Elite ECS 9600SE recognition and driver issue

[nealem]

Hi all. I have just purchased a secondhand Elite ECS ATI 9600SE AGP graphics card. It works for basic graphics, but the driver supplied on CD with the card did not work in SecondLife or Max Payne 2. It crashed when I tried either of these apps.
I downloaded the latest drivers from ATI and ran the installer, but it complained that it couldn't find a matching driver. I tried installing a driver manually, pointing to the new .inf file and selecting the closest sounding drivers I could find on the list.
Of these, the Asus 9600 SE driver worked for SecondLife, but Max Payne 2 refused to run because it said it required a graphics card that supported DirectX 9.
Other drivers I tried crashed eventually.
I used the dxdiag facility and it allowed me to run a DirectDraw test, which passed, but does not allow to run a 3D test. This card is supposed to support DirectX 9. Is the problem that I have DirectX 9.0c installed, and that's too advanced for it?
Does anyone have experience of :
* finding a good driver for an ECS 9600 SE?
* Sorting a DirectX 9 failure to recognize support for this card?

I have read that while the ATI hardware itself is good, the ATI drivers for this generation were not good. This could be my problem.
Looking forward to your reply,
All the best,
nealem

 

[peterdiva]

Update or reinstall the motherboard's chipset drivers, then install the latest drivers from ATI. ATI says the 6.11s support the 9600 series of cards.

Remove the old ATI drivers first. Instuctions.

 

[nealem]

Thanks for your help. Still having problems

Hi. Thanks for the response. I followed the instructions on tweakguides and removed the old ati software, old system32 driver files and registry entries. I installed the drivers for 6.11 and it said:
Unable to find a driver matching your hardware (or words to that effect)
When I install a driver manually, I can choose any one of the 9600SE drivers (drivers not marked secondary in the list, perhaps these are primary, I don't know what that means). They work for basic graphics functions - I can get a full range of resolutions, and I can run SecondLife, which requires a compatible graphics card, and appears to be 3D rendering well.
However when I run Max Payne I get the message "Can't help you pal, your crap hardware doesn't support DirectX 9" or words to that effect.
The ECS 9600SE swears blind it does support DirectX 9, so who is right here?
I have a lot of faith in Max's judgement, but I also believe everything I read on the box, so I'm suffering existential confusion at this point.
The list of drivers from ATI does not include an explicit ECS entry. Is there some special way to get around this, other than what I am doing?

Have I just bought a dud? What's the story?
Thanks for any help you have provided or can provide in future.

A few system parameters:
MSI 645 Combo (MS06737) Motherboard with AGP 4x with latest AMI BIOS. (Downloaded latest and monitoring tools and confirmed already installed.)
ECS Elitegroup Radeon 9600 SE Rex Graphics card 128MB DDR AGP 8x Directx 9.0 compatible (that's what the box with the Tyrannosaurus says)





Regards,
Neale

 

[nealem]

I must apologise for bothering you about this one. The problem is that the person who sold me the card on ebay sent a 9200SE in a 9600SE box. The card itself has stamps and stickers saying R92LE and R92LE-C3S. I didn't know what they meant at first, but now after wasting hours trying to get it to work with 9600SE drivers it's clearer. I'll be having a little chat with the ebay vendor.
Thanks again for your help.