--- Edna Sloan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Recently acquired this AGP video card, ATI Rage Fury 128 GL with 16mb
> memory.  Installed it in a Soyo 6KL AT MoBo(LX chipset) with latest
> flash,
> with 64MB ram, and Celeron 300A.  I downloaded the drivers from ATI
> for the
> card, and checked Soyo site for any newer drivers(none).  The board
> is rated
> at AGP 1x/2x.  I did have a Lightspeed PCI card that worked fine.  I
> uninstalled it and booted up with ATI card with Windows default VGA
> driver.
> Then installed the ATI drivers, which appeared in device manager as,
> "Magnum/xpert128/x99/. . ."  Everything seemed to be working OK till
> I
> changed the resolution an color depth(600x800 @ 16bit color), at
> which point
> it froze.  I rebooted and the new color/resolutions held.   After a
> few
> minutes, and going on the 'net if froze again.  I rebooted, and again
> it
> seemed to be OK.  The ATI download came with 5 diagnostic tests, of
> which
> the first four indicated no problem. but the last one froze with the
> monitor
> blacked out and no monitor signal evident on the monitor(Viewsonic
> 17GS) -
> can't remember the test now.  SisSoft Sandra didn't indicate any
> problems
> with the card.  I had the case open so checked the HSinked chip on
> the video
> card and it seemed awfully hot - I could only touch the HS for about
> 2 or 3
> seconds.  I shut it down and the next morning gave it another go.
> Now it
> freezes when it gets to the desktop in Windows(98).  I checked the
> bios and
> it is pretty much default, and auto on everything.   Do I have a bad
> card?
> I have emailed support where I got the card (XWY), but have not
> gotten any
> response.  Any help, advice appreciated.
> Edna Sloan

Hi,
Some of the ATI cards using the newest drivers have to have DirectX 7.0
installed to work correctly with 16bit or higher color depth. This is
the only brand I know of that has to have DirectX loaded just to work
on some of there models!! The other option is to reload the driver that
came with the card. If the driver's over a year old it does not require
DX7 to run high color depth. Most of my customers only update their
DirectX files to run the newest games or multimedia but ATI really
blundered on this one. Even download.com's ATI driver file page lists
over 20 bad reviews from individuals updating the same drivers - I
suspect most of them didn't notice the mandatory DirectX 7.0
requirement to use the driver.

Good Luck
-yui

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