how to install video card drivers

[Guest]

I need to know how to install new video card drivers. dxdiag does not
recognise I have a video card installed, My Windows XP is using the generic
video driver.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Visit the support web site of the manufacturer of your
video card to obtain the latest drivers and installation
instructions.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"COLINT" generically wrote:

| I need to know how to install new video card drivers. dxdiag does not
| recognise I have a video card installed, My Windows XP is using the generic
| video driver.
| --
| COLINT

 

[Allen L.]

In

I need to know how to install new video card drivers. dxdiag does not
recognise I have a video card installed, My Windows XP is using the
generic video driver.

Normally you would go to the card Website and download the latest drivers
and then uninstall your present driver from Add/Remove Programs (If listed &
if not uninstall from Device Manager), then install the new download from
the manufacturer.

....Allen

 

[Guest]

Go in to your BIOS, & see if it's set up to recognise your graphics card, it
will have a setting along the lines of "Generic, AGP, PCI", also make sure
it's set to 'Plug & Play aware", then install the drivers.

 

[Guest]

Carey,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra graphics
card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver, dxdiag
is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected. Device
Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the list
of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove it
completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I need to
download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative web site. Surely
though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a graphics card already
connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest drivers, but they are in the
form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the present
moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise that my
graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your computer
cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d mode has been
enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in software mode." It is
right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Can you offer any further help?

Regards

Colin

 

[Guest]

Allen,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra graphics
card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver, dxdiag
is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected. Device
Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the list
of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove it
completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I need to
download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative web site. Surely
though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a graphics card already
connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest drivers, but they are in the
form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the present
moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise that my
graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your computer
cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d mode has been
enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in software mode." It is
right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Can you offer any further help?

Regards

Colin

 

[Guest]

Mark,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra graphics
card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver, dxdiag
is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected. Device
Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the list
of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove it
completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I need to
download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative web site. Surely
though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a graphics card already
connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest drivers, but they are in the
form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the present
moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise that my
graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your computer
cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d mode has been
enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in software mode." It is
right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Can you offer any further help?

Regards

Colin

 

[Malke]

Mark,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra
graphics card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver,
dxdiag is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected.
Device Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the
list of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove
it completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how
to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I
need to download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative
web site. Surely though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a
graphics card already connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest
drivers, but they are in the form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the
present moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise
that my graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your
computer cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d
mode has been enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in
software mode." It is right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Try setting the computer to Base Video:

Start>Run msconfig [enter]
Click the BOOT.INI tab and under Boot Options, check "/BASEVIDEO." OK
and reboot. With luck (and you might consider a ritual sacrifice but
not of anyone you know) when you reboot, the computer will wake up and
say, "Oh, I've found a new video card, would you like to configure it?"
You can cancel that because Creative probably has their own setup you
have to run to install the drivers. After Windows recognizes that there
is new hardware, go ahead and run the Creative setup program.

You mention that the drivers are in a zip program - often these are
self-extracting zips and double-clicking them will automatically
extract the drivers (you can just take the default) and start the
installation routine. If this isn't the case, then double-click the zip
folder and extract the contents to a new folder you will have made and
put somewhere easy like c:\blasterdrivers. One of the items inside the
zip will undoubtedly be something called setup.exe or the like.

See where that gets you and post back if you need more help.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Malke,

Tried as you suggested with the Base Video process, but pc will still not
recognise my Creative FX5900 Ultra video card.

Double clicking the zipped driver file only activates Winzip, it obviousely
gives me the option to unzip the zip file, but not to install the files
within the zip file. There is
no executable file (.exe or .com) within the zip file. I have four sets of
later drivers which I have downloaded from Nvidia. I was under the mistaken
impression at the time that all I had to do to install those drivers was
double click on them.

But getting back to my original problem, I cannot install or update my
drivers until my pc recognises I have a video card installed. The only way
for this to be confirmed, is to see the video card in the list of hardware in
Device Manager.

I still have my original video card which I am contemplating reinstalling in
my pc
to see if Device Manager recognises that card. The only problem is because
drivers are generic, the original drivers will have been overwritten when I
installed my latest video card.

