My new ATi 9550, and the horrible, horrible upgrade

FrYGuY · 03-15-2005, 12:34 AM

(This will be funny. Laugh.)

So, I had for a long time a nVidia TNT2 with 32 MB of RAM. Yes, you read that properly. I had a card in my desktop which predates the entire GeForce line.

Unfortunately, as a poor college student, somebody got me Doom 3. The bastards! My processor is fast enough, my RAM is bountiful enough, I've enough disk space for a small country, but my video card was sorely lacking.

So, I use what birthday and Christmas money I can scrounge together, and buy myself an ATi Radeon 9550. As an added bonus, the thing has TV out so I can finally use my Computer as a proper video player, without having to huddle around my monitor.

I install it, and all works well. I am content. I try it out on the TV... the picture is clear, but it's in Black and White. Odd, but oh well. That wasn't a big deal anyway, and I'll figure out what's up in the morning.

Morning comes, and there was a power outage the night before. That means my computer needed booting (It's the only time the poor box gets reset!). And, as it starts up... I'm plagued with invalid memory errors, improper file errors, and delayed write failure errors. What is this? What could this be? Could my new video card which I've shelled out the last of my hard-mooched money be incompatible with some other motherboard component? Say it ain't so!

So I'm told by a friend that Radeons and Via chipsets don't play well together, and often will cause the errors I see. Well, I didn't think I had any Via chipsets, but I wasn't quite sure. A quick glance over my Mobo didn't reveal any, and I didn't recall any in the specs. But whatever, a quick swap of vid cards, back to the stoneage, and check. Nope, no Via chipsets. So, maybe my Intel IDE controller has the same problem, and lo and behold, there is an updated driver! I update, check, and all seems well! I restart, and all seems ill! Same problems.

So I swap out yet again. In all the swapping, I notice a jumper on the card which was rather inconspicuous: (NTSC / PAL), and it was set to PAL. Well, dang. That explains the stupid Black and White! I'd have never seen that when it got locked into it's steel case prison...

Back to the problem at hand, I find out that there is a setting deep within Windows that will optimize memory for either program, or system cache. It turns out that Radeons do not like it being optimized for system cache. Surely this can't be it... but alas, the system has indeed been setup like this (Not the default... I must've tweaked it when setting it up). Swap out again, test, and it's all good. A quick boot again, and it's indeed still all good.

And thus ends the tale of the Radeon 9550. Endless hairpulling which had the nice end result of fixing a problem I'd have never caught otherwise (The NTSC/PAL jumper).

Next week, I'll share a friend's story of installing a simple (Or so it seems!) game on a Mac!

technobeast · 03-15-2005, 12:41 AM

LOL. Funny one. And congrats on the upgrade

I still have the same (Riva TNT2 M64 32MB) on my main desktop machine. As I write in a couple of other threads, I am seriously thinking of an upgrade. Yet this ATI 9550 is the perfect solution for a low-budget card. But I'll never buy ATI (well never say "never" some say, but up to the moment that's my opinion), due to lots reasons (I like NVidia, I don't like ATI, Nvidia have always had better linux drivers, etc). So what I consider best as a low budget card is a FX5200 or similar..

**greffov** · 03-16-2005, 02:00 PM

gaming? is it possible on a Mac? wow!

/me gets all excited!

FrYGuY · 03-19-2005, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greffov

gaming? is it possible on a Mac? wow!

/me gets all excited!

Since you're excited, I'll post it a day early

Next, in the "Horrible, horrible upgrade" series of entertaining stories, I give you the epic quest of installing Alpha Centauri on a Mac!

So, my friend has a Mac. At this point in my life, I'd had nothing but bad experiences with them (And hey, OS-X wasn't out so they still sucked hardcore... Yes, OS-X has changed that. They don't suck anymore. The point is they did!), so anything he did to remind me that he had a Mac, I comforted him.

So he goes to the Mac store, and sees that Sid Meier has come out with a new game: Alpha Centauri! It's futuristic, and spacey, and diplomatic, and all the goodness of Sid Meier's more famous game, Civilization. He asks the guy at the Mac store "Can my computer run it?", and lists the model number. "Suuuure!" the salesman responds, "Now give us money". Being a good Mac user, he did just that.

But what's this? The salesman didn't say, but MacOS 7 was incapable of running the game! He had to upgrade to MacOS 7.6 (Yes, both of those sucked, still suck, and will always suck). So, being a good Mac user, he goes back to the Mac Store, buys the $150 upgrade, and installs.

But what's this? Oh noes! MacOS 7.6 doesn't like his CD-ROM drive! In Apple's usual infinite wisdom, they decided to break the drive to force him to upgrade so that whatever minor, arcane issue the Drive might have caused wouldn't bother him. Well, damnit. He just installed MacOS 7.6 via CD, but now he couldn't install Alpha Centauri from ITs CD.

So, being a good little Mac user, he runs back to the Apple store yet again, and they happily replace his CD drive. $400 later, he takes the computer back home. Hurray! No more barriers to playing Alpha Centauri! And it only cost him $600!

So, he loads up the disk, it installs, and it starts running... very, very badly.

Turns out the processor was to slow to play the game in the first place. Mac salesman conveniently ignored that fact.

Friend chucked his Mac and swore to never buy one again.

