Dell Dimension 8300 and ATI Radeon 9550

Question

Okay, i've got a weird problem   I have a Dell Dimension 8300, recently i bought a new Radeon 9550 and it works fine untill i try to play a game, then it freezes, unfreezes, freezes again then goes out and gets deactivated by the catalyst A.I.   I don't know whats wrong, and does my computer even support this card, or is it defective? I'm at a loss here

Dale Nihiser · Answer

Dozer145 wrote:

Okay, i've got a weird problem

I have a Dell Dimension 8300, recently i bought a new Radeon 9550 and it works fine untill i try to play a game, then it freezes, unfreezes, freezes again then goes out and gets deactivated by the catalyst A.I.

I don't know whats wrong, and does my computer even support this card, or is it defective? I'm at a loss here

Your computer does support the card.

First what card did you replace? Did you uninstall the old drivers and run drivercleaner pro?

What game are you trying to play? Do you have the latest patches?

Disable v-sync.

Try and set your in-game screen resolution the same as your desktop resolution. You may have to set your desktop resolution to a lower setting.

Make sure you have the latest Catalyst drivers and Catalyst Control Center from www.amd.com installed.

The 9550 is barely an entry level agp video card now and may simply not have the horsepower to run your game.

Good LucK

Dale

Cool Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Mid tower case
AMD Athlon 64 3700+--->AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 ATX motherboard
1GB Cosair ValueSelect PC 3200 DDR 400 SDRAM
EVGA GeForce 6800GS 256Mb GDDR3 PCI Express
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200Gb 7200rpm SATA 150 HD
Plextor 708A 8x burner
OCz GameXstream 700 watt psu
Logitech Optical Mouse MX310
Logitech Wingman Rumblepad
Altec-Lansing headphones w/mic
Viewsonic G90fb-2 19"
Windows XP Home Sp2(all updates)
D-Link 524 Wireless Ethernet Broadband Router

Dozer145 · Answer

Battlefield 2.    here's something peculiar though,,   In the catalyst control panel, in the 3D preview, if i put the setting to quality, the 3D preview does the same thing BF2 does to me. now, obviously all settings on a card should not go past what a card can do, so this got me thinking that maybe its a defective card.

SR45 · Answer

Battlefield 2 + the 9550 low end card = Lousy game play   Battlefield 2 requires a good video card, in which the 9550 is not, and many have learned that 2 gb of main memory is also suggested for a better game play.   You can do so much better with another card in the range of the 7600 GT AGP slot

Dozer145 · Answer

I love how your all missing the point here. But get off the bf2 stuff, i told you it screws up on just about everything, even the 3D test.

SR45 · Answer

Why don't you try a nvidia card ? And again, that 9550 is lousy, slow and old. No one really uses it unless they are behind the times or short of money.

I tried two ati cards and did not agree with my system, so I went with nvidia and all is well.

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest A game system requirement link to test your system to see if you can play that game on your computer. It has the game battlefield 2 to test your system and video card

Dim 4400
2.6 Ghz 400 FSB
1 Gb 2100 DDR memory
Windows XP Home
120 Gb Seagate 7,200 drive
24 inch 2407 WFP
XFX 7800 GS O/C AGP
16x DVD-R
410 watt ( PcPower&Cooling )

Message Edited by SR45 on 01-02-200707:02 PM

Dale Nihiser · Answer

Dozer145 wrote:

I love how your all missing the point here. But get off the bf2 stuff, i told you it screws up on just about everything, even the 3D test.

You've expanded the problem you're having with the card from your orginal post. It now appears to be a bad card. You can confirm that if you can install it in another system and can duplicate the "screw-ups".

SR45 gave you a good replacement card.

Good LucK

Dale

Dimension 4550
Intel P4 2.53GHz
A08 Bios
768Mb DDR 333MHz RAM
533Mhz fsb
Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 256Mb 16 pipes enabled
SoundBlaster Live
D-Link 524 Wireless Router
Lite-on DVD-rom
LG-DT-ST CDRW-rom 848-1b
WD 600BB 60Gb Ultra ATA 100 7200rpm HD
WD 1200JB SE 120Gb ATA 100 7200rpm HD
BenQ FP71G+ LCD monitor
Win XP SP2 (all updates)

Dozer145 · Answer

Screw-ups duplicated in my fathers computer, its a bad card. Typical, Every experience i've had with ATI has been . My suggestion to everyone: Ditch ATI, and buy an nVidia.    Please suggest a good AGP Nvidia card. Please dont recommend one that burns my wallet, 200 max.

