2 Radeon Cards in Same Box -- Help!

champignon · Dec 13, 2003, 06:35 PM

My Asus P4P800 Dlx mobo (running Win2K) has a bunch of "recycled" components on it from my last box, including a p4 2.2GHz, a meg of DDR 2100 Crucial RAM, and an ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB bought from Crucial.com (with slow RAM) about 15-18 months ago. I got the "bright" idea to buy a 2nd 20" LCD Monitor plus a 2nd RADEON card (this one a 9100 Xtasy Visiontek 128MB DDR PCI). I wanted to run each LCD off of its own DVI plug, not possible with the 8500LE, so my thought was that a 2nd adaptor card would be the cheapest and easiest solution. What I thought would be a painless install has turned nightmarish. Before I got the new card yesterday, the system was rock hard stable and was even overclocked a bit, but all the overclocks are turned off for now until this issue with the 2 display adaptors is dealt with.

Obviously the software could not deal with the two cards. System booting would lock after entering my Windows password. I was able to establish that both video cards work fine on their own, but not together. I can't even calculate the number of hours I've wasted so far on this mess.

At this point I've removed the new PCI card and completely removed all ATI software, registry entries, etc. Then I reinstalled the latest Catalyst set just downloaded from the ATI site. So, the orginal 8500LE is once again functioning fine and the PCI card is back in the shipping box ---

Presumably there is some way to do this, to put the PCI card in the box and have the two cards co-exist and allow use of extended desktop, but I've tried everything I can think of and no dice so far. Changing settings in the AMI bios doesn't help, either, having tried all of them that seemed pertinent.

Any suggestions for how I might go about getting these two cards to work in the same box under Win 2K would be greatly appreciated -----

TIA,

Ken

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 14, 2003, 04:57 AM

just a thought, you weren't useing your first pci slot right? becose it shares a irq with your agp slot... never use the first pci slot for a nic/modem/video card anything thats gonna wanna hog usage

on the same tought free up some irq's like turn off serial prots, usb prot printer ports if you dont use them....

champignon · Dec 14, 2003, 06:52 AM

Have tried at least 4 of the 6 PCI slots, rearranging everything. Have tried deleting all ATI software, all ATI drivers of any type, and still, it will not work; it freezes right after password entry. Have tried every ATI driver software package I could download. Have screwed around with the registry so much, that even though the system is stable with the AGP carrd, I'm going to do a put a 2 week old ghost image back on the system disk just t be sure I haven't screwed up something else! Until someone can prove it to me otherwise, I've tried everything humanly possible and these 2 cards cannot and will not coexist in the same box. The problem appears to be 100% software, that the same drivers are being installed for both cards and they bump heads at some critical moment during boot up of W2K. If anyone can shed any further light , I'm game to try something else, but the odds are I've already tried it because I cannot think of anything else to try!

Dec 13, 2003, 06:35 PM	#1
champignon DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Idaho Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	2 Radeon Cards in Same Box -- Help! My Asus P4P800 Dlx mobo (running Win2K) has a bunch of "recycled" components on it from my last box, including a p4 2.2GHz, a meg of DDR 2100 Crucial RAM, and an ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB bought from Crucial.com (with slow RAM) about 15-18 months ago. I got the "bright" idea to buy a 2nd 20" LCD Monitor plus a 2nd RADEON card (this one a 9100 Xtasy Visiontek 128MB DDR PCI). I wanted to run each LCD off of its own DVI plug, not possible with the 8500LE, so my thought was that a 2nd adaptor card would be the cheapest and easiest solution. What I thought would be a painless install has turned nightmarish. Before I got the new card yesterday, the system was rock hard stable and was even overclocked a bit, but all the overclocks are turned off for now until this issue with the 2 display adaptors is dealt with. Obviously the software could not deal with the two cards. System booting would lock after entering my Windows password. I was able to establish that both video cards work fine on their own, but not together. I can't even calculate the number of hours I've wasted so far on this mess. At this point I've removed the new PCI card and completely removed all ATI software, registry entries, etc. Then I reinstalled the latest Catalyst set just downloaded from the ATI site. So, the orginal 8500LE is once again functioning fine and the PCI card is back in the shipping box --- Presumably there is some way to do this, to put the PCI card in the box and have the two cards co-exist and allow use of extended desktop, but I've tried everything I can think of and no dice so far. Changing settings in the AMI bios doesn't help, either, having tried all of them that seemed pertinent. Any suggestions for how I might go about getting these two cards to work in the same box under Win 2K would be greatly appreciated ----- TIA, Ken

Dec 14, 2003, 04:57 AM	#2
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	just a thought, you weren't useing your first pci slot right? becose it shares a irq with your agp slot... never use the first pci slot for a nic/modem/video card anything thats gonna wanna hog usage on the same tought free up some irq's like turn off serial prots, usb prot printer ports if you dont use them.... __________________

Dec 14, 2003, 06:52 AM	Thread Starter #3
champignon DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Idaho Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Have tried Every Slot!!! Have tried at least 4 of the 6 PCI slots, rearranging everything. Have tried deleting all ATI software, all ATI drivers of any type, and still, it will not work; it freezes right after password entry. Have tried every ATI driver software package I could download. Have screwed around with the registry so much, that even though the system is stable with the AGP carrd, I'm going to do a put a 2 week old ghost image back on the system disk just t be sure I haven't screwed up something else! Until someone can prove it to me otherwise, I've tried everything humanly possible and these 2 cards cannot and will not coexist in the same box. The problem appears to be 100% software, that the same drivers are being installed for both cards and they bump heads at some critical moment during boot up of W2K. If anyone can shed any further light , I'm game to try something else, but the odds are I've already tried it because I cannot think of anything else to try!