Installing an ATI Radeon 9550 on a Windows 98SE System
When I tried to install the ATI Catalyst 4.10 driver on my Windows 98SE system, I got an error message that said the software could not find components it was looking for and I needed to check my software and hardware configuration to ensure it met system requirements (or something close to that). At one point, it suggested I try installing the video card as the Standard VGA driver. Frankly, that driver and the Standard PCI Graphics Card (VGA) driver is all that would install!
I finally got some time to try to troubleshoot the problem. While the ATI website had no direct words on my problem, I did find something that hinted the problem could be due to a hardware or software conflict preventing the installation routine from recognizing my card as a Radeon 9550. That made me think I might be able to figure out a workaround for the problem. I eventually did, and here’s what worked.
(1) If you’ve had ATI video cards installed on your system in the past, download and run the Catalyst Uninstaller. Otherwise, proceed to Step 2.
(2) Download the Catalyst 4.10 driver and control panel combined download. If you haven’t tried to install it yet, do so. If it installs normally, you’re done. Otherwise, continue to Step 3.
(3) Right-click on my computer and select Properties. Click on the Device Manager tab. Click on the plus sign for Display Adapters to expand it. Click on whatever video card is listed there and then click on the “Remove” button. When the dialog pops up asking you if you want to reboot your system, click on “NO”. Repeat as necessary to remove all video cards. (Video cards with dual monitor support will have two video card entries.) Now, reboot your system.
(4) When the Add Hardware Wizard pops up, it will detect a “PCI Graphics Card (VGA)”. When it asks you if you want it to search for drivers, tell it instead you want to search from a list. The list will pop up with nothing in it. That’s okay. Click on the Browse button.
(5) Navigate to the folder where the ATI driver extracted itself for the earlier installation. This is typically C:\ATI. Navigate down to the ATI/Setup/Support/wme-catalsyst-8-03-98-2-041020a-018705e/Driver/9xinf folder and select the “C8-18705.inf” file. The list will then show a bunch of ATI cards. Select the “Radeon 9500 Series”.
(6) The operating system will protest that this software is not compatible with your hardware and it may not function properly. Select it anyway.
(7) Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for the “C9-18705.inf” file when the operating system finds and hunts for a second video card (Dual monitor support will install as two cards on your system).
(8) Reboot your system and set the video card’s number of colors and resolution.
(9) Enjoy.
I finally got some time to try to troubleshoot the problem. While the ATI website had no direct words on my problem, I did find something that hinted the problem could be due to a hardware or software conflict preventing the installation routine from recognizing my card as a Radeon 9550. That made me think I might be able to figure out a workaround for the problem. I eventually did, and here’s what worked.
(1) If you’ve had ATI video cards installed on your system in the past, download and run the Catalyst Uninstaller. Otherwise, proceed to Step 2.
(2) Download the Catalyst 4.10 driver and control panel combined download. If you haven’t tried to install it yet, do so. If it installs normally, you’re done. Otherwise, continue to Step 3.
(3) Right-click on my computer and select Properties. Click on the Device Manager tab. Click on the plus sign for Display Adapters to expand it. Click on whatever video card is listed there and then click on the “Remove” button. When the dialog pops up asking you if you want to reboot your system, click on “NO”. Repeat as necessary to remove all video cards. (Video cards with dual monitor support will have two video card entries.) Now, reboot your system.
(4) When the Add Hardware Wizard pops up, it will detect a “PCI Graphics Card (VGA)”. When it asks you if you want it to search for drivers, tell it instead you want to search from a list. The list will pop up with nothing in it. That’s okay. Click on the Browse button.
(5) Navigate to the folder where the ATI driver extracted itself for the earlier installation. This is typically C:\ATI. Navigate down to the ATI/Setup/Support/wme-catalsyst-8-03-98-2-041020a-018705e/Driver/9xinf folder and select the “C8-18705.inf” file. The list will then show a bunch of ATI cards. Select the “Radeon 9500 Series”.
(6) The operating system will protest that this software is not compatible with your hardware and it may not function properly. Select it anyway.
(7) Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for the “C9-18705.inf” file when the operating system finds and hunts for a second video card (Dual monitor support will install as two cards on your system).
(8) Reboot your system and set the video card’s number of colors and resolution.
(9) Enjoy.
posted by Andy Foster at
2:59 PM
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