Mark,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra
graphics card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver,
dxdiag is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected.
Device Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the
list of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove
it completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how
to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I
need to download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative
web site. Surely though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a
graphics card already connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest
drivers, but they are in the form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the
present moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise
that my graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your
computer cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d
mode has been enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in
software mode." It is right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Try setting the computer to Base Video:

Start>Run msconfig [enter]
Click the BOOT.INI tab and under Boot Options, check "/BASEVIDEO." OK
and reboot. With luck (and you might consider a ritual sacrifice but
not of anyone you know) when you reboot, the computer will wake up and
say, "Oh, I've found a new video card, would you like to configure it?"
You can cancel that because Creative probably has their own setup you
have to run to install the drivers. After Windows recognizes that there
is new hardware, go ahead and run the Creative setup program.

You mention that the drivers are in a zip program - often these are
self-extracting zips and double-clicking them will automatically
extract the drivers (you can just take the default) and start the
installation routine. If this isn't the case, then double-click the zip
folder and extract the contents to a new folder you will have made and
put somewhere easy like c:\blasterdrivers. One of the items inside the
zip will undoubtedly be something called setup.exe or the like.

See where that gets you and post back if you need more help.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

 

[Malke]

Malke,

Tried as you suggested with the Base Video process, but pc will still
not recognise my Creative FX5900 Ultra video card.

Double clicking the zipped driver file only activates Winzip, it
obviousely gives me the option to unzip the zip file, but not to
install the files within the zip file. There is
no executable file (.exe or .com) within the zip file. I have four
sets of later drivers which I have downloaded from Nvidia. I was under
the mistaken impression at the time that all I had to do to install
those drivers was double click on them.

But getting back to my original problem, I cannot install or update my
drivers until my pc recognises I have a video card installed. The only
way for this to be confirmed, is to see the video card in the list of
hardware in Device Manager.

I still have my original video card which I am contemplating
reinstalling in my pc
to see if Device Manager recognises that card. The only problem is
because drivers are generic, the original drivers will have been
overwritten when I installed my latest video card.

OK, turn off the computer and put in your old video card. Restart the
computer. Does Windows find your card? If it does, go ahead and install
it. If it is a rather old, common card then the drivers for it may
already be included with Windows. Now take your new card to another
machine and see if that machine sees the card. If you don't have
another machine or the ability (or inclination) to test this way, take
the card back to where you bought it and tell them it doesn't work. It
certainly sounds like that is the case.

Malke

 

[Steve N.]

Carey,

I believe I will have to be more specific about my problem.

I upgraded my computer from Windows XP oem Home Edition to Windows XP
oem Professional last weekend. My Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra graphics
card
worked ok up until then. Now my pc is using the generic video driver, dxdiag
is not recognising the fact that I have a video card connected. Device
Manager will
not let me remove the graphics card because it doesn't show up on the list
of hardware I have installed. What I would like to do, is remove it
completely, then reinstall it, but do you think I can find out how to, no.

In dxdiag DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are not
available, the disable function is greyed out. Dxdiag does say that I need to
download the latest graphics card drivers from the Creative web site. Surely
though, Windows needs to know firstly, that I have a graphics card already
connected to my pc. I have downloaded the latest drivers, but they are in the
form of a zip file. The trouble is
I don't know how to install them from this zip file which at the present
moment resides on my desktop.

I have been advised to boot up the pc in safe mode by pressing F8 at
startup, which I have done. Device Manager will still not recognise that my
graphics card is connected.

When using Flight Simulator 2004 I get the error message "Your computer
cannot currently use 3-d hardware acceleration. Software 3-d mode has been
enabled. Some graphical features may not appear in software mode." It is
right the graphics are poor to say the least!

Can you offer any further help?

Regards

Colin

Colin,

First of all, Device Manager may very well not show the card until the
driver is installed. Secondly, in almost all cases you must uninstall
the original card from Device Manager, remove the old card, shut down,
install the new card, start up and then provide the path to the driver
(either on CD or what you downloaded - and it might not be .exe file but
..inf file) then install the driver. Some cards also require that DirectX
be installed first.

This may also be of help:

http://dmzweb4.europe.creative.com/...SET=ws:http://us.creative.com/,Case=obj(5316)

Since you are at this point I would put the old card back in, uninstall
it as described then proceed.

Steve