0

I have Windows 7 working perfectly well in a dual monitor setup, using the two outputs of my Nvidia 8800 GT.

I want to add a third monitor, and I've acquired an old cheap Sapphire Radeon 7000 PCI card for this.

I plugged the Radeon in, and Windows recognised it and installed a standard VGA driver, but it won't start - the dreaded warning triangle in Device Manager.

The message is `This device cannot start. (Code 10).

Any ideas?

So far, I've tried installing the latest catalyst driver, but it doesn't make any difference.

Edit:

I'm using:

  • Windows 7 x86
  • Abit IP35 mainboard
  • 4GB RAM installed
  • Geforce 8800 GT (512MB)

... and I've verified that the old Radeon 7000 works ok in another machine.

1
  • Is it even smart running a radeon and an nvidia on the same machine. I would think that is your problem to begin with but I could be wrong. Sep 10, 2011 at 8:39

2 Answers 2

3

Code 10s can often be caused by driver incompatibilities - note that just because these are both WDDM1.1 drivers, and the driver model is designed to allow for multiple drivers, is NOT a 100% guarantee of success. That said, while I've never tried these two chipsets together, I would be at least slightly surprised if it was a pure incompatibility based on experience I've had with chipsets of similar vintage.

Code 10s can also be caused by problems allocating resources to the devices - this would be happening on a motherboard level. The most likely cause in this sort of situation would be this: it's possible that there's too much RAM in the machine, including the RAM on the GPUs, for your motherboard to map it all properly (if you can clarify what other hardware is in the machine this would enable me to say this with certainty.) If it is having this trouble, you might find that reducing the amount of RAM installed in the machine would cause the second card to start working. If that's the case, the only solution is replacing the board (or running in the reduced RAM state) but this isn't ideal.

There are also a few other things that could be going on, but they'd all be hardware specific; if you can give some more details I can expound. (One that some budget hardware might have is a limitation on which expansion slots can be active simultaneously at which speeds, but that's unlikely to be an issue with one PCIe and one PCI card.)

Oh, and it should probably go without saying, but - make sure the Radeon 7000 works okay when it's the ONLY card in the machine! If it doesn't, the fact that it's secondary is just a red herring.

6
  • thanks for this. I've added some details to my question. I haven't tried pulling the 8800 GT yet, since it's my main dev machine!
    – ChrisA
    Aug 25, 2011 at 9:18
  • I can't find anything regarding this mainboard that indicates it's susceptible to any of this stuff, but lack of info doesn't necessarily make it so. I'm not really familiar with this vendor, I"m afraid.
    – Shinrai
    Aug 25, 2011 at 14:19
  • Thanks for looking. Do you reckon I'd have more luck with an Nvidia PCI card?
    – ChrisA
    Aug 25, 2011 at 16:43
  • I'd give it better odds, yes. Honestly, if you don't need any significant rendering power or high resolution (which I assume is the case based on settling for a low-end PCI card) a USB to DVI DisplayLink solution might be best.
    – Shinrai
    Aug 25, 2011 at 18:50
  • Well, I want 1080p on the 3rd monitor, but probably won't need more than that before a new computer! I'll look into the USB to DVI DisplayLink option, thanks.
    – ChrisA
    Aug 27, 2011 at 7:00
0

Well, I've got rid of the Radeon, and replaced it with a GeForce 6200 - which just worked.

I didn't even need to reboot the computer for it to install the VGA driver, and for it to be recognised as a working device in Device Manager.

I guess this reinforces the view that I've seen expressed in several places, to the effect that multiple graphics cards should come from the same manufacturer.

I'd be interested in any comments from anyone who has had success with Nvidia and ATI in the same machine.

Thanks.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .