Sorry to spam this thread with constant posts; I'm just trying to figure out and document everything I can.
I exchanged private messages with user
Prelude, who in an
old post, also wrote about setting up an ATI AIW 8500DV.
They claimed to never have needed to use the two installation CDs (180-V01043-100 and 180-G01445-200) that came with their ATI AIW 8500DV, instead having let Windows figure things out on its own. They then provided some screenshots, one of which showed their system using ATI Technologies Inc. driver 6.14.1.6292 from 1/20/2003.
Despite
Prelude's unexpectedly rapid and friendly response, I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical of their claim (sorry!).
I thought that I should go ahead and install DirectX 9.0c while mulling over
Prelude's message. I proceeded to boot up my Dimension 8300, and, sure enough, this time it was displaying the correct resolution (1600x900). Recall that in
post #3, I wrote that maximum display settings were not available, and msgohan confirmed in
post #4 that this was normal .
I looked at the Device Manager and dxdiag; both showed that my ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500 DV (Microsoft Corporation) was using:
Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc. |
Driver Date: 3/23/2004 |
Driver Version: 6.14.10.6462 |
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher |
Huh, that's odd. When I last turned the computer off, it was using whatever generic driver I listed in
post #3. Moreover, dxdiag showed me that I already had DirectX 9.0c installed.
Note that I have never connected this computer (well, the current install) to the internet, nor have I inserted any other media.
At this point, I should mention that I did not use standard Windows XP media to install Windows XP SP2; instead, I used the recovery disc which shipped with a Inspiron E1405 laptop. Originally, I had tried to use nLite to slipstream SP2 and SATA drivers into an .iso file, but that proved unsuccessful, so I gave the recovery disc a try and it worked flawlessly.
If anyone is interested, I can check to see if I am able to yank drivers from that recovery disc.
I assume that the disc contains whatever was in Dell's consumer ecosystem circa 2004-2006 and is responsible for me having DirectX 9.0c out of the box and the ATI driver.
The lingering question: Is this the "right" ATI driver? Is the box ready for MMC? (which version? 8.x or 9.x?) That would be remarkably simple if so...
TL;DR
- I installed Windows XP using recovery media from ca. 2006.
- DirectX 9.0c was pre-installed
- It found and automatically configured ATI driver 6.14.10.6462
- Question: is this then "good to go"?