Sapphire 9250

Hello....i bought a sapphire 9250 video card. I have a dimensions E310 with windows xp. I installed the card correctly with the installation cd. Everything went fine until I rebooted and then the monitor didnt work. Lets me go into setup but would not show desktop. I think a setting is wrong correct??? If so where? I plugged the monitor back into the other port and not the card. Any help would be much appreciated....scott:

Hey Scott,

When you turn the computer on it has an option to enter the BIOS - it only appears for a few seconds right when you first turn on your machine. Press the F2 key a few times after you press the power button and that should put you into your BIOS.

In BIOS, you may have an option to configure your graphics adapter (its called "Primary Video"). It is likely going to default to the built in adapter that is currently working fine for you. If you switch that setting to the external/discrete adapter, that means you are telling the system to use that new graphics card you plugged in rather than the built-in graphics adapter you've used in the past.

Once you've changed the setting, you'll want to save the changes and exit the BIOS, which will reboot the system... When it reboots, you'll want to plug your monitor into your new graphics card port.

Should be smooth sailing from there. Let us know how it goes. If the crap hits the fan, you can always undo anything you did in BIOS by following the instructions here to clear cmos:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3100/en/sm/syssetup.htm#wp1053345

Thanks I did go into bios and to primary video when I started. I went to primary and I think I changed it from auto to integrated. Wrong huh? I changed it back to auto but still didnt work. Im on my laptop now at work. I'll try to do something when I get home.

Yup, wrong setting. I'd set it manually to whatever the option is other than auto or integrated, probably called "discrete" or "external".

There's also a PCI/PEG setting in some BIOS which helps the board determine what bus to use to check for a GPU (PCI = PCI and PEG = PCI-E Graphics). I haven't used a motherboard with onboard graphics though, so I'm not familiar with their settings...

Ya, I wasn't sure on that either, but his service manual didn't mention anything about that when I gave it a skim:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3100/en/sm/index.htm

In primary video i have auto and onboard. I switched it to onboard with no luck so far

May be a buggy driver, you may be required to fiddle with other Catalyst versions. Sorry.

I suggest you try versions from 2004, if you keep having major problems.

I dont know....now it wont show anything. Had to put video plug back in motherboard. Is there something in sysyem setup? what about on board devices in setup? Integrated NIC? Does it matter what slot I put it in? took the old card out and put new one in its place. Im lost now.

catalyst versions? 2004? huh?

vozzyy said:

catalyst versions? 2004? huh?

Click to expand...

That means Catalyst 4x. 4.0-4.9

well I was told by others on diff sites that this was a decent card that would work with windows xp....drivers says it from '04...whys this gotta be so difficult? I installed one awhile back on a diff pc with no problems...hmmm

Do you guys know where i can download FREE drivers? I google them and they all wanna scam me out of money for some bogus driver fix program. What happened to the good ol days where you could do this for free and easy??

ATI pulled them from their web sites.

And some later versions of Catalyst appear to have regressions.

With the 9000 Pro, Catalyst 3.2 seems to be the best and maybe 3.1.

so your saying get a different card?? Ill tell ya why we got this. Its my dads puter and he likes to fly. So I put microsoft simulator x on this and it works fine but airport and only the airports have this big black triangle over the runway and you cant always see to land. I asked some tech support forums and they said its most likely the video card so I was told by others this card was good and and I read positive feedback. I did find drivers for sapphire and downloaded them. Im not getting an error message anymore but video still doesnt work off the card just the motherboard. Seems like something simple but its kickin my *** for sure.

heres a link to the recommended catalyst 3.2 drivers off of guru3d

http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATi-CATALYST-3.2-Windows-2000|XP-download-592.html

theres only the auto and onboard options?

If its a driver issue, he'd get video display at boot/post/pre-windows loading screen and he'd also be able to get into safemode by pressing f8 when the system is loading.

Vozzy, if you can't see anything displayed on the monitor when you boot the pc with the monitor connected to the new card, then this is not a driver issue. If the display is fine until the windows loading screen, then it goes black, then it is a driver issue.

If its a driver issue, you should first login via safe mode by pressing f8 during boot and selecting safe mode from the options listed. Uninstall any ati drivers you have loaded, reboot. The system should boot and work at reduced resolution with the default video drivers in windows xp, then you can try the driver recommended above if that works.

If you aren't getting any video output at all with the new card, there are only two possibilities I can think of. Misconfiguration in bios, or a defective video card. If you were using an external video card before or a different external card works fine, then you don't need to change bios setting and the new card should just work. Originally you sounded like you were only using the onboard motherboard graphics, but your last comment sounded like you've used another card without any problems.

Give me some more details and we can give better instructions.

yes I only have auto and onboard under primary. I can boot up in safe mode. When I reboot I get the dell screen with f-2 and f-12 options then monitor goes blank. The cpu boots up all the way cuz I switch the cable from video card to the motherboard and its ok...there was what I think was a video card that come with it. This puter had no modifications prior. The card is small with 2 data ports for like phone plugs? Maybe this needs to stay in? because the monitor plugs into the motherboard. It has 2 slots, one had this card installed and one empty. What ya think? I do appreciate you gizes help so far

Scott

Ok I tried to download driver listed above but it takes me to driverfinder for 30 bucks. I cant download for free anywhere?? seriously?

All drivers are free. Which driver are you trying to DL? Catalyst 3.2?

The link amer listed goes to guru3D. You can DL free from there.