If I install CCC, "Advanced View" is the default setting. On the left side of the screen, under "Pinned", I get the categories "Presets", "Performance" and "Power". With "Standard View" I only get "Presets". That's all. Mind you, I installed the CCC without the card inserted now, just to check on the categories but they're exactly the same as before with the card installed. There is no "Display Manager" and there was none. Apparantly even for the CCC it doesn't make a difference if the card is inserted in the PCIe or not. It always just gives me this barebones version of CCC, where I don't get any option to select a graphic card. I had a friend over yesterday who tried to help me and he said it looks totally different than his own CCC and he'd get more options on his. Have a look at the screenshot (this is Advanced View, and it looked just the same when the card was inserted):

If you installed the driver bundle with the card not installed, I'm not totally surprised that most of it is missing. Probably including the driver itself. It looks like CCC is running with no card to talk to -- because there is no driver for it.

With the card in, reinstall the driver bundle and see what you get. The driver won't install unless the installer detects the card.

I know that, but what i just told you is: There is no difference. I installed the CCC today several times with the card in and it always looked like this. What happens now with the card out is the same as what happens with the card in. And that's why it's not working. So apparently the driver is not detecting the card, even when it is in.

What I'm trying to say is that you may have installed the CCC, but not the driver. Or you may have different versions of the CCC and the driver.

Go to your Device Manager; see what it says under "Display adapters". Your card should be there. If your card is there, right-click it and select "Properties". You'll get a property page with several tabs. The interesting tab is the "Driver" tab. That should tell you the manufacturer, date, version, and signer of your driver -- if the driver is installed.

If you see anything unusual (the adapter is not under "Display Adapters", or what is there is either a "Standard VGA" or something with a yellow caution mark, or when you select Properties on it, you see something other than a proper description of the driver), please let us know what you do see there.

That's possible, very probably actually, but when I went to the AMD support site's download page and selected my graphic card, I never got to choose any individual driver for it, I only got the option to download the whole package of CCC and included drivers with the one exe i mentioned above (see this post). I have no idea if I need to do anything else, the AMD site always directed me to this installer I ran and didn't tell me anything else. (And a similar package, only a slightly older version, came on DVD with the graphic card. With the same outcome.)


Like I said, I'm grateful for your help, it's just that I've given up on it for today. It's really stressed me out and my mood was quite bad earlier. I'm feeling a little less frustrated now, but it's already 1 am over here and I'll go to bed soon, so tonight I won't open my computer's case for the umpteenth time anymore. I hope you understand and won't hold it against me.

What I can tell you though is that I looked at the Device Manager several times today after inserting the card and installing CCC and there was ALWAYS just "Standard VGA" with a yellow caution mark, never the name of the graphic card. Obviously I haven't got the right driver installed (but how would I find the right one then?) or it isn't compatible ...

Yeah, you are not getting a usable driver, and that is pretty much the whole problem. Best to take a break from it and go at it again some other time when you're not stressed over it.

Thanks for your patience, cjrgreen! :)

I wrote an e-mail to the AMD support describing my problem with the driver package. Let's see what they have to say about it.

Well, AMD opened a support ticket two weeks ago when I contacted them with my issue but since then I haven't heard from then. I talked to the Atelco support and the employee said it sounded like the card was defect, so I sent it back and got a new one today. I deinstalled the old drivers, shut the PC down, installed the hardware, re-booted it, downloaded the driver for Radeon HD 6xxxx series from the AMD support site, installed it as an administrator, restarted the PC, and still no difference. I don't know what is wrong with my PC or my Vista, but they just won't recognize the card (despite the hardware and the display working when the monitor connected to the card, but only as Standard VGA card). :(

Would it still make sense to try a different video card, from NVidia like my old one? Or should I give up and settle for the onboard card?


EDIT:
The irony is I finally got a message from AMD just now. (Do they read the GOG forums? :P ) They say my motherboard might be too old for the video card (PCI Express 1.0 complaint instead of PCI Express 2.1). They recommend to make sure I have the latest motherboard BIOS and chipset available installed. Isn't that kind of risky, updating the BIOS, especially for someone who's not all that tech-savvy? I'd hate to kill my working PC just because I wanted to try Trine or The Witcher ...

Flashing the BIOS definitely has risks, with the worst outcome being that your motherboard becomes bricked. The most common mistake people make is grabbing the wrong BIOS, which naturally doesn't result in a working motherboard (you need to carefully note the manufacturer, model, and also the specific revision of your motherboard when grabbing the BIOS file). Another common mistake is not carefully following the instructions of the motherboard maker to the letter, which can result in missing key things like needing to change a jumper setting before the BIOS can be written to. I also wouldn't recommend flashing the BIOS unless you have a UPS, as a power interruption will mean that your motherboard gets hosed. Some motherboards are able to recover from a botched flashing of the BIOS, while with others you're just shit out of luck if you screw it up.

Because of all of this, you want to be ABSOLUTELY SURE that flashing the BIOS will solve your problem before you do it. It's not the kind of thing you should try just because it might help. That said, I'd be rather skeptical of the advice you got from the tech support. PCIe 2.0 cards should be fully compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, just with slower transfer rates. There are some problems with PCIe 2.1 cards with 1.x motherboards, but that seems to vary on a case by case basis. Basically look around and see if there is a known problem using your card with your specific motherboard and BIOS, and whether there is a known fix by flashing a newer version of the BIOS. If there isn't then I'd highly recommend against flashing the BIOS just on the off chance that it might help.

Because this is a Hyrican (Packard Bell) proprietary motherboard (and many years out of date), not an ASUS retail motherboard, you can't just go to ASUS and get a new BIOS for it. Hyrican has some support for it, but I do not see a BIOS update. I doubt you would need one, or that one would even be helpful. Darrk Phoenix already did a good job of explaining the risks.

If you haven't already done so, try contacting Hyrican. (hyrican.de) They're more likely to be familiar with the quirks of this motherboard than techs at AMD who have probably never seen it.

On further investigation, despite the steadfast claims that cards of all PCI Express versions are interchangeable, in fact some older PCI Express motherboards do not work properly with PCI Express 2.1 cards, and a few will not even work with 2.0 cards. Old proprietary motherboards, which do not receive regular BIOS updates, are the most likely to be troublesome. Unfortunately, "old proprietary motherboard" describes yours accurately :(

You may be stuck with one of the bad cases. Hyrican support will be more likely to have a definitive answer than anybody else.

Here's what they wrote in detail:

"The problem may simply be too old of a motherboard for the video card.

From what I can see the motherboard is an Asus OEM version made for Packard Bell with an nForce chipset that is PCI Express 1.0 complaint.

The HD6xxx cards are PCI Express 2.1 complaint, they are backwards compatible to PCI Express 1.1a motherboards, but have issues with earlier revisions.

Make sure you have the latest motherboard BIOS and chipset available installed. and try the steps below to get the drivers installed. If it is a Packard Bell OEM board these would come from Packard Bell.

If the problem continues up to the HD4xxx series of cards are the highest we typically recommend for these older PCI Express motherboards."


To me it seems quite likely that hardware incompatibility is the issue here, as I've already tried anything else. I think I'm just going to get my money back from Atelco and that's that. I may write to Hyrican and ask them what video card update they suggest for this build, but I doubt it would be worth the money and trouble if it means getting an even less powerful card. I guess I'll just do then what I'm used to; shelf all the more recent games and play them in 3 years or so when I'm ready to buy a new computer. ;)