can't install video card driver

[Mulambo]

can't install video card driver - help appreciated

ok, here's the situation:
I built my pc. (soltek sl75drv5 mobo) Installed windowsxp pro. installed soundcard software, plextor software, acrobat reader, and maybe a couple other things.

My radeon 8500 doesn't come with a winxp driver on the install cd, so I have downloaded a few of them now, and tried them. They all work the same way:

The initial install file works, and an ATI directory is installed onto my computer, lots of files and stuff in the directory.

After that another file runs, and Install shield starts again (This one is to actually install the driver), the little blue bar on the install shield wizard reaches almost 100%, but one of two things happens:

1. I get a message like this:

\!/ Setup failed to run install: (0x80040707)

(this is what happens most)

2. install shield is minimized, can't be restored to a full window, and continues to cause my processor to run at full capacity without actually doing anything.

thanks for any advice/help you can give,
and happy easter.

 

[Bull]

Welcome to the Forums.

I would download the official drivers that are supposed to work with your Radeon with XP. Make sure you do a virus scan with a current updated virus pattern. Also use scandisk to see if anything is out of the ordinary. I would reinstall your OS and make sure you put the Vidcard drivers in first. The other drivers might have messed something up. And always try to install your vidcard first on a new system. I have had problems installing other devices first. If you don't want to reinstall take everything out except the necessary items like ram processor vidcard. then install the vidcard.

And keep us updated.

Daniel

 

[Mulambo]

ok, i'll try the windows reinstall. Should I just format the harddrive, or what? what would be the best way to go about that?

 

[Bull]

As long as you have nothing you need to save on the old install I would reformat then boot from the Windows XP cd rom. Just have your basic components for the reinstall. And also there is a limit how many times you can reinstall XP. I had a friend that had to call them up to have it reactivated. If you haven't activated it yet you should be good and I think its 5 times that you can do it. (I'm not sure about it though). Make sure you use the NTFS file system and not Fat32. I found that the NTFS runs faster on my comp and is more reliable. If you have it set to fat32 you will have to delete the partition first then boot from the WIN xp cdrom and it will ask you if you want the new file system.

Sorry I had to think about this long because its been a while since I've done a reinstall. I hate to do it and only do it as a last resort.

Daniel

 

[solidsnakexix]

I have a radeon 7500 and on atis site the drivers are said to work the same for both. However i recommend downloading the driver that came out on march 20th as the earlier version would not work properly on any games. It would generate a big black cube into the middle of the screen and in command and conquer reagade it would not generate the weapons and or vehicles.

-solidsnakexix

 

[LiquidConfusion]

im having a similar problem... I just got a 3rd party r200 (Apollo Dragon II 8500) Ive tried reloading twice tried clearing cmos and ive tried the drivers from the cd that came with it, the ones from ati, the redsoft drivers and a few diffrent versions of the ones from ati or linked from the joytech.com page. No matter what I do I cant run a 3dmark more than a few seconds without getting some kind of helicopter effect in the middle of the screen. and then a reboot. Ive even tried loading fail safe defaults in bios Any ideas? or is this card just doa?

 

[Mulambo]

How do I reformat my whole harddrive in xp?

EDIT: I tried that, but It doesn't want to let me remove the partition and everything...

"Format could not run because the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if volume is dismounted first. Would you like to force a dismount?"

yes

"cannot lock the disk. volume still in use."

anyone know how to bypass this?

 

[Mulambo]

Ok, I tried to make a boot disk.

New problem:

my fdd won't recognize that there is a disk in the drive. The device manager says the floppy drive is working, but the "busy" light is always on and it can't read disks:

I took out the floppy drive and put in another one and it does the same thing, so i think it isn't the drive. Tried different cables, same thing. What could be causing this error? the only thing I can think of is something on the mobo, but what could it be?

 

[LiquidConfusion]

do you have an old DOS bootdisk from win 98 or me? if so boot from there and run fdisk just delete the partitions then run windows install from cd.

 

[Mulambo]

does it matter if the boot disk is from another pc?

EDIT: although, my drive won't be able to read the disk anyway...