Help! ATI card not identified by Windows?

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I'm having a weird problem trying to install a Sapphire 9200SE into an aging P3V4x motherboard. Windows XP is insisting on mis-identifying the card as a Nvidia TNT2, and I'm not able to install any ATI drivers because Windows just won't allow me to install drivers for the "wrong" hardware.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I've got the latest chipset driver, BIOS, and tried both the current ATI drivers and the ones on the CD that came with it, but I'm not getting anywhere because Windows won't see the correct hardware.

TIA

 

[Frank]

Try disabling autoconfiguration of your extension slots in the BIOS. If that doesn't fix it, the BIOS of the card has a faulty PNP identifier. Try flashing it.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Also make sure it's really a 9200se, there have been cases of the wrong cards in the wrong boxes before.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Well it has a Sapphire sticker in it claiming to be a 9200SE, and it won't flash - atiflash says it can't find any ATI adapters to flash.

 

[Frank]

Did you turn off "PNP OS" and "automatically alocate interrupts", or however it's called in the BIOS? And you don't use the PCI slot next to the AGP one?

If all that is OK, make a boot floppy with the DOS flash program, read the current BIOS and see what it says.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Did you turn off "PNP OS" and "automatically alocate interrupts", or however it's called in the BIOS? And you don't use the PCI slot next to the AGP one?

Yep, did all that

If all that is OK, make a boot floppy with the DOS flash program, read the current BIOS and see what it says.

Tried that, but I can only get "adapter not found" from any commands. It just doesn't recognise it as being there at all.

 

[Tim Murray]

... have you tried just installing TNT2 drivers and seeing what happens?

 

[Frank]

Try a boot floppy with the nVidia flash program, and see if that works. It might be just a mislabeled card, like digi said.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys, but I've actually hunted down pictures of the Sapphire 9200SE and the Nvidia Riva TNT and guess what - it's a Riva TNT.

Looks like I'll be back at the shop tomorrow. Once again I learn that I should never buy anything from PCWorld.

 

[fallguy]

Ouch, sorry. If file a claim.

 

[MasterBaiter]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys, but I've actually hunted down pictures of the Sapphire 9200SE and the Nvidia Riva TNT and guess what - it's a Riva TNT.

Looks like I'll be back at the shop tomorrow. Once again I learn that I should never buy anything from PCWorld.

Hehe, if it barks like a dog... it's probably a dog.

Sorry to hear about your tale of woe though. :?

 

[digitalwanderer]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys, but I've actually hunted down pictures of the Sapphire 9200SE and the Nvidia Riva TNT and guess what - it's a Riva TNT.

I win!

Sorry to hear, have fun taking your frustrations out at the store...but make sure you save it for a manager and not just some flunky.

The poor flunkies there have to take shit from their manager all day, ain't nothing more fun than humiliating a manager in front of his staff.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Well it wasn't a big deal - just got it refunded after I explained in detail what happened and what I wanted. It's just been a waste of my time getting the card, figuring out why it won't work and then bringing it back.

I tend not to give the drones behind the counter a hard time as long as they do what I want.

Ended up being lucky that I got something else working in the problem PC. It was only a quick stopgap so I didn't do much research, so it was good to bring it back as I've found that card is £20 cheaper mail order anyway.

So the lesson is never, ever, buy anything from PCWorld - it's always overpriced, and it will end in tears and frustration.

 

[PeterAce]

I now always check the box *before* leaving PCWorld as a few years ago I had a Diamond Stealth 2000 in the anti-stactic bag rather than a GF2MX !

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I did check the box because they had not kept the cards in the boxes on the shelves. I checked the sticker on the back and it identified the card as a Sapphire 9200SE. There is nothing screened onto the circuit board itself.

It was a bit of a "take what I can get at short notice to get the box working" purchase, so I had no specific idea of what a 9200SE looked like (there's no picture on the box). I guess it was a screw up in the factory because all the stickers on the card/box/disc had the correctly matching barcodes and numbers - but the card was the wrong hardware.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

I now always check the box *before* leaving PCWorld as a few years ago I had a Diamond Stealth 2000 in the anti-stactic bag rather than a GF2MX !

It sounds like what Frys dose in the States.
You have to be very carfull when shopping at Frys with wrong item in a box and fight you when you try to get what you payed for or employee giving wrong info on a product like in the Nvidia FX5XXX days so they can get ride of there stock.