Hi everyone. I figured I should be as detailed as possible with what I did because I'm not sure of the actual issue.
I purchased some new RAM the other day and to my dismay it wasn't working properly despite being within my motherboard's specifications. It was noted, but for whatever reason my computer ran far more slowly with it installed.
I bought my motherboard quite a while ago and I noticed that there had been quite a few firmware updates since then, one of which sounded to address my RAM problems.
Here's the site, I downloaded the most recent one:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1141 I created a DOS boot disc, booted in and ran the software. I followed instructions here since my BIOS was AMI's design:
http://www.ami.com/support/bios.cfmI did the most basic setup they showed: AFUDOS ROMFILE.ROM /P /C, replacing ROMFILE.ROM with the bios file I was given.
This ran through several steps, one of which I noted was NVIDIA related. I have a NVIDIA-based motherboard, so this didn't seem odd to me.
I reset the computer after this and the RAM was no longer a problem. The computer booted quickly again with no problems.
Unfortunately I got a message once Vista loaded that stated my ATI drivers couldn't be found or weren't working properly. I tried uninstalling what I had, installing the latest drivers and restarting. I did get a pop-up at the bottom telling me my Radeon 3870 HD was installed... But it still didn't affect any of my software. I got the error message again too.
I uninstalled everything again. I ran drivercleaner.net, which took a while but completely erased any reference to ATI on my computer. I restarted and this time I did not get the message. My system properties said I was now running the generic VGA display.
So I reinstalled the ATI drivers again and restarted. I started getting the ATI error again.
I'm not sure what to do next. Part of my concern is that the BIOS I downloaded also flashed my ATI card, but that seems kind of bizarre. If that happened, why would it show up as a Radeon HD 3870? I'd assume I'd not get a picture at all.
Here's my computer setup:
Windows Vista x64, SP1
6 GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 ghz
MSI P6N SLI Motherboard
Diamond Radeon 3870 HD, 512MB DD4
I have downloaded the BIOS for my card, but I'm not about to touch that if it's not the problem.
I'm honestly not sure what to do to get it to work. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!
UPDATE:
Well I removed everything yet another time... This time I decided to try Windows Update, which offered some ATI drivers that were labeled as "ASUS" for some reason. I figured what the heck and gave it a shot.
That worked, everything is fine now.
I also found how that the latest ATI catalyst (8.12) apparently doesn't play well with Vista and over 3 GBs of RAM. People with similar setups were getting the same issue I was, but they had luck installing 8.11 instead. I hope ATI fixes that soon!
