[dogbiscuit]

I'm a little unsure about what you mean in step 1, 'Update the video adapter to standard VGA (PCI) adapter'. Do you mean download it from this site as well as the AGP driver? Also step 4. Do you mean the 'display' adapter branch? The only thing listed in there is my nvidia card. There's no 'current standard VGA' one. I think I understand what to do with the rest of the instructions.

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Sorry, no. I mean, go into control panel->hardware->device manager.
Click on the display adapters to expand the branch. Click on your video card (gainward 660 or whatever its listed as) & select properties. Next, select the update driver button.
When windows asks, select the 'display list of drivers....' option.
When the list opens, click on the 'show all hardware' radio button.
In the left pane, select 'standard display types' and in the right pane, select the 'Standard PCI Graphics adapter (VGA)' option. Then click next.

[Samm]

Sorry, no. I mean, go into control panel->hardware->device manager.
Click on the display adapters to expand the branch. Click on your video card (gainward 660 or whatever its listed as) & select properties. Next, select the update driver button.
When windows asks, select the 'display list of drivers....' option.
When the list opens, click on the 'show all hardware' radio button.
In the left pane, select 'standard display types' and in the right pane, select the 'Standard PCI Graphics adapter (VGA)' option. Then click next.

[dogbiscuit]

I've tried doing what you said for step 1 but can't get it to work. I can get as far as clicking on my nvidia card and going to 'update driver'. When the 'hardware update' wizard starts there is no option to 'display list of drivers'. I've got 'install software automatically' or 'install from a list or specific location'. I've explored both these routes but neither leads me to any of the options you are suggesting.

[Samm]

Hi, sorry about that. They were win98 instructions, forgot XP was different.

In that case, don't bother with any of that. Instead do this :

1. control panel->add/remove programs. Uninstall the video card driver from there. Let the system reboot afterwards in normal mode.

2. If for any reason, XP auto detects the card again & installs it without giving you option to cancel, then let me know before going any further.
Otherwise, just cancel the add new hardware wizard if it starts up on reboot. Then check decive manager - you should now have standard video VGA adapter listed instead of the gainward driver.

3. I reckon that deleting the SIS AGP driver, as I originally suggested might be messy. So don't bother but do make sure you have that latest SIS AGP driver downloaded & extracted on the drive ready.

4. Reboot in safe mode. Go back to device manager & make sure there is nothing listed under display adapters other than the standard VGA one. If there are other entries there, delete them.

5 Reboot normally.

6. Reinstall the gainward driver. It will probably want to reboot etc so let it

7. When thats done, install or update the SIS AGP driver (listed under system devices in device manager) to the driver that you downloaded

Theres a good chance that none of this will make any difference but its worth a shot. If it doesn't help at all, then we can look into AGP tweaks etc that may help instead

[dogbiscuit]

Ok thanks Samm. I've done all that now but it hasn't changed anything. The graphics on fifa are still terrible and my other 2 games are still just black screen. I'm toying with the idea of buying a different card and if it works sticking this one on ebay. I'm actually going shopping later today and will probably be in a currys and a comet store. Is there a card that you would recommend for me as I don't really have too much of a clue when it comes to graphics cards. I'm thinking maybe one of the radeon ones. I just want something thats decent and will play most games without having to fork out too much. I'm not after anything amazing.

[Supergeek.dcse]

go to the games web site and see if there is a patch for that card for that game not all the games that are released are writen with that card in mind at the time the game comes out

[dogbiscuit]

go to the games web site and see if there is a patch for that card for that game not all the games that are released are writen with that card in mind at the time the game comes out

But none of my games work with this card.

[Samm]

go to the games web site and see if there is a patch for that card for that game not all the games that are released are writen with that card in mind at the time the game comes out

But none of my games work with this card.

Which is precisely why I haven't already suggested that. If it was just one or two games being twitchy but rest were OK, then yeah, look for patches. However this affects all games indicating the problem is with the hardware or windows, not the games.

