Black screen on Halo with Radeon 9200: help

[ThumperStrauss]

I just installed Halo for PC and I'm not able to see anything after the
three intros from the makers of the game. (The screen stays black when
the chanting sound begins.)

I installed DirecX 9c from Microsoft, but it still doesn't work. Here
is my system info:

- Asus A7N8X2.0 motherboard
- AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+, 1829 MHz
- RADEON 9200 with driver ati2mtag.sys, August 12, 2003
- MS 5.1.2600 SP 2.0
- RAM 1GB
- 42.9GB free space on C:

Any ideas?

- TS

 

[Augustus]

I just installed Halo for PC and I'm not able to see anything after the
three intros from the makers of the game. (The screen stays black when
the chanting sound begins.)

I installed DirecX 9c from Microsoft, but it still doesn't work. Here
is my system info:

- Asus A7N8X2.0 motherboard
- AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+, 1829 MHz
- RADEON 9200 with driver ati2mtag.sys, August 12, 2003
- MS 5.1.2600 SP 2.0
- RAM 1GB
- 42.9GB free space on C:

Any ideas?

Which video drivers are you running? Are these MS ones or 2 year old
Catalysts? Either way, I'd go to ATI's site and download and install the
latest Catalysts. Then give it a go.

 

[DaveW]

The Radeon 9200 is NOT DX 9.0 capable. Check the ATI website. Time for a
more powerful card if you are going to play modern graphics intensive games.

 

[ThumperStrauss]

I guess it's back to Civ 3 for me... Thanks for the info.

 

[Augustus]

The Radeon 9200 is NOT DX 9.0 capable. Check the ATI website. Time for a
more powerful card if you are going to play modern graphics intensive
games.

Not it's not but it will still run Halo in DX9 compatability mode. DX9 must
be installed (which he did) to run the game, but the game runs fine on
non-DX9 cards. Just no DX9 effects. There's plenty of happy people running
Halo on 8500's and the nonDX9 9000/9200 cards.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=829478#XSLTH4148121123120121120120
and
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=829479

So the problem is likely his outdated or non ATI drivers.

 

[Augustus]

Also suggest you look at the list of supported ATI cards on the first link
too.

 

[Sleepy]

I guess it's back to Civ 3 for me... Thanks for the info.

I played through Halo on a Radeon 9100 just fine - I had to use 800x600 with
medium settings if I remember correct but it played okay. It is NOT a
DirectX 9 only game - its a straight port of the XBOX game and they have
Geforce 3 graphics which are DirectX 8. Update your motherboard drivers
(including the AGP driver) and then your Graphics driver to Catalyst 4.12 -
Halo IS playable on your card.

 

[ThumperStrauss]

UPDATE FROM OP

I updated my ATI drivers with the Catalyst drivers and now I can see
the game! No more blank screen!

You can get the ATI driver here:

<https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27>

I must say, however, that ATI does a bad job of indicating which driver
to use. I was looking for something that said RADEON XP driver, or
something like that. Instead, I got the following choice:

# CATALYST 5.8 Windows XP - Driver Download

# ATI Multimedia Center 9.08

# HYDRAVISION - For RADEON and Mobile ATI Products

# CATALYST CREW Feedback

I had no idea which one to choose. I tried the first one, and it
worked. But ATI should have clearer instructions.