[CO1]

Just got my Radeon 8500 and much to my dismay it won't even post in my HTPC. When I try to boot I get a beep code of one long and three short and about 20 seconds later I get 2 more short beeps but at no point do I see anything on the screen. The PC I'm using is an old Dell PIII 450 XPST because it is quiet and well....it's there. A GeForce 3 runs in there no problem but when I heard that Ati had a fix for the 8500 in the next driver release I decided to purchase it because Radeons are supposed to have better playback than a GeForce card. I've tried everything I can think of, safe mode won't work, can't get into the bios, boot disk won't work, when I say won't work I mean I don't see anything on the screen. I've tried all these things as well with only one stick of ram and the 8500 installed and all other cards removed. This really sucks because I had to put the GeForce 3 back in the Dell and the 8500 in the new PC that I built. The problem is that the video card for DVD is in the game PC and the video card for gaming is in the HTPC. Before anyone suggests using the new PC as a HTPC forget it! It's a P4 1.8A @ 2502MHz with 13 fans in the case that put out 79dB. It's a little on the loud side. Anyway I was hoping that maybe someone has had a similar problem or can offer some other suggestions on what to try. Thanks.

 

[Endymion]

I haven't had that problem or heard of it. You can of course try ATI support but you may find that www.rage3d.com Radeon forum can get you the answer quicker.

 

[Trik]

 BIOS Error Beeps and Messages/Codes

You don't say if its award, ami or some other bios, but that link should help.

In Award 1 long and 3 short is a video error and they suggest reseating the board.

Is there another system you can try the board in?


That dell's motherboard / AGP Slot may not be able to handle a radeon 8500 which (iirc) requires a minimum of a AGP 2x slot.


EDIT: Changed Ami to Award for 1 long 3 short beeps.

 

[CO1]

It is a 2x AGP slot and I have reseated the card several times. The card does work because it will run in my other PC no problem. I have contacted tech support but they were unable to come up with anything that I have not already tried. Thanks for the info.

 

[Axiomatic]

CO1, I woulkd look in your BIOS or in a "Hardware monitor" at your power levels.


You might be browning out on the AGP bus.


Since you get no video with the 8500 you obviously cant check this with that card in.


However you said you had a GF3 that does work, so view bios from there or load a util like "Sisoft Sandra" and check your power levels.


Most likely that is the problem since the 8500 and 8500dv have TV tuners in them, I could see where they could eat up a lot of power.


Also, if you have one of those wimpy 235W power supplies, I think my theory holds, but if you have a 350W or better power supply and your not using a lot of hard drives then my theory is out the window.


Hope these ramblings help.

 

[ldavis]

CO1,


I have had very similar problems when trying to change from a GeForce2 to an ATI 7500 with a Dell Dimension. However, I was able to get some video(VGA mode) with the 7500 prior to trying to install the drivers. I had tremendous problems getting the drivers to install properly and in the process of trying to follow the instructions on-screen, I managed to delete the default VGA drivers. This caused me to get no picture with the ATI card. I do not know if you have done this but I needed to re-install Windows in order to get the VGA mode back. I still had the same problems installing the 7500 drivers. What I finally did was download (from Dell) drivers for an ATI card (not the 7500) and install these. Then I installed the correct drivers for the 7500 with no problem. This same thing happened with a dell at work installing an ATI card. I told the IT manager the trick and again the problem was resolved. It seems that there something buried deep in Dell software that does not get along well with an ATI card, and the Dell provided software removes it. Maybe others have had different experiences but I have seen this incompatibility twice and the Dell drivers fixed it both times.


Lain

 

[kejar31]

I have seen this problem before building pc's. First thing you want to do is disconnect everything from the mother board including hard drives cdrom, dvdroms, floppies and all sound card, hd cards, and tv card. take the memory out and re-seat only one ddr or sdram chip so the only thing you have is the power one memory chip and the video card hooked up. plug it in and see if you get a boot screen. If you do re-seat on thing at a time re-booting in-between each. Good luck and i hope this helps --- Justin