[Jerome K]

I bought the ati radeon 9600 pro 256MB card brand new off ebay. It works in another computer I have (an older, slower one) but it won't work in this one.

When I put it in and turn on the computer, the monitor does not switch on and video does not initialize. (The monitor thinks the power is off). The computer has 4 diagnostic LED's on the back that would indicate if there was a problem and they all indicate OK status. When I turn on the computer I can tell from the HD activity that it's not booting windows. After the drive and memory checks it just stops because it knows something's up but of course I can't see if there's any type of error message.

Here is my computer, and following this are the troubleshooting steps I have already taken.

Dell Dimension 4550 with Intel 845 chipset.
-- AGP 4X slot - the card is 8X but should be backwards compatible with 4X
P4 2.0GHz
1GB 266MHz RAM
currently using radeon 9200se 128MB with no problems, and i believe this is also 8X card in a 4X slot
Windows XP Pro
tech specs on dell website here: http://support.dell....ecs.htm#1101572

I made sure I have the most recent bios updates.


Troubleshooting steps taken so far:
- Tried card in another (older) computer - works fine. (it's brand new)
- Tried other monitors just in case the cable was messed up
- Tried changing BIOS settings (with old card installed) but the Dell BIOS sux and there's not much to change
- Tried removing other hardware - NIC's, IDE drives, just about everything that's not essential... tried to free up some power in case that's a problem
- Tried reseating card a million times, checked to see if the slot was bad - nothing i can see
- Tried Google
- Tried calling Dell support. They made me repeat many of the steps above. They then told me that the card wasn't supported by my mobo because it's too much memory... this is based only on the observation that the mobo's diagnostic lights indicate no problems (they said card was recognized but video not initialized). So I argued with them because I've never heard of compatibility problems due to the amount of video memory. They then went and checked the documentation and admitted that the card should be compatible, and said they'd do some research and have someone call me back in a few hours... Hmm.... maybe they'll call tomorrow but somehow i doubt it.


I guess that covers it... This is really annoying because I'm flat broke and I was really looking forward to getting a half-decent framerate. I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard as well... It probably won't fit in this stupid case anyway (friggin Dell)

Any help would be very appreciated. I can't think of what might cause a compatibility issue.

Thanks

Jerome