SR45 · Answer

How about one of the following. From low end to better that will fit the budget..

All would be better than the 9550 cards

1. 6600 GT AGP slot

2. 7600 GS AGP slot

3. 7600 GT AGT slot. Favorite amoung many, and cost around $179 or less

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122009 7600 GT Needs a molex Y power cable for about $3.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150210 7600 GT and does include the molex cable but, it has two DVI connectors instead of one DVI and one Analog connector.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130076 7600 GS It does include the molex cabel

Proper install of a video card, and going from a ati card to a nvidia card

Step One....

Download the most current driver for the video card, and have it placed on the desktop for later install. Try not to use the video card driver from the cd that comes with the card, since they are some what out of date. ( If it’s a nVidia card, go to www.nvidia.com . If it’s an ATI card, than go to www.ati.com for the driver download.

Going from an ATI card to NVIDIA or vs. versa, one should uninstall the old driver first. Before installing a new driver, make sure you uninstall all nVidia or ATI display drivers from the Windows Control Panel. Browse to the Start Menu > Windows Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, and search for nVidia or ATI Windows Display Drivers or called nVidia Display Drivers, than select remove. Than use the driver cleaner, to get all the old driver code completely off the system. Use the driver cleaner twice. If you are going from a nVidia card to another nVidia card ( Same for the ATI card ), you may not have to use the driver cleaner, but I do to be on the safe side, but many, including myself, have not seen any issues with this procedure. Others may have.

http://www.drivercleaner.net/ Driver Cleaner Pro download site. ( Now they are charging $10 for the program, where it was free before. You can try to manually clean out the old driver if you wish, but this is still a good program to have around )

Free version that you might want to use ... http://www.3dchipset.com/utilities/ati/driver_removal/dclean.php

1. Turn off the system, unplug the power cord, and push in on the systems power button for about 5 seconds to discharge the system further.

2. Remove the old card, and install the new card, firmly. Attach, if required, any power cable to the card, and to a power connector on your system. ( Some video cards, but not all, may need a power connector that you may have extra from the power supply connected to the video card or use a Molex Y power cable connected to the rear of the video card, and the other end to a power connector often found next to the cdrw or dvd drive, to get the video card to work )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812189003 This is what a Molex Y cable looks like

3. Plug the power cable back in, and reboot the system. You may notice that the monitor screen is larger now. Not to worry if this happens, since you are now using Microsoft’s Generic video driver, prior to installing the one you downloaded.

4. Now disable your anti virus software, and disconnect the modem at this time..

5. Install the newer video card driver from the desktop, reboot the system, than if necessary, go into the Display Properties to reset the monitor resolution after it reboots. You are almost done. Now restart the anti virus program, and connect the modem. ( It has been noted from time to time, that the anti virus program may cause problems with the install of some drivers, and some games, so it’s best to disable this during the driver install to eliminate that possibility )

Display Properties.... Right click your mouse on an empty part of the monitor ( desktop ), click on Properties next, than click on Settings on top. Now look at the screen resolution bar on the left side. Move it to the proper resolution to the monitor you have. Click on Apply, than OK. The monitor will go blank for a second of two, than another box will appear in the upper left side asking you if you wish to keep the new settings. Click OK. Do so before the second counter goes down, and you have to start over.... Now you are done

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest A game system requirement link to test your system to see if you can play that game on your computer

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html A performance chart on some cards that you may wish to look at

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=437&card2=370 Video card comparison guide.

Proper install of a video card link found here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=965852

Message Edited by SR45 on 01-03-200706:49 AM

Dale Nihiser · Answer

I might add, that all three cards suggested are great picks and will work with your stock power supply. No upgrade necessary.

Good LucK

Dale

Cool Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Mid tower case
AMD Athlon 64 3700+--->AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 ATX motherboard
1GB Cosair ValueSelect PC 3200 DDR 400 SDRAM
EVGA GeForce 6800GS 256Mb GDDR3 PCI Express
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200Gb 7200rpm SATA 150 HD
Plextor 708A 8x burner
OCz GameXstream 700 watt psu
Logitech Optical Mouse MX310
Logitech Wingman Rumblepad
Altec-Lansing headphones w/mic
Viewsonic G90fb-2 19"
Windows XP Home Sp2(all updates)
D-Link 524 Wireless Ethernet Broadband Router

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Dell Dimension 8300 and ATI Radeon 9550

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