I need help replacing my ATI graphics card

Mississippi Mom · 12-02-2005, 08:18 AM

I have questions, probably dumb questions to y'all. My children enjoy computer games many of which require high speed graphics. My oldest son (who is in finals crunch week at college and can't be disturbed) ordered our family computer with an ATI Radeon 9700 pre-installed. The computer is a 2002 model Dell Dimension 8250 running Windows XP with service pack 1 and I think he added service pack 2. Recently, the display got boxed and fragmented. I tried a different monitor and had the same results. I concluded that the video card was the problem. I would have preferred to just replace it with a new Radeon 9700, but the computer store (which is 100 miles away, literally) did not have it and sold me a Radeon 9550. How much of the installation instructions must I follow, since I was already running a Radeon 9700? Do I need to get new AGP chipset drivers? Can I change out the cards without uninstalling the 9700? Will I lose all display? It is very difficult to read now, but at least I can tell what is on the screen. Will I make it worse or better if I just pull out the 9700 card and put in the 9550 card? Please help me get this fixed before final exams.

Thanks,
Mom

dai · 12-02-2005, 08:35 AM

welcome to the forum,you should be able to just swap the cards,they use the same drivers

ebackhus · 12-02-2005, 09:04 AM

It may be a good idea to also reinstall new drivers so that they properly work with the different card. The 9550 and 9700 are quite different.

Mississippi Mom · 12-02-2005, 07:12 PM

I have encountered an unexpected problem. There are wires (2 black, 1 yellow, 1 red) to a 4 pin connection coming from the old video card, but I don't see any place to connect to the new one. There is another set of wires from the connector that are dead ended, as if there were 2 choices for connecting to the video card. Help Please!

**UncleMacro** · 12-02-2005, 07:58 PM

Radeon 9700s need extra power which cannot be provided by the AGP slot so they require an extra power cable. A Radeon 9550 is a lower power (and slower) card which doesn't require an extra power cable. Just unplug the power cable from the 9700. You don't need to connect an extra cable to the 9550. By the way, if you're running new ATI drivers then you probably don't have to change drivers when switching from a 9700 to a 9550. But if you're running old drivers then they may not work because the 9550 is much newer than a 9700. To be safe, the steps I would follow to swap video cards is:

Download new catalyst drivers from ATI. I'd get the smaller ones which just use the control panel rather than the larger ones which include the "Catalyst Control Center". The catalyst control center drivers are prettier but they also require .NET to be installed and they're a real resource hog. The smaller control panel driver is under "Alternate/Optional Downloads" called "Display Drivers, Control Panel, WDM Driver" on their website. You need service pack 2 for the latest ATI drivers. If you don't have SP2 then you can download older drivers from ATI.
Uninstall your old catalyst drivers by running the "ATI - Software Uninstall Utility" from the "Add or Remove Programs" window. This completely uninstalls your current display drivers.
Shut the machine down and remove the old 9700 and then insert the new 9550. Before messing with your hardware be sure to touch a metal part of the case or your power supply to discharge any static you may have built up.
Turn the machine on and cancel out of any "Found new hardware" window which comes up. That window is the old way to install display drivers which you shouldn't use.
Execute the new driver program which you downloaded from ATI. That will install your new drivers.
Reboot and you should be done.

Mississippi Mom · 12-03-2005, 05:47 AM

OH, Thank you Uncle Macro....I am now up and running with the replaced video
card. I'm sure the boys will have adjustments and tweaks that they will want to add, but I'm just happy to have the display all together again.....Many thanks!

12-02-2005, 08:18 AM	#1 (permalink)
Mississippi Mom Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	I need help replacing my ATI graphics card I have questions, probably dumb questions to y'all. My children enjoy computer games many of which require high speed graphics. My oldest son (who is in finals crunch week at college and can't be disturbed) ordered our family computer with an ATI Radeon 9700 pre-installed. The computer is a 2002 model Dell Dimension 8250 running Windows XP with service pack 1 and I think he added service pack 2. Recently, the display got boxed and fragmented. I tried a different monitor and had the same results. I concluded that the video card was the problem. I would have preferred to just replace it with a new Radeon 9700, but the computer store (which is 100 miles away, literally) did not have it and sold me a Radeon 9550. How much of the installation instructions must I follow, since I was already running a Radeon 9700? Do I need to get new AGP chipset drivers? Can I change out the cards without uninstalling the 9700? Will I lose all display? It is very difficult to read now, but at least I can tell what is on the screen. Will I make it worse or better if I just pull out the 9700 card and put in the 9550 card? Please help me get this fixed before final exams. Thanks, Mom

12-02-2005, 08:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,702 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	welcome to the forum,you should be able to just swap the cards,they use the same drivers __________________

12-02-2005, 09:04 AM	#3 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,303 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	It may be a good idea to also reinstall new drivers so that they properly work with the different card. The 9550 and 9700 are quite different. __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.

12-02-2005, 07:58 PM	#5 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	Radeon 9700s need extra power which cannot be provided by the AGP slot so they require an extra power cable. A Radeon 9550 is a lower power (and slower) card which doesn't require an extra power cable. Just unplug the power cable from the 9700. You don't need to connect an extra cable to the 9550. By the way, if you're running new ATI drivers then you probably don't have to change drivers when switching from a 9700 to a 9550. But if you're running old drivers then they may not work because the 9550 is much newer than a 9700. To be safe, the steps I would follow to swap video cards is: Download new catalyst drivers from ATI. I'd get the smaller ones which just use the control panel rather than the larger ones which include the "Catalyst Control Center". The catalyst control center drivers are prettier but they also require .NET to be installed and they're a real resource hog. The smaller control panel driver is under "Alternate/Optional Downloads" called "Display Drivers, Control Panel, WDM Driver" on their website. You need service pack 2 for the latest ATI drivers. If you don't have SP2 then you can download older drivers from ATI. Uninstall your old catalyst drivers by running the "ATI - Software Uninstall Utility" from the "Add or Remove Programs" window. This completely uninstalls your current display drivers. Shut the machine down and remove the old 9700 and then insert the new 9550. Before messing with your hardware be sure to touch a metal part of the case or your power supply to discharge any static you may have built up. Turn the machine on and cancel out of any "Found new hardware" window which comes up. That window is the old way to install display drivers which you shouldn't use. Execute the new driver program which you downloaded from ATI. That will install your new drivers. Reboot and you should be done. Last edited by UncleMacro; 12-02-2005 at 08:00 PM.

12-03-2005, 05:47 AM	#6 (permalink)
Mississippi Mom Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	OH, Thank you Uncle Macro....I am now up and running with the replaced video card. I'm sure the boys will have adjustments and tweaks that they will want to add, but I'm just happy to have the display all together again.....Many thanks! Last edited by Mississippi Mom; 12-03-2005 at 05:49 AM.

12-02-2005, 07:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
Mississippi Mom Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	I have encountered an unexpected problem. There are wires (2 black, 1 yellow, 1 red) to a 4 pin connection coming from the old video card, but I don't see any place to connect to the new one. There is another set of wires from the connector that are dead ended, as if there were 2 choices for connecting to the video card. Help Please!