Black screen with ati radeon 9250

[Berzer]

i got an ati radeon 9250 not too long ago. have been able to play guild wars and several other games with no problem. bought a 17" widescreen tft lcd monitor (gateway). after trying to play sims 2 i had a problem with seeing the screen, i could alt-tab and see it for a second and then couldnt. i found a fix by adding "-w" to the target and played it in a window with no problem. now i am attempting to play dungeon runners by ncsoft and i am getting the same problem but the -w fix is not working. i tried dxdiag to see if it was a directx issue and it failed on line 32 and 7 to initalize the spinning object. im thinking that maybe my monitor has something to do with it. my resolution is 1440x900. i've searched the net seeing similar problems with directx but reinstalling never helped with the sims2 issues. any ideas? i'm starting to think i should go with nvidia if its the video card.

 

[Fragrant Coit]

The 9250 would be struggling to run Windows at that resolution, let alone games!

Save up & get something with more grunt - it's a low end card.

If it's AGP, then your choice is limited. Look at these charts to get an idea of whats what: Yours would be at or near the bottom, unfortunately.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=859&model2=722&chart=308

 

[Berzer]

i do believe its agp. the big weird slot on my mobo. the weird thing is that it runs guild wars really great. sims is ok too. just this one is weird. i've tried to run it at different resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768 and no change. i even tried the whole "run in 640x480" resolution mode with no success. i don't feel that its struggling, although i do remember i messed up and set my hz at 41 when i first got it and ended up going through hell to get my monitor back. i had to go to safe mode just to see anything and reinstall drivers and it was a huge mess. my monitor always says vga mode on it. is that supposed to be that way? maybe i'm running it incorrectly. if all else, with the agp whats the best card i could buy right now with the config i have on my pc?

 

[bushwhacker]

Looks like your Ati Radeon 9200 don't support the native monitor.

Fortunately for you.

There is a good card out there, such as Geforce 7800GS

If you are looking for a good budget, pick up a Geforce 6600GT AGP. ( This is a excellent candidate for your computer.) It should be still around in Ebay...

Or if you can, go to any Electronic store such as Staples or Future Shop, they still stock the top-of-line video card in AGP.

And you said... big weird slot on your mobo?

How many notches on it?
If there is just one, you are out of luck.

 

[Berzer]

i fixed the problem. seems there was an issue with the 3d controls in catalyst control center. the 3d profile option i had setup previously for guild wars. this overrided the native settings. at least thats what i can figure. i uninstalled catalyst control center and everything is fine now. i guess its one of those things where over-tweaking things led to complications. thanks for the help though. i probably will buy an nvidia at some point due to the fact that ATI just seems to be really in the hole with their technology. i've always trusted nvidia but went with ATI because of the price. now i see what you get for the money you pay.