The end.

technobeast · 03-19-2005, 11:11 PM

LOL... a nice story. Probably Macs do have some problems, but it was this @$$ that sold your friend something without asking what hardware he had... well money are sure an important factor.

**greffov** · 03-20-2005, 05:00 AM

lol

Dr. Avery · 03-20-2005, 05:20 AM

Dude - I've got that TNT2 in my mediabox

03-15-2005, 12:34 AM	#1 (permalink)
FrYGuY Member Type Guy Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 501	My new ATi 9550, and the horrible, horrible upgrade (This will be funny. Laugh.) So, I had for a long time a nVidia TNT2 with 32 MB of RAM. Yes, you read that properly. I had a card in my desktop which predates the entire GeForce line. Unfortunately, as a poor college student, somebody got me Doom 3. The bastards! My processor is fast enough, my RAM is bountiful enough, I've enough disk space for a small country, but my video card was sorely lacking. So, I use what birthday and Christmas money I can scrounge together, and buy myself an ATi Radeon 9550. As an added bonus, the thing has TV out so I can finally use my Computer as a proper video player, without having to huddle around my monitor. I install it, and all works well. I am content. I try it out on the TV... the picture is clear, but it's in Black and White. Odd, but oh well. That wasn't a big deal anyway, and I'll figure out what's up in the morning. Morning comes, and there was a power outage the night before. That means my computer needed booting (It's the only time the poor box gets reset!). And, as it starts up... I'm plagued with invalid memory errors, improper file errors, and delayed write failure errors. What is this? What could this be? Could my new video card which I've shelled out the last of my hard-mooched money be incompatible with some other motherboard component? Say it ain't so! So I'm told by a friend that Radeons and Via chipsets don't play well together, and often will cause the errors I see. Well, I didn't think I had any Via chipsets, but I wasn't quite sure. A quick glance over my Mobo didn't reveal any, and I didn't recall any in the specs. But whatever, a quick swap of vid cards, back to the stoneage, and check. Nope, no Via chipsets. So, maybe my Intel IDE controller has the same problem, and lo and behold, there is an updated driver! I update, check, and all seems well! I restart, and all seems ill! Same problems. So I swap out yet again. In all the swapping, I notice a jumper on the card which was rather inconspicuous: (NTSC / PAL), and it was set to PAL. Well, dang. That explains the stupid Black and White! I'd have never seen that when it got locked into it's steel case prison... Back to the problem at hand, I find out that there is a setting deep within Windows that will optimize memory for either program, or system cache. It turns out that Radeons do not like it being optimized for system cache. Surely this can't be it... but alas, the system has indeed been setup like this (Not the default... I must've tweaked it when setting it up). Swap out again, test, and it's all good. A quick boot again, and it's indeed still all good. And thus ends the tale of the Radeon 9550. Endless hairpulling which had the nice end result of fixing a problem I'd have never caught otherwise (The NTSC/PAL jumper). Next week, I'll share a friend's story of installing a simple (Or so it seems!) game on a Mac! __________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GB/G/H/J/MC/S d-(--)@ s+:+ a-- C !U--- P--- L--(-) E- W N-(--) !o K--- w++ O--- M--(--) V-- PS+ PE+ Y+ PGP- t-- 5-- X- R(+) tv(++) b-- DI+ D---- G- e+++ h-- r* y++ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ Yeah, my computer sucks. You try and do better.

03-15-2005, 12:41 AM	#2 (permalink)
technobeast The Grim Reaper! Join Date: May 2002 Location: Bulgaria Posts: 2,387	LOL. Funny one. And congrats on the upgrade I still have the same (Riva TNT2 M64 32MB) on my main desktop machine. As I write in a couple of other threads, I am seriously thinking of an upgrade. Yet this ATI 9550 is the perfect solution for a low-budget card. But I'll never buy ATI (well never say "never" some say, but up to the moment that's my opinion), due to lots reasons (I like NVidia, I don't like ATI, Nvidia have always had better linux drivers, etc). So what I consider best as a low budget card is a FX5200 or similar.. __________________ Liked this post and found it helpful? Click on the image under my avatar to add to my reputation

03-16-2005, 02:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
greffov Da House Nerd Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: One CPU Lane Posts: 3,512	gaming? is it possible on a Mac? wow! /me gets all excited! __________________ Linux virusscanner detected a virus: Windows 95 ... delete [Y/n] y ~ ~ :wq

03-19-2005, 11:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
technobeast The Grim Reaper! Join Date: May 2002 Location: Bulgaria Posts: 2,387	LOL... a nice story. Probably Macs do have some problems, but it was this @$$ that sold your friend something without asking what hardware he had... well money are sure an important factor. __________________ Liked this post and found it helpful? Click on the image under my avatar to add to my reputation

03-20-2005, 05:00 AM	#6 (permalink)
greffov Da House Nerd Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: One CPU Lane Posts: 3,512	lol __________________ Linux virusscanner detected a virus: Windows 95 ... delete [Y/n] y ~ ~ :wq

03-20-2005, 05:20 AM	#7 (permalink)
Dr. Avery Tech Weasel Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The Fortress of Awesometude Posts: 1,145	Dude - I've got that TNT2 in my mediabox __________________ 01010001 01110101 01100001 01100011 01101011: Fowl Syntax.

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