ASUS A9600GE not working w/ Dell

jas0n 0n a bike · 07-11-2005, 03:11 PM

I'm running a 2002 Dell Dimension 8200 with a Intel 850 mobo, but only a 250 watt power supply. I have an AGP 4x slot, which should run my card fine.

I bought a ASUS Radeon A9600GE card (AGP4x/8x accepts 1.5v, 128mb DDR), plugged it in, and booted up. The 2D was fine, until I installed the catalyst drivers. This is what happens when I boot up again: everything goes well until desktop loads, a couple seconds later the screen turns black, and then it shuts off. I turn on the screen again, and it says it went into power savings mode, and nothing i do brings it back to desktop.

So now I look over all the specs: it SHOULD work. So maybe it's the drivers. So I download the alternative Omega drivers. SAme problem. So maybe its my BIOS that's out of date. I update it. Same problem.

So now I'm puzzled. Maybe the 250 watt power supply is too low. I disconnect one harddrive, even my cd drive, zip drive, network card, just about everything else that's not necessary. Boot it up....boom. Same problem.

So now I'm stuck here not knowing what's wrong, is there a known compatibility issue with Dell and ATI cards?

**UncleMacro** · 07-12-2005, 01:14 AM

I'm not aware of any compatibility problems with your motherboard and video card. I doubt there are any "standard" problems between Intel 850s and Radeon 9600s. Some older Dells don't have the greatest reputation when it comes to compatibility with PCI video cards but I don't know of any common AGP problems.

I doubt your power supply has anything to do with it but you can use MotherboardMonitor to check your power supply voltages as explained here.

What happens if you boot in VGA mode (basics here)? If it boots okay in VGA mode does it "go black" when you try to change the screen resolution? How about changing the refresh rate? Are you using an LCD monitor?

One other thing you might try is slowing down your AGP port using SMARTGART (instructions here). I've seen unstable AGP ports turn off the monitor but usually it doesn't happen as quickly as it does for you. It only takes a couple of minutes to test so you might as well give it a try. It's a Radeon 9600 so it may have problems if you try to disable fast writes. You can give that a try and if it causes problems you can fix it by booting in safe mode and uninstalling the ATI Catalyst drivers.

07-11-2005, 03:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
jas0n 0n a bike Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 1 OS: XP	ASUS A9600GE not working w/ Dell I'm running a 2002 Dell Dimension 8200 with a Intel 850 mobo, but only a 250 watt power supply. I have an AGP 4x slot, which should run my card fine. I bought a ASUS Radeon A9600GE card (AGP4x/8x accepts 1.5v, 128mb DDR), plugged it in, and booted up. The 2D was fine, until I installed the catalyst drivers. This is what happens when I boot up again: everything goes well until desktop loads, a couple seconds later the screen turns black, and then it shuts off. I turn on the screen again, and it says it went into power savings mode, and nothing i do brings it back to desktop. So now I look over all the specs: it SHOULD work. So maybe it's the drivers. So I download the alternative Omega drivers. SAme problem. So maybe its my BIOS that's out of date. I update it. Same problem. So now I'm puzzled. Maybe the 250 watt power supply is too low. I disconnect one harddrive, even my cd drive, zip drive, network card, just about everything else that's not necessary. Boot it up....boom. Same problem. So now I'm stuck here not knowing what's wrong, is there a known compatibility issue with Dell and ATI cards? Last edited by jas0n 0n a bike; 07-11-2005 at 03:14 PM. Reason: typo

07-12-2005, 01:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	I'm not aware of any compatibility problems with your motherboard and video card. I doubt there are any "standard" problems between Intel 850s and Radeon 9600s. Some older Dells don't have the greatest reputation when it comes to compatibility with PCI video cards but I don't know of any common AGP problems. I doubt your power supply has anything to do with it but you can use MotherboardMonitor to check your power supply voltages as explained here. What happens if you boot in VGA mode (basics here)? If it boots okay in VGA mode does it "go black" when you try to change the screen resolution? How about changing the refresh rate? Are you using an LCD monitor? One other thing you might try is slowing down your AGP port using SMARTGART (instructions here). I've seen unstable AGP ports turn off the monitor but usually it doesn't happen as quickly as it does for you. It only takes a couple of minutes to test so you might as well give it a try. It's a Radeon 9600 so it may have problems if you try to disable fast writes. You can give that a try and if it causes problems you can fix it by booting in safe mode and uninstalling the ATI Catalyst drivers. Last edited by UncleMacro; 07-12-2005 at 01:16 AM.