Radeon 9600Follow

Hello all. I am hoping I can find some help with this problem, as wading through the ATI website to actually find where to ask your question sucks!

I have a computer that I built. I used a SoYO motherboard (K7VME) with 1 gig Ram.

This machine is a secondary machine that I do play EQ on (when my nephew comes over and uses it while I play my guy on my box, so we can be in the same room while we play), but mainly the computer is used by the wife and kids for web browsing.

The box has onboard video, which works fine but does not have 3D graphic accelerator, so it won't run EQ.

I bought a Radeon 9600 video card (I think it is the All-In-Wonder, not the pro) so that I could hook up the cable to the card and watch/record cable TV shows with the computer. This also allows EQ to run because it has a 3D graphics accelorator.

A few weeks ago I did windows update to get newest security files. I happen to notice that there are also 3 updates out there for drivers. I think, "hmm...ok" and I grabbed them and updated them also.

After that, I started getting messages on boot up (XP home edition BTW) about needing a file off the install CD. I put the install CD in, but it can't find the file on the CD (I can't think of total name of file now, but I think I have it written down at home, I can't boot up and read it off the screen because of what I did next). I could not find the file by putting the file name into a google search. Anywhere. I kept having to cancel out of all the boxes telling me it needed that file (it seems to me it usually asked for the same file either 2 or 3 times before it stopped making me click on cancel). This would leave me with Windows running fine, but with a generic video driver. Works fine for that the wife and kids do, but wasn't working too well with the TV aspects of the Radeon.

I tried updating the drivers for the Radeon. The files I find on ATI web site (a web site I do not fine easy to navigate) all ask me to put in the install CD long enough for them to verify I really have an install CD and haven't stolen this video card or gotten it by any means other than out of the box they packaged it in. Ok. Wierd, but I got it, so I pop it in the drive and tell it which drive it's in. It studies the CD and tells me it cannot verify my CD, thus ending my attempt to update the driver.

I think to my self, "self, this worked on the original install, it should work now" and so I proceed to try several times, rebooting, doing my "please work" dance, sacrificing two of the virgin children (whew! less mouths to feed!), to no avail. No go.

Back to talking to myself again..."self, if it worked on the original install, why don't I uninstall it, take out the card, reboot, shut down and put card back in and install it from scratch again". Nice thought, but no go. First off I can't seem to get ALL of the special features for the card to uninstall. Oh well, I"ll just overwrite them with the fresh install....yeah....right. Trying to do the install...

Windows sees new hardware! Yay! Up comes install wizard. Oh, it wants to know where to find the drivers. Cancel (I got an install cd!) Pop the CD in again and ATI install screen autostarts just like it should. Click in the easy install choice and it starts to install. I see the blue meter filling up from left to right, just like it should. A little over half way it stops and a box comes up telling me it can't find any hardware installed that even cares about the software it wants to install (apparently it isn't seeing the video card now? It saw it on boot up when it "found new hardware!!!"

So now I'm stuck using the onboard video or using the Radeon, but with generic drivers that don't take advantage of ANY of the radeon's special features. I also can't get my ATI Multimedia Center back so I can watch TV and/or record TV now.

Lots of info to wade through. I'm sorry I'm so wordy, but I find when asking for help the more I can tell about the situation the more accurate and helpful the info I get back is. Any ideas anyone?

Many thanks for your answer, blowfin.

Unfortunately, those links don't work for me. I suspect you were beyond a spot where you had to log in as you and thus I can't access the results?

As for my windows, it was "pirated" at one time, but not from over the Internet. I installed from an original disk belonging to a friend. Once Microsoft started cracking down on checking for valid windows install to allow you to do windows updates I went out to Walmart and bought my own, an XP Home Edition upgrade CD. It was definitely asking for the ATI install disk.

I would love to get the programs those links lead to.

Ok. The drivers worked as advertised, no requests for the install disks. I ran each and accepted the default directory choices to install to.

The drivers file worked great. EQ is back up and running! Yay!

The Multimedia Center, however, only partly worked. During the install I got 3 error message boxes that I had to click OK to get past.

"Error 1905.Module c:\program files\ATI Multimedia\homestead\hsctrl.exe failed ot unregister. Hreseult. Contact support."

Same thing for ...homestead\HsMarsh.dll and ...homestead\HsUtil.dll

After install, Multimedia Center appears to be running correctly, except I don't have a tab for TV listings.

Any suggestions?