[nmweb23]

I have a Dell Dimension 8300. It came installed with an ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Low Profile (64mb RAM) and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004. This past weekend, I upgraded the OS to MCE 2005. Since then, I have spent over 15 hours trying to get Media Center to work and no luck. I have tried downloading the latest Catalyst Drivers...nothing.


I then went out and purchased a Hauppage WinTV PVR-250 to use as the TV Tuner card. I installed all the latest drivers - still nothing. While I can get video to display in Hauppage's WinTV 2000 application, Media Center will not work.


I can go through the "Settings > TV" setup in MCE and it recognizes a signal from my VOOM STB - however, when it comes time to displaying a picture - it says that my Tuner Card is invalid. I have, by the way, disabled all of the ATI TV tuner related settings in Device Manager. I have also tried downloading and installing all the latest drivers I can find for the ATI Graphics card - still no luck. (The latest Catalyst 4.10 drivers will not install. It says that my h/w is not compatible).


Anyway - I've hit a brick wall. Hauppage and Dell Customer Support were of no help either. I have tried searching AVS forum and have followed suggestions were I thought they would be appropriate (installing Omega drivers, removing all ATI drivers and reinstalling, etc.) - nothing.


When I launch Media Center, I get: "Your video card or drivers are not compatible with Media Center"


Any help would be VERY MUCH appreciated. Maybe I need to get a new video card as well (because I know for a fact that the PVR-250 IS compatible with MCE 2005)


Thanks!!


Nima

 

[Sterling]

I don't have an AIW, but I got my Radeon 9000 to work just fine by installing the Catalyst 4.10 drivers. Suddenly my video card was compatible with MCE2005.


I also have the Hauppauge 250MCE card which works just fine except that I cannot figure out how to get the sound to work from the stereo RCA plugs on the card.


Maybe if you manually installed the 4.10 ATI drivers for your Radeon it would work. You might not be able to use the AIW features, but it might just let you use it as a Radeon 9000 and then you can use the Hauppauge card for NTSC in...


I guess you would have to find out how to get the driver files used in 4.10 to a directory so you could manualy select the 9000 driver for your card.

 

[DisabledTrucker]

I am glad that Sterling was able to get his to work, but the ATI AIW 9000 Pro is a DirectX 8 card and you need at least a DirectX 9 card for it to be fully compatible with the MCE 2005, which is probably why it doesn't work correctly. MCE 2005 Requires at a minimum a DirectX 9 video card.

 

[PBMax]

Sterling: Those RCA plugs on the Hauppauge card are inputs. I hope you weren't trying to use them as outputs.

 

[Sterling]

Yes, trying to use them as Inputs.


You should be able to load the drivers on your 9000 AIW such that it thinks it's a Radeon 9000, NOT a Radeon 9000 AIW. I think that is where the incompatibility is; with the AIW part of the card.

 

[mhaleto]

I have an AIW 9000 and a PVR 250. It does work in MCE 2005 and it works quite well. I installed the latest catalyst drivers, but didn't bother with MMC stuff since the PVR is such a better tuner card. Don't sweat the no DX9 stuff it doesn't matter. I did have a heck of a time trying to get the PVR 250 working. I couldn't get it to recognize that the tuner was present until I did a windows update and installed the rolled update 1. ( can't remember the exact name, but its available as a non-critical update) Everything has worked great since then.


Good luck.

 

[nmweb23]

Thank you very much for all the help. I will try to install the 9000 drivers (Catalyst 4.10) so that is basically "disregards" the AIW features of the card.

I will try it after work and will report what happens.

Much appreciated!!!


Nima

 

[DisabledTrucker]

As soon as I get my copy of MCE 2005 from HP, I'll let you know if I can get the AIW Pro working or not with MCE 2005, but I do know that M$ specifically says on it's website that MCE 2005 Requires full DirectX 9 support to work with it, and the AIW 9000 Pro isn't a fully DirectX 9 card. Also, it's a slower card than the non-AIW version of the 9000, among other things which are different between them. Though if anyone want's it, I'll happily sell it to them for $150US.

 

[nmweb23]

Thank you Sterling, DisabledTrucker, PBMax, mhaleto and DisabledTrucker! It worked! After countless hours, I finally have video in MCE 2005.


For the benefit of others that may be having the same issue:


mhaleto is absolutely right. The AIW 9000 does work in MCE 2005 (even though it is not a DirectX 9 card). The quality is just fine. Here is what I did to get it to work:


(1) Went into "ADD / REMOVE PROGRAMS" in Control Panel and uninstalled anything that said "ATI" (Drivers, control panel, etc.)

(2) Rebooted the system and when th found hardware wizard came up, I hit CANCEL on everything.

(3) I went into Device Manager and changed all the "Unknown Devices" (basically the hardware that I cancelled in step 2 to DISABLED (so it would not be used in this hardware prfile).

(4) I then did a google search and found some Radeon 9000 drivers (not All-in-Wonder) - just regular 9000. Started the installation and saw that it was unpacking the files into the ATI/SUPPORT directory. The installation wizard itself failed.

(5) I went into Device Manager and went to update driver - and then to "HAVE DISK" (don't let the wizard auto search anything for you)

(6) In one of the directories under ATI/SUPPORT I found an INF file that contained a generic driver for the 9000. That's what I sued - even though Windows said that I should not.

(7) Started MCE and did not get an error. I configured my STB under the TV option in settings - and BAM - it works!


I hope this helps and thanks again for the help. If anyone needs additional info, just PM me (or post right here) and I will be happy to help.


Nima

 

[jcaldwell]

I too have once tasted the glory of successfully getting my machine to run WMCE 2005...but I had a crash and cannot figure for the life of me how I did it...it all started with the dell shipping with WMCE 2004 and my being disatisfied with not being able to burn to dvd or have an extended desktop...I'm back to having WMCE 2005 installed, getting the usual message when I double click "hjardware not rec or comp"...I have bought Nero and installed the generic microsoft ATI 9000 driver so I could have the extended desktop and I use Nero as my player (it recognises dvr-ms) and plays then beautifully on my TV by using extended desktop...I would like to get back to where I was...and being THAT TYPE I'll keep wrestling with it...any ideas or help here would be greatly appreciated...