Dude you had a 5600 ultra? The only reason you should buy this card over the 5600 is the price. The performance is about the same.

I found a solution to this problem. At least, for people who ONLY experience problems with upgrading to the latest Catalyst drivers (3.7 at this point). If your system hangs/reboots, its because the Radeon software tries to reinstall the drivers automatically after you uninstall them and reboot. Upon XP starting up, it starts installing some files, and perhaps asks for an install CD. I found a trick to stop this. Give me credit for it too, I didn't find it on some web site. (windows xp pro SP1 with most updates)

First, REMOVE the current ati drivers and DON'T RESTART!!!!!!

click START>RUN type REGEDIT and type enter.

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CURRENT CONTROL SET> SERVICES

Find three folders and delete them. ATI Smart, ATI hotkey poller, and ATI2MTAG (if available). close registry editor, restart computer. It will try again to reinstall itself, but just click cancel on any windows that pop up.
Make sure fast write and write combining are off, and install latest catalyst drivers. enjoy.

I believe I also went into the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory and deleted related driver files from there manually, but I'm not sure its necessary.

If this works for you, post a reply sayin thanks to my superior intellect. (truth is, i stumbled upon this solution on accident)

WTF are you talking about man?? Are you on drugs or something?? What is this bullsh*t you are saying that ATI tryies to reinstall the driver??? I guess you are not paying attention that the whole FORUM is allabout ATI's stupid FREEZES, RANDOM RESTARTS (not install restarts you idiot). Only Matthias Noack* - Sep 07, 2003, 06:33 AM - posted a solution that solves the problem on many computers with ATI 9600 Pro (not all thought). Battlefield still restarts sometimes ;-)


*Thanx Mattias

"Are you on drugs or something?? "

....i don't see any of your own posts that shed more light on the solution to this problem

what the heck are YOU on?

i allways say - if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem !!

no sense in posting in a forum like this if you cannot contribute facts that can help others rather than flame.

Thank you for your kind reply. Nice to know that you guys are open minded.

This is my problem: < http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/13155/ >

Can somebody PLEASE help me with this?? I just can't stand it doesn't work. I've downloaded over 100mb drivers and still gives stupid errors. Can you guys Please take a look at it....

Solved my ATI 9600 Pro problems, Sent it back to online store and got a GeforceFX5600 for less money. Now all my games and 3D apps play like they were supposed. And no more reboots or blue screens. I've learned my lesson. Not sure if it was a bad batch of cards or what. But I'll never buy another ATI card again.

Well i wont say much since all the problems i've had with this POS card have been said and about all the frustration and anger i had trying to get this POS card to work has been said !
I did just like everyone returned my card and trying to get a hold on a GForce FX 5600.
Well then i learned my lesson too never ever buy an ati card again !
Even with my TNT2 i had less problems.
So Nvidia all the way.
Hope this gets to help somehow and that thoses of you who can't return they're cards will find a solution.

Sys specs:

Win 98 SE
Logitech mouse
ABIT KG7 (AMD 760 socket A) with VIA 686B chipset
AMD Athlon XP 1600+
HIS Ati Radeon 9600 pro
Thermaltake 300W
30Gb HD

Jeff Harvell: "But I'll never buy another ATI card again."
I second that motion.
and it's not that its a bad card, or even that theyre crummy drivers, it's the fact that ATI released this card...and the packaging on the box says that its "Compatible" whit just about every computer made in the last 4 years.
but it's not. we know this. So WHY claim it is?
their tech support was less than helpful....the back of my box listed "a knowldegable and customer oriented technical staff." (yeah right, i asked the guy i got to just tell me the truth "sorry sir...at this time we have No solution for your problems with our product....please wait for at least another month for us to release a new set of software that may or may not solve the issue."
ATI will never see any of my money again.
I can Deal with the fact that cards and drivers can have bugs.
But searching online, this card has hundreds of people with the same "bugs", and ATI will lie to you if they think they can get away with it. THATS why i'll never buy another one.
-cyn

Yup that's exactly how i feel, besides you're lucky they even bothered answering you're question i sent them 3 mails and never got a reply to my problems besides amazing part is that some ppl in here actually managed to find a couple of ways to make this POS card work on some games, when the tech supp who are obviously payed to try and make they're s**t work on you're PC dont do s**t !
So i'll say congratz fellows and thx for the help !
But then again imo for 330 bux you shouldn't go through all this sht to get a 3D card to work.
So no Ati won't ever be seing my money again either besides i always buyed nvidia so far just a friend who got me convinced that Ati cards rocked, well now i know how wrong he was and sure kicked his @zz for that !

Rogerio Penna's issue sounds to me like bad memory. I'd return the card ASAP under warrantee before it's too late. No amount of driver revs will fix that issue.

I bought C&C Generals the other day, and after running Battlefield 1942, Generals, and every other game I own without issue, I'm getting inconsisten lockups, crashes, reboots, and warnings that my system may have a virus or be overheated (Both of which are confirmed untrue).

