HD 4770 in Compaq 1879

[frustrated_uk]

I've just replaced my pre-existing X1300 card with a shiny new HD 4770 and am having severe doubts as the speed of my screen updates has halved! (Catalyst version 9.4).

To achieve the upgrade I also had to upgrade my PSU (it was only 300W, yet the the MSI MS-7184 motherboard states it requires a minimum of 350W) to a 550W model but this has had no effect and whilst the Windows Experience (under Vista HP) has leapt from 4.0 to 4.9 (now held back by the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor) real-life screen updates have slowed to a crawl.

The BIOS is set to PCI-E for graphics (rather than PCI under the X1300) but even swapping this back has no effect. What is noticeable, however, is that Core2 of the processor is running at virtually 100% all the time, even when the system is idle.

The PCI-E in the board is x16 (not 2.0) but this shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Has anyone else managed to improve graphics performance with this motherboard or computer and, if so, with what? Or am I simply missing something?

Frustrated!

[dipu]

Whats your motherboard chipset? If it is a 690G and a K9AG Neo2 Digital may be I can share my experiences.

[frustrated_uk]

It actually ATI Radeon XPress 200! Even more reasons why it should work, rather than not!

Frustrated

[XstollieX]

What is noticeable, however, is that Core2 of the processor is running at virtually 100% all the time, even when the system is idle.

If your processor is pegged at 100% while idle. You may have a virus. It may be purely coincidental on the timing. I would run some scans to see what's eating at your processor.

[dipu]

The PCI-E in the board is x16 (not 2.0) but this shouldn't be a problem, should it?

I dont think that is a problem because mine is PCIX 1.0 too, It was running fine with a 7600GT.

Did you updated ur BIOS ? though its not related. Plz do not update BIOS from Windows.

[frustrated_uk]

Thanks for the posts so far.

It's not a virus - putting my X1300 back calms the system back down to the usual tick-over (and I'm running Kaspersky so I should be protected!).

Regarding the BIOS, I'm running v3.48 and can't find any updates, either on the MSI site or the HP site. Is there anywhere else I could look?

Frustrated.

[InspectahACE]

here's a question as I am a stickler for word for word troubleshooting and haven't seen it yet... did you clean out the drivers before installing the 4770?(not just uninstall them, but use something like Driver Cleaner?)

[geokilla]

I have a feeling he didn't even uninstall the old drivers, let alone use driver cleaner.

@op. What power supply are you using?

[frustrated_uk]

I'll admit that I didn't uninstall the Catalyst drivers but I did uninstall the X1300 from the device manager... which is more than most!

I then re-installed the Catalyst drivers to update the existing - so, now, I'll uninstall both the X1300 and the Catalyst driver and clean up afterwards before trying a re-installation again!

Frustrated.

[frustrated_uk]

Well - just tried that but the same result - significant slow-down and sound corruption, too (which I didn't mention before) with Core2 running 100% and Core1 next to idle.

What next?

Frustrated.

[InspectahACE]

have you looked in the device manager to see if there is any device conflicts?..I can't think of anything else other than RMA time if that doesn't show anything

[geokilla]

You could always back everything up then format the computer. RMA is a last resort for me unless I know for sure 100% that the part that needs to be RMAed is faulty, dying, or I know that my RMA will be a guarantee success.

[frustrated_uk]

By RMA I assume you mean send it back for a replacement? I'm also not sure that this would solve the problem but I'm thinking that, having now used Driver Cleaner to remove the X1300 before yet again reinstalling the HD 4770 that I'm left with little alternative...

As to PSU - I upgraded to a 550W CiT unit.

Frustrated.

[frustrated_uk]

I have decided to give in and have returned the card for a full refund and replaced it with an older, X1650 Pro 512Mb card - which installed fine and is working great. It's also pushed my Vista experience 3D score from 4.0 to 4.9, which is good enough for this rig!

I still believe that the problem lay with Windoze since, under Linux (Ubuntu 8.04LTS) the card appeared to run without problems - although Catalyst reported the HD 4770 as "unsupported hardware" but the processor didn't try to kill itself, as it did under Vista.

Who knows?

Frustrated.