TelferrefleT

Is frustratingly useless /rage

So I have said graphics card, and said graphics card doesn't work (I only have one card in there, not two of them just to let you know). It's sitting comfortably in my pc at the moment, but whenever I try to install the drivers for it, it all goes a bit pete tong. For a start, the drivers fail to install. Then, in device manager, it tells me it cannot find enough free resources. Now it tells me the driver failed to install because "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)". I've gone to add/remove programs and the only thing ATI related is the Catalyst Install Manager; no display drivers or uninstall utility or anything. I have ATI radeon express 1100 graphics built into the computer (it was already installed when I bought the pc) and, in an attempt to get this working I uninstalled its driver, then tried installing the new card's driver (which again failed). After spending so much money on this stupid thing (around £250 including a new power supply which is still about 50watts shy of what it recommends for the card) I'm determined to get the damn thing working even if it kills me. Now, I don't know a whole lot about computers so you'll have to forgive my ignorance, but any help/suggestions/advice would be welcome.

Mcninjaguy

what is your current PSU?
its more important than your graphics card by a long shot. If it can't give out the right amount of power it will fail very early and take a lot of the other PC components down with it

uninstall any thing that has to do with ATI with revo uninstaller
http://www.revouninstaller.com/

have you disabled the onboard video in your bios?

dai

whatever is recommended for the video card add 50% and you will be in the ballpark
if it is not enough for the video card alone from the start
you will not get anywhere until your psu is sufficient
for that card the min is going to be

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nc.-_-17139009

TelferrefleT

At the moment my PSU is 500watt, so I'm guessing I'm waaaaay off target. I'll give that uninstaller utility a go, and no I haven't disabled the onboard video yet. If I do what you guys have recommended (larger PSU and use Revo) and then attempt to install the new driver should it install without a hitch? Or would I need to disable the onboard video before I install it?

Mcninjaguy

yes disable on board video and use the output from the video card

TelferrefleT

Right so what I need to do is:

Get bigger PSU
Use Revo to remove the drivers for the new graphics card (and old graphics card? Or just the new graphics card?)
Reinstall new driver again
Disable on board video

Then it should work right?

Mcninjaguy

you should be running this PSU

Corsair 750w
$120
after rebates $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

dai

the 750 is to low for this card

Mcninjaguy

really?

the corsair 850w it is then

FreoHeaveho

1. Set a restore point
2. Download DriverCleaner of similar and run it for all nVidia and ATi
3. Download latest ATi driver (don't install yet)
4. Shutdown.
5. Remove the CMOS battery (keep the power cable pluged in, but swiched off). This will overcome the IRQ (resources) issue hopefully.
6. Restart in Safe Mode (Tap F8 on start).
7. Install the latest drivers (do it in normal mode if you cannot run the catalyst software in safe mode).
8. Restart normally.

Once done, update your Vista to SP2, post results and please post the full specs of that PSU. Dai is right, that GPU has a very hungry power need.

Mcninjaguy

there is no Vista SP2 rel;eased yet right?

FreoHeaveho

Ah yes, of course,but i have SP2 in beta on mine. Forgot that it wasn't released yet.

TelferrefleT

Right. I'm not 100% tech-savvy so lemme make sure I understand what you mean by some of that, before I go do something stupid and explode my pc:

1. How do I set a restore point?
2. DriverCleaner = something like Revo, the program Mcninja linked?
3. When you say CMOS battery do you mean replace old shoddy PSU with new (preferrably 850watt) PSU, or something totally different?

Also do I need to uninstall the current graphics driver, or should that not be an issue?

Mcninjaguy

CMOS battery is like a round battery on the motherboard
yes you should replace the PSU with a Corsair 850w

to make a restore point do this

Control Panel (classic view)
System
(left pane)System Protection
click on your Vista HDD
(button) Create
make a name for it and poof you've made a restore point

TelferrefleT

So as well as getting a new PSU I should also completely remove the CMOS?

dai

see where your at after changing the power supply

TelferrefleT

Right well it seems like that's what I'll do then. And what if the new PSU doesn't solve the resource issue (seeing as how the current issue I have won't be too difficult to solve)?