There must be some piece of the puzzle yet to be determined.
I found relief with the Hyperion 4.49 driver set for my VIA chipset yet others install the same drivers, and still have issues.
I've read about VIA/SB Live issues as well. They recommend installing the Hyperion 4.49 driver first, then installing the Creative SB Live driver, the reinstalling the Hyperion Driver again. The latest driver has code in it that detects the SB live and sets itself up accordingly.
Try that if you have an SB Live. I do i every time I install my OS and as I've said, have few issues.

Matthias Noack, many thanks for your solution. I have a K7S5A and the SIS 735 chipset and just purchased the 9600 on Friday. Lockup in AOM and downgrading the h/w acceleration wasn't acceptable. I had already installed the ECS 1.16 agp and latest Catalyst drivers with no luck. ATI says the problem is probably a configuration error. Well duh! All seems to be well now. For those of you with this board try Matthias's solution. Also, XP Pro seems to be snappier with PNP OS turned off, don't know about the other OS's.

I've got Epox 8rda2+ kt600 Motha ,2500+ Barton ,1gt 333mhz ram ,connect3d Radeon9600pro.

When using agp 4x ,no fastwrite everything works fine but example c&c Generals doesnt work smoothly wit 1024*768resolution and i think it should F**K the RADEONS!!!

Thank GOODNESS!!! Mathias you are a life saver. I turned off fastwrite and all my lockup ups and driver failures disappeared. Thanks alot dude.

Well its becoming annoying now, if I boot up using the drivers that the card came (3.2) with I get 2d screen corruption and then the machine locks up unless I lower the hardware acceleration which gets rid of it and stops the lockups. I can play generals with the hardware acceleration reduced but the mouse cursor flashes while in the game. I've applied latest bios and Hyperion 4.49, and tried the solution with smartgart unfortunately that does not work for me. And with the 3.7 drivers I still get the same problem of 2d screen corruption in windows and lockups. And smartgart disappears all together.

I'm running windows 2000 sp3
abit kt7 VIA KT133 mobo
1.2ghz athlon
512mb sdram

Well, from what I've read since this thread has started, I may be the only one with the particular motherboard:

Gigabyte 7N400 (nforce2 chipset)
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO (used to be NVidia GeForce4 MX 440)

The usual games I play:

EVE Online
Battlefield 1942

EVE Online locks up the whole computer.
Battlefield 1942 crashes and returns me to desktop randomly.

I'm using the latest Catalyst drivers (3.7), updated BIOS, AGP drivers, etc. So....has pretty much everybody given up on this card? Any recommendations? The Nvidia FX 5600 (?) is the equal rival equivalent?

.......
I updated to the expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights, and now the problem is back. How very irritating....

Hi
I had the same problems as listed in this thread.

Here is my system. Asus A7V8X-X, XP1800, Powercolor 9600Pro.

I had older Hyperion drivers that came with the MB and Cat 3.4.

I was unable to play BF1942 as it would crash after a few sec to min.

So far my fix has allowed me to play BF1942 for at least 40 to an hour.
I have not played till crash yet....touch wood

I installed the Hyperion 4.49 drivers, then the Cat 3.6 drivers. I set the AGP apature to 128mb.

The game played for about 20min and then crashed.

I then tried to set the AGP speed in the BIOS to 4X but the MB
autodetcts the 8X card and does not allow a change. I read somewhere
that the Smartgart program will overight the bios settings.........so I set
the AGP to 4X in smartgart.

To run smartgart go to the start button, select run, enter in "smartgart" and hit enter. Go to the tab
"basic AGP settings" and change to 4X.

Well so far it seems that setting the AGP speed is the best thing you can do.
So far no game problems. Will keep you updated.

Regards
Buzcut

Well I decided to upgrade to winxp pro. I used the 3.2 drivers that came with my cd and again smartgart doesn't seem to have installed (weird) but i've enabled fastwrite in the bios and i can now run c&c generals just fine, however neverwinternights gets major artifacts on screen and winxp gets screen artifacts also..but so far seems stable. Oh i got triplex redai 9600pro didn't mention that previously. still very puzzling, hope to try card in another machine over weekend and see what happens.

Okay I had the same problem, i went and bought a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro to improve upon my GeForce 4 MX 440 SE, to play Generals, and Zero hour faster, but the games just locked up after I moved the mous. I took the whole CPU to the store, and they tested every ATI 9600 Pro they had and NONE worked.

So I emailed ES about this problem, and this is what I got as a response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting EA Technical Support. I do very much apologize for the
trouble you are experiencing. My name is Kamneel and I will do my best to assist
you with Generals.

I would suggest lowering video acceleration by one notch. To do this:

Right click on the desktop and click properties.
Got to settings tab and click advanced button.
Click on troubleshoot tab and lower the video acceleration bar one notch to the
left.
Click apply and close out.

I would also suggest deleting the Generals Data folder.
Go to My Documents and find the C&C Generals Data folder.
Right click on the folder and click delete.
Now try playing the game.

Thank you for contacting EA Technical Support and have a great day.
Kamneel M.

Well that fixed the problem, but I got a horrible mouse flicker. So I returned the card and for my troubles they store game me a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 256MB Card for a straight exchange (it was $75 more). I've been doing some research and this card doesnt seem to be that great

I want to usethe ATI card but if I can't play my favorite EA games like NFS and Generals then I guess I'll have to stick with NVidia.

Do you guys think i should get the 9600 Pro back and try to make it work?