Asus Radeon AH 4650 Driver Error Please Help

Hi, I'm new to posting, but have been reading up on the issue I have.

I recently got a old desktop with Windows 7 Home Premium to replace my dying Acer Aspire 9300 series Laptop.

It's specs are:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP3200+ 2.19GHz
RAM: 1GB Corsair (Matched CMX512MB-3200LLPT)
OS: Win 7 Home Premium 32bit
Graphics Card: Asus Radeon AH4650 1GB AGP
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X nVidia nForce2 Chipset
PSU: Akasa 500W Green Power

I've recently upgraded my graphics card from a standard VGA Graphics adapter to the one listed above. I encountered problems immediately once I'd installed the card.

Every few minutes the system goes unresponsive, then the screen goes black for a second or two, then everything seems fine again but this error message appears in the system tray:

Display driver ATi Radeon Family Stopped Responding and Has Successfully Recovered.

I called the card supplier and they said it could be a PSU issue as the card recommended a PSU of 400Watt minimum and I had a 360Watt so I upgraded to the 500Watt listed above.

I got the PSU today hoping it would solve the issue but it didn't, it just happens less often, mainly when running games (I run Microsoft Flight Simulator both 2004 and X my only reason for upgrading my graphics card).

I've tried reinstalling the drivers, uninstalling and clearing the drivers from the system file and reinstalling them again. Nothing seems to be working.

I've glazed over a post saying I need nVidia nForce 4 or greater??

I have about 5 days left before I can't return the card anymore so any assistance with either fixing the issue or a solid "No this card wont work..." would be greatly appreciated. Thanks JD

John welcome to the forums.

It isn't the card and probably wasn't the power supply (if the 360W was a decent make then even less so). What it is is the now ancient (by today's standards) Nforce 2 chipset on the motherboard, and zero support for it in Windows 7 (or Vista for that matter). The problem is due to a lack of a proper working AGP/GART driver that is required for an AGP card to work properly. It also seems to be hit and miss for those with the same or similar chipsets (primarily the NF3) as to whether it works or not, in a lot of cases it is like you and it doesn't.

Unfortunately Nvidia dropped all support for the NF2 chipset back in 2004, so there won't be any updates for it. If you haven't seen it yet have a good look at this thread here,

Install AGP Drivers for HD 3850, 3650, 2400 PRO

and see what if any of the steps there will get it working.

Unfortunately, I tried what was suggested in the link but it makes no difference.

Thanks for the suggestions and wisdom. I think I may just return what I've bought and update my mobo from AGP to PCIe.

Look at my Socket A specs!

I can run Crysis/GTX-R Evolution and loads of other powerful games on my WIN 7 Socket A M/boards.

What do you want help with. Flight Sim 2004 works on 32bit - reported on WIN 7 compatability.

You just haven't got your drivers right!

Log in/reply if you want further help ideas!

First uninstall graphic drivers. Then install some fancy driver packs to your mobo like that ones NF123LWR1.1.zip (whql) or betas >> NF123LR1.0.zip . I dont point you to the site cause My NooScript addon to Firefox found xss attack. Anyway i use them and are ok. Here View forum - nForce Drivers • nForcersHQ.com is also good stuff. Its important to install first mobo drivers, then graphic cards ones.

Now install newest AGP drivers. Catalyst AGP Hotfix - Radeon HD 4000 Radeon HD 3000 and Radeon HD 2000 Series AGP products

Its known to have problems with agp cards like 3850 (3650 maybe) and some from 4xxx/5xxx series. It may be not psu fail at all. Athlon is old cpu anyway. And have no sse2 instruction that prevent you to play newer games or at last play with low performance.