ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro video card

Nahledge · 09-27-2009, 04:23 PM

Hello I just got a new video card because my old one is broken. The computer is freshly installed with vista and is ready to go but I do not have a VGA cable to connect my monitor to my computer....so I connected my DVI cable to the new video card and the screen works and everything but I cannot get into windows or anything....I just get error messages and it says that new hardware might be the cause. I know that is a bit all over the place but yeah, do I need to get a VGA cable to connect to this computer so I can download the driver for the video card in order for it to work with my DVI cable?

Sorry I am not very tech savvy but I think I explained it all, basically just need to know if I NEED to download the driver or whatever to work with my screen connected to the video card. Is there any other way to do this other than getting a manufacturers CD?

Thanks for all the help in advance.

p.s. also where would i search for a driver?

vernong1992 · 09-27-2009, 04:42 PM

Well ya, its trying to use the old video card drivers with the new video card.

What you should try is Safe Mode, and then run Driver Cleaner Pro, then get the latest drivers from AMD.com (the newest drivers are available there).

Nahledge · 09-27-2009, 05:14 PM

thank you so much, I am going to try that now. Using this Mac is driving me crazy.

ok just an update. Somehow I installed windows vista twice? so it asks me which OS to boot...both vista. I cannot get into safe mode but the computer told me to do some stuff which got me to a screen with an option "repair my computer" which seemed appropriate so i clicked that. now going through some loading bars...if this doesnt work im just gonna find an option to completely wipe/restore the computer and start all over to get to safe mode with vernong1992's instructions. ill keep ya posted, thanks again.

vernong1992 · 09-27-2009, 05:42 PM

If you wipe it, it'll definitely work after that. (unless the card is physically damaged) But remember, you are erasing all your data when doing this.

This is because it won't have the old drivers to work with, did you spam the F8 key before the Windows Splash screen showed up? That's opens the boot menu, and you can choose Safe Mode from there.

Nahledge · 09-27-2009, 06:06 PM

Ok pressing F8 does nothing. Another problem, my recovery disc says it has the operating system, applications and DRIVERS.....I put it in anyways and after a blank screen for a while it started to look like colorful static....which cant be good. I guess I will take the video card out and try to get a VGA cord to set it up. I just feel like I have broken my computer even more by just trying to fix it.....hate tech stuff like this, good thing guys like Vernong are here!!!

AWESOME!!!! now it says a problem with the hard drive has been detected...

im gonna do some trouble shooting and then ill repost with better information.

Thanks again for all the help so far. Sorry if this is unclear I have no idea what is going on.

ok I got something other than a black screen...colors and a mouse cursor is there....still working on it.

I am going to have a VGA cable in about half an hour and when I get that I will just take the ****** video card out and try to run it without a video card and then download the driver for the video card.

That is if I have not already damaged my computer more while trying to fix it.

ok so....the video card is out and I just hooked up the VGA cable to my monitor, booted up....

"a problem with the hard drive has been detected, press enter"

.....

"A disk read error occurred, press ctr alt delete to restart"

nothing makes me more angry than computers....inanimate metal and plastic makes me rage.

My father was the one who put the new hard drive in and installed windows, he said it worked great. Now I try to get this video card to work because I dont want to get a VGA cable...now I have the VGA cable and my meddling broke the computer >< FML

I am going to drive the recovery disc again using the VGA cable with the video card out....see how that goes.

Mak213 · 09-27-2009, 06:42 PM

Okay first off, the recovery disk for the system will NOT have the drivers for the video card if that video card you are using is NOT the same one that came with the system.

You need to download them from the ATi site.

Simply put right now, remove this video card and use the old one. At least until you can get to the point where you can get the old drivers removed and get the drivers for the new one.

Make sure you have the system set to boot from CD First.

Nahledge · 09-27-2009, 06:55 PM

The old video card is broken, my monitor does not read a signal from it. This whole process would be 5000x easier if I could use the old video card. If I boot the system with no CD/dvd in the drive it says that there is an error with the hard drive and just tells me to restart.

Now I am trying to put in the vista disc again, I chose to boot from CD....got to the screen with the small loading bar that says c Windows Corporation underneath it and now the screen is just black...and then after the black screen a mouse cursor shows up, i can move it around but there is nothing else on the screen. I have no graphics card in the system if that matters.

edit: to sum it all up:

if i boot regularly it says there is a disk read error and tells me to restart over and over

if i boot with the windows disc i eventually just get a black screen forever.

so basically I think I just broke another hard drive trying to fix my video card. awesome.

wow Bill O'Reilly doesnt even make me this angry....f*** computers.

Mak213 · 09-27-2009, 07:43 PM

You cant break a hard drive trying to isntall GFX Drivers. Get GParted or another free tool like it and format the drive and install Vista from there. The only time they are broken is when the read/write head crashes and that would NEVER happen with what you have done.

Calm down, step back from the machine if necessary and gather your composure. There is no reason to get so upset over something so trivial.

Recommended Software for certain tasks

This thread has all sorts of programs listed with links that you can use to format the drive without every having to access Windows. To test if the card even works with the system use a Linux LiveCD like Ubuntu.

Nahledge · 09-28-2009, 12:24 AM

Mak, I dont think you understand. I was not trying to install my video card, i was simply just trying to start my system for the first time (old computer but my first time). Previously it had been used with no video card and using a VGA cable, I did not have a VGA cable so I got a video card and stuck it in there using my DVI cable connected to it. Doing so was a mistake because that is what caused everything to go wrong. Now even with the video card out and using a VGA cable, the computer says there is an error with the hard drive and to push enter then after that it just says there was a disk read error and to ctr alt dlt to restart and it just repeats. Booting from my Vista disc does not work either.

Thanks for trying to help but I just failed terribly haha. I am just going to take what I can from this computer and get the rest off newegg or something.

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