ATI graphics card wont work! Gives me black screen!

JDubbed · 09-27-2007, 07:48 AM

Ok...first here are my specs....

WinXP Home
AMD athlon XP 3000+(1.6ghz)
1 gig ram
NVidia MX

If you need more specs go here... http://emachines.com/support/product...es&model=T3092

Basically, I got an ATI X1300 AGP graphics card to up my video for game playing. I did what the manual told me to...which was...

1.Disable on-board graphics card
2.Shut down
3.Install graphics card
4.Boot up
5.Installed most current drivers from ati.com

I try playing Alien Shooters 2 or Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper and I get a black screen when I double click on their icon for about 2 seconds and then it kicks me back onto my desktop. I contacted ATI, ATI said it was Emachines, Emachines said its ATI's problem(you know how that stuff goes, stupid competitors). ATI then told me my system32 files were corrupted and I either needed to try the graphics card on a different computer or perform a system restore. I wasn't even gonna risk screwing up another computer so I tried to perform a system restore with a WindowsXP Pro full copy(I removed the ATI graphics card for right now) and then it said my hard drive was damaged. I got a new hard drive fresh crom Circuit City and it said the same thing, so it was not my hard drive but the performing of partioning the hard drive, so Im guessing a hard ware problem. ANYWAYS...I tried using my recovery disc that the desktop emachines came with and it installed the OS ok but system locked up everytime it took me through the tutorial with setting up my computers name. SO...I then tried the Windows XP full copy cd again and it worked! WHOOT! So I installed all updated drivers for the emachines computer from the emachines website so all the bios/motherboard/w/e drivers would be up to date. Mind you I have not installed the ATI graphic card yet and its a clean copy of windows. I installed and tried the Alien Shooter 2 game and the same thing happened only without the ATI card! My on board graphics card was atleast able to load the games and play some what slow before I first installed at ATI graphics card. So now this is where Im at...

1.Brand new OS installed
2.Emachines drivers all up-to-date
3.No ATI graphics card installed yet...
4.Games still give me 2 second black screen then kicks me off.

I think the ATI graphics card did something to my on board graphics card so now its not able to play any game. I contacted ATI and of course they wanted to make me pay shipping to ship the product back to them to replace it with another. NO WAY! ATI is now my official enemy and I will never buy from ATI again. However...I decided to ask everyone here for some help. Any help would be great. Thanks.

P.S. I replaced my 300Watt power supply with a 550watt power supply because it stated it needed a 300+watt power supply so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of power. However, I did this 4 days before I even got my ATI card and the power supply worked fine so I dont think it could have anything to do with the power supply.

StwS · 09-28-2007, 04:39 PM

I think that we might have a similar problem: My Thread

At first glance, it might seem a very different, but I think that we might have the same problem, and therefore the same solution.

Perhaps we should work together to try to work this out...

09-27-2007, 07:48 AM	#1 (permalink)
JDubbed Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4 OS: XP Home/Pro	ATI graphics card wont work! Gives me black screen! Ok...first here are my specs.... WinXP Home AMD athlon XP 3000+(1.6ghz) 1 gig ram NVidia MX If you need more specs go here... http://emachines.com/support/product...es&model=T3092 Basically, I got an ATI X1300 AGP graphics card to up my video for game playing. I did what the manual told me to...which was... 1.Disable on-board graphics card 2.Shut down 3.Install graphics card 4.Boot up 5.Installed most current drivers from ati.com I try playing Alien Shooters 2 or Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper and I get a black screen when I double click on their icon for about 2 seconds and then it kicks me back onto my desktop. I contacted ATI, ATI said it was Emachines, Emachines said its ATI's problem(you know how that stuff goes, stupid competitors). ATI then told me my system32 files were corrupted and I either needed to try the graphics card on a different computer or perform a system restore. I wasn't even gonna risk screwing up another computer so I tried to perform a system restore with a WindowsXP Pro full copy(I removed the ATI graphics card for right now) and then it said my hard drive was damaged. I got a new hard drive fresh crom Circuit City and it said the same thing, so it was not my hard drive but the performing of partioning the hard drive, so Im guessing a hard ware problem. ANYWAYS...I tried using my recovery disc that the desktop emachines came with and it installed the OS ok but system locked up everytime it took me through the tutorial with setting up my computers name. SO...I then tried the Windows XP full copy cd again and it worked! WHOOT! So I installed all updated drivers for the emachines computer from the emachines website so all the bios/motherboard/w/e drivers would be up to date. Mind you I have not installed the ATI graphic card yet and its a clean copy of windows. I installed and tried the Alien Shooter 2 game and the same thing happened only without the ATI card! My on board graphics card was atleast able to load the games and play some what slow before I first installed at ATI graphics card. So now this is where Im at... 1.Brand new OS installed 2.Emachines drivers all up-to-date 3.No ATI graphics card installed yet... 4.Games still give me 2 second black screen then kicks me off. I think the ATI graphics card did something to my on board graphics card so now its not able to play any game. I contacted ATI and of course they wanted to make me pay shipping to ship the product back to them to replace it with another. NO WAY! ATI is now my official enemy and I will never buy from ATI again. However...I decided to ask everyone here for some help. Any help would be great. Thanks. P.S. I replaced my 300Watt power supply with a 550watt power supply because it stated it needed a 300+watt power supply so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of power. However, I did this 4 days before I even got my ATI card and the power supply worked fine so I dont think it could have anything to do with the power supply.

09-28-2007, 04:39 PM	#2 (permalink)
StwS Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 60 OS: Windows Vista Business My System	Re: ATI graphics card wont work! Gives me black screen! I think that we might have a similar problem: My Thread At first glance, it might seem a very different, but I think that we might have the same problem, and therefore the same solution. Perhaps we should work together to try to work this out... Last edited by StwS; 09-28-2007 at 04:41 PM.