Radeon 9250 Teething Issues

[tevion5]

I recently acquired a Mac Radeon 9200/9250 128MB on eBay for very little thanks to the keen eye of another MR member. I want it for my Power Macintosh 8600/250. I have also purchases 1GB of RAM for this system which is currently on the way.

Surprisingly it booted on first attempt. I had tried to flash a similar card for this purpose before with no luck so I was happy at this instant amount of success.

However, there are a number of issues with this card:

- It freezes at the Mac OS 9.2 Screen when in use with my Multiple-Scan 15 (My usual 8600 monitor). Gets beyond this point on a higher resolution generic 1280x1024 CRT.
- It freezes on desktop due to an extension called "ATI Video Accelerator" (I can get beyond this by disabling this extension).
- None of the ATI Menus seem to work.

I have updated to the January 2005 Drivers, and the subsequent June 2005 Drivers. The same issues persisted before upgrading however.

Is there something else I could try? I suspect things might be a little better when I have more RAM, as the 136MB currently in the system I feel is limiting performance in general.

Any ideas?

 

[eyoungren]

I recently acquired a Mac Radeon 9200/9250 128MB on eBay for very little thanks to the keen eye of another MR member. I want it for my Power Macintosh 8600/250. I have also purchases 1GB of RAM for this system which is currently on the way.

Surprisingly it booted on first attempt. I had tried to flash a similar card for this purpose before with no luck so I was happy at this instant amount of success.

However, there are a number of issues with this card:

- It freezes at the Mac OS 9.2 Screen when in use with my Multiple-Scan 15 (My usual 8600 monitor). Gets beyond this point on a higher resolution generic 1280x1024 CRT.
- It freezes on desktop due to an extension called "ATI Video Accelerator" (I can get beyond this by disabling this extension).
- None of the ATI Menus seem to work.

I have updated to the January 2005 Drivers, and the subsequent June 2005 Drivers. The same issues persisted before upgrading however.

Is there something else I could try? I suspect things might be a little better when I have more RAM, as the 136MB currently in the system I feel is limiting performance in general.

Any ideas?

Take a look here:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?PHPSESSID=urnbf1hv8qr9d746s4nhiqpbc6&topic=1101.0

 

[Cox Orange]

@ Tevion
...not wanting to sound as if I could REALLY add to this or know a solution, but...

Do you have the problem in OS 9.1, too?
Under OS 9.2 did you try not disabling ATI accelerator and when you reach the desktop let it sit for a while. Then try to click something.
This doesn't make the ATI accelerator available for some of the 9200 cards, but at least the system can be used. Of course, when playing 3D games you will get error warnings. However I only had this problem with a flashed 9200, not with a Mac 9200.
Are you sure this is really a Mac Edition 9250 and not a flashed one sold as Mac Edition?

Keep us updated, if you find a solution.

 

[tevion5]

@ Tevion
...not wanting to sound as if I could REALLY add to this or know a solution, but...

Do you have the problem in OS 9.1, too?
Under OS 9.2 did you try not disabling ATI accelerator and when you reach the desktop let it sit for a while. Then try to click something.
This doesn't make the ATI accelerator available for some of the 9200 cards, but at least the system can be used. Of course, when playing 3D games you will get error warnings. However I only had this problem with a flashed 9200, not with a Mac 9200.
Are you sure this is really a Mac Edition 9250 and not a flashed one sold as Mac Edition?

Keep us updated, if you find a solution.

I have not tried this under Mac OS 9.1. With such a small 4GB HDD, don't have space for multiple installations ATM.

There are a number of "accelerators", one of which is video accelerator. There are others including 3D accelerator, so I assumed video might only be for 2D video playback or something else non essential.

I have let it wait for hours with that extension on, and it never progresses until I force quit ATI Video Extension.

Yes, the original sticker on the back says "Mac Radeon 9250", and it looks very legit.