AGP, Smartgart problem.

[gobrun]

Okay, I'm sure youve seen and heard of this problem before but I'm having real trouble fixing it so any help would be appreciated.

First off:

AMD XP 3000
2gb ram
via kt400 g7vax-a chipset
radeon xt800 pe with 5.13 cats (I have also tried the new 6.10 cats)

I am unable to set my AGP speed using SMARTGART in the catalyst control panel. It is set to 'Off', I try setting it to '4x or 8x', it asks me to restart. Once the pc has restarted it is set to 'Off' again. No amount of fiddling will make it stick.

A few points:

The motherboard definitely supports agp 8x

I am unable to change AGP sizes in the BIOS, there isn't any options in my current BIOS that allow changes to bus speeds.

I have downloaded and installed 2 different sets of Via 4in1 motherboard drivers from both the Gigabyte website and also from the Via website. Most people seem to suggest uninstalling both my current 4in1 driver set and graphics card drivers. I have done exactly this varying the order a number of times. All to no avail.

Normally I wouldn't be so bothered, in fact some people have even said to ignore smartgart as it is probably wrong. On this occasion however I have noticed a degredation in performance since it has been unalterably set to off and not 8x.

Please, this is driving me nuts, is there anyone out there who can suggest a fix.

Thanks in advance...

 

[div0]

I think I used to get this problem.

I'm sure it was fixed by using newer drivers.

Are you sure you removed the old drivers properly, before installing the new ones?

Maybe you could use something like drivercleaner (?) to remove the video drivers completely - then install the latest ones again.

 

[Malenko]

I had this problem once with my old 9800 pro.

Was a while ago, but IIRC I needed to re-install my chipset drivers.

 

[gobrun]

I think I used to get this problem.

I'm sure it was fixed by using newer drivers.

Are you sure you removed the old drivers properly, before installing the new ones?

Maybe you could use something like drivercleaner (?) to remove the video drivers completely - then install the latest ones again.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I uninstalled the old drivers completely, I used the cat-uninstaller.exe first. Deleted the ATI folder manually, removed all ati associated files from windows/system32 and manually removed all ati entries from the registry.

I follow this procedure every time.

I'm beginning to think the only solution is a reformat. I think it's more likely this is a motherboard driver problem rather than the graphics card itself (in which case ive posted in the wrong forum?).

I've tried 3 different types of Via 4in1 motherboard drivers, including the ones which used to work with AGP set to '8x'.

Anyone got any ideas less drastic than a reformat?

Thanks.