Dog biscuit - not surprised to hear it didn't work really. Thought it was a strange recommendation by the video card manufacturer to start with.
I know audioboy mentioned about the screen resolution earlier but can you confirm for me :
are you using 600x800 screen res?
what colour depth are you using?
what is the refresh rate set to?

Although buying a new card may well solve your problem, I'm just concerned that you could have exactly the same problems with the new one, if its not the card thats the issue but the motherboard or the configuration instead.

One more thing, you may have already told us this I'm not sure, whats the video display quality like in everything else, apart from games?

Edited by Samm, 01 June 2005 - 04:14 PM.

[dogbiscuit]

At the moment I am using 1024 by 768 pixels, 16 bit with 72 Hz refresh rate. I have tried experimenting with various other settings but not had any joy.
The video quality for everything else seems ok apart from a couple of glitches that I've noticed. Whenever I come upon one of those little check boxes where you can tick it by clicking on it, it looks all f**ked up. It is just a box of weird grainy colour. I've noticed other little areas of my screen like that, like at the top of a scroll bar for example. This has definately only been happening since I added this card.

[Samm]

I take it you've tried lowering the colour depth to 256 & resolution to 800x600? I realise that even if this does help, it's gonna look awful in 256 & probably most your games won't support it. Just curious to know if it helped at all.

It sounds like it may just be a driver issue. I say 'just' but they're not always that simple to resolve of course. You have tried the latest gainward drivers anyway for this card. I was wondering if its possible to use the drivers supplied by Nvidia themselves instead of gainward. (it is based on Nvidia chip isn't it?). These drivers are all easily available from Nvidia website.
May be worth a go, who knows?

[dogbiscuit]

Yup. I've tried 800 by 600 and 256 colours, but no joy. I have also tried downloading the latest nvidea drivers but that didn't work either.

[Samm]

We haven't discussed updating the bios yet have we? Might be worth a shot but I wuld need to know the PCB version of your motherboard in order to locate the right bios update.

[dogbiscuit]

Ok what does PBC mean and how do I find it out? I have been trying to find out information about my motherboard but having difficulty. I've had my head inside the case but there's nothing written on it. The guy I bought this pc off reckons it was reconditioned. I think in a previous post I gave some details after using everest software which detects specs.

[audioboy]

the PCB is the motherboard itself.

Samm, I had him post his everest results earlier. that is what got us his mobo make model, but I was never able to find anything on that exact revision he has.

Ive been watching the thread, your still fighting the good fight.

samm, any thoughts on if his AGP slot is only a 1x or 2x? also, I think there was an option to use PCI video...would a PCI card with a decent amount of memory on it be a possibility?

dogbisicuit was wanting to explore alternate cards a little ways back, so Im trying to figure out something that will actually work!

[Samm]

Audioboy
Thanks for your input on this, we must be thinking along very similar lines cuz I've wondering exactly whcih cards are gonna actually work as well!

The AGP version - the manual for his mobo does state agp 4x (AGPV2.0). Also, if it only supported agp 1x & 2x (3.3V), the 4x card shouldn't have fitted. Even if it did, it would have been burnt out in large plumes of smoke probably by now!

The pci video card is a good idea though (hadn't thought of that one!). The only possible problem with that is that theres only 2 pci slots, so one would have to be empty obviously.

I have just come across something that I have completely missed before this point (and so has dogbiscuit). According to the manual, his mobo actually has ONBOARD VIDEO as well as the AGP slot!!

This may be the cause of the problem I guess - what do you reckon?

dogbiscuit
Was your old video card an addon agp card as well or were you using the integrated video on the mobo?

Also, the PCB version should be written on the mobo itself. I know you said you couldn't find the model number on it but the PCB number must be there.

Take a torch & have a look inside the system. The number is usually either fairly central or written along one of the edge of the board.
It should start with either V or Ver or possibly PCB. If it helps, you are looking for a number that has a decimal point in, with the first number falling somewhere between 1 and 9. ( V3.0B as an example)