing the nVidia card.

Unfortunately, I don't have any AGI drivers in there. Since the motherboard came with the computer (and I'm not 'hardware' literate) I'm not sure how to determine who is the MB manufacturer in order to find the AGI drivers to download.

Any help on getting these and getting these swapped out would be appreciated. It would also save me the $40 tomorrow to have the Geek Squad do it for me after dropping $250 today on the card.

Thanks,

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 6:50 pm

Moving to Tech Support.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:22 pm

If you bought the videocard, it should come with a cd containing drivers. Simply insert that cd, install the drivers, and you're done.

If you didn't get the cd, go to http://www.ati.com/, and go through their drivers to find the one that is your card, and your operating system.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:46 pm

OK. Maybe I was reading too much into the directions in the installation manual. It said you had to have the motherboard drivers already, didn't appear the CD had the motherboard drivers. I'll recheck.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:44 pm

...an X850 Pro for $250...well, I guess if it works well enough for you it won't matter, but still...

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 12:54 am

[QUOTE=Rookierookie]...an X850 Pro for $250...well, I guess if it works well enough for you it won't matter, but still...[/QUOTE]

Depends if its AGP or PCI-E.

Ragin Cajun · Post by **Ragin Cajun** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:00 am

Well, it's AGP. I did price it at four shops around town that carried more than just one or two card sets and it seemed to be the best price for the best performing card. An X1300 was $179 but everything I'd read on the forums here and at elderscrolls led me to believe the X850 was a better performing card.

Yes I could have gotten it cheaper online but I didn't. My choice there guys. I certainly appreciate the flames instead of help though. :mischief:

FWIW they ran $150-180 on newegg for a re-furbished one. Doing a "shop search" through Toms Hardware it was $253 for a new one.

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:42 am

I wasn't flaming you

I was disputing Rookierookie, $250 is perfectly acceptable for an AGP x850, since they price up the AGP versions compared to PCI-E

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:40 pm

The best way to install the video card would be to go into Control Panel on your operating system and uninstall the current video card. After that is done, power down the system, disconnect the power cord from the computer, and remove the case on the computer. If you've never installed or uninstalled a video card from a computer, I would highly recommend at minimum an anti-static wristband so that you can prevent discharges to your current or new card. I do believe that Tom's Hardware or Anandtech would have install guides in regards to proper grounding when using anti-static equipment. After you remove the current video card, insert the new one, and double check all connections before reconnecting power and turning on the computer. Once you boot the computer, you should see a 640 by 480 display. Insert the driver CD, and follow the steps on the readme file for proper installation. After you install the drivers, I'd recommend that you use the Internet to get the latest driver updates from ATI. After all these steps are done, then you can put the case back on the computer. If any of these steps sound too risky for you, then the Geek Squad investment may be ok IF they follow the steps I've mentioned.