I recently purchased a Sapphire Radeon 9100 for my media machine. The machine is normally hooked up to just a TV through a VCR, I primariy play games and watch movies on it.

Formerly I was using an ATI Rage Pro II, and it worked perfectly, other then I wanted a beefier card for certain games.

After installing the 9100 and the latest catalyst drivers (I also tried the drivers off the CD that came with the card), the "Monitor" group from device manager *dissapears*, the ATI control panel will not loading saying that no ATI device is present, and I do not have any Direct3D or DirectDraw support at all.

If I put the old card back in, poof, the Monitors group is back, I have d3d support again, and everything is peachy keen. I tried everything I could think of it at this point. So far I have tried plugging the card into just a monitor, both a monitor and the TV, trying to for an install of generic monitor drivers (this produces an error saying there is no information about the device), and I even reinstalled the operating system (Windows XP), and still no go. No monitors section in device manager, I cannot add it manually, I have no d3d or directdraw support, display properties says there is no adapter / display is [Default] and nothing else.

I doubt the card is broke because the display looks fine, it is a new card, and is a good brand name.

What gives?

did you uninstall ALL your old video card drivers before installing your new card? ATI is infamous for leaving files/registry settings behind when video cards are removed. My suggestion is to follow this guide for uninstalling/reinstalling drivers http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33656771 (dont think you need to register to view) it sounds to me like a conflict between some old files and settings and the new card. if you need more help post back and i'll make a few suggestions/try to help. an app called reg cleaner is helpful too, as you can uninstall all ATI items from the registry easily.