Video Card (PCI-express) not working

C

cam35pilot

Hi,
I'm totally lost on video cards. My friend asked me to clean up a
Dell 3.2 GHz tower that he bought on Ebay. The video card (not
integrated) wasn't working, so I put a PCI video card that I had
laying around in temporarily.

The card the PC had was VGA and HDMI, and he wants to get a Samsung
HD flat-screen, so I'd like to get that PCI-express card working if
possible.

I went on Dell's site and downloaded the drivers for it, then
switched the default in bios back to PEG from PCI, but nothing. How do
I know if the card is bad? In Hardware manager, it's still showing
yellow "?"s for Video Controller and Video Controller (VGA
compatible). When I downloaded the drivers, some said "installed" and
required a restart, but a couple said that no compatible hardware was
found.

I couldn't find any marking on the card, but I think it's NVidia.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Is there some kind of generic
driver for a PEG card that might give me an idea whether the card is
bad?

I've never installed any video cards before. It's a circa-2005
PC, Sata HD.

Thanks,
Rich
 
D

DL

You need the drivers for the vid card, which are obtained from that vid card
manufacturers site and not Dell

You can try Balarc Advisor and see if it gives details of the vid card
There should be numbers on the vid card chip, running a google search may
then reveal something relevent
 
S

sandy58

Hi,
   I'm totally lost on video cards. My friend asked me to clean up a
Dell 3.2 GHz tower that he bought on Ebay. The video card (not
integrated) wasn't working, so I put a PCI video card that I had
laying around in temporarily.

   The card the PC had was VGA and HDMI, and he wants to get a Samsung
HD flat-screen, so I'd like to get that PCI-express card  working if
possible.

   I went on Dell's site and downloaded the drivers for it, then
switched the default in bios back to PEG from PCI, but nothing. How do
I know if the card is bad? In Hardware manager, it's still showing
yellow "?"s for Video Controller and Video Controller (VGA
compatible). When I downloaded the drivers, some said "installed" and
required a restart, but a couple said that no compatible hardware was
found.

    I couldn't find any marking on the card, but I think it's NVidia.

   Any thoughts would be appreciated. Is there some kind of generic
driver for a PEG card that might give me an idea whether the card is
bad?

     I've never installed any video cards before. It's a circa-2005
PC, Sata HD.

Thanks,
Rich

http://www.download.com/MSI-nVidia-based-Graphics-Drivers-Windows-2000-XP-/3000-2108_4-10162298.html
Download from here & try. If your card is nVidia this will do the job.
If not...no harm done.
Good luck.
 
S

SC Tom

cam35pilot said:
Hi,
I'm totally lost on video cards. My friend asked me to clean up a
Dell 3.2 GHz tower that he bought on Ebay. The video card (not
integrated) wasn't working, so I put a PCI video card that I had
laying around in temporarily.

The card the PC had was VGA and HDMI, and he wants to get a Samsung
HD flat-screen, so I'd like to get that PCI-express card working if
possible.

I went on Dell's site and downloaded the drivers for it, then
switched the default in bios back to PEG from PCI, but nothing. How do
I know if the card is bad? In Hardware manager, it's still showing
yellow "?"s for Video Controller and Video Controller (VGA
compatible). When I downloaded the drivers, some said "installed" and
required a restart, but a couple said that no compatible hardware was
found.

I couldn't find any marking on the card, but I think it's NVidia.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Is there some kind of generic
driver for a PEG card that might give me an idea whether the card is
bad?

I've never installed any video cards before. It's a circa-2005
PC, Sata HD.

Thanks,
Rich

Go into add/remove programs and see if there is an entry for Nvidia display
drivers. That'll give you the version number that is installed. If you check
on Dell's website for that particular model's specs, it will list what video
card came with it. Does it also have on-board video? If so, that will have
to be disabled in BIOS to avoid possible conflicts.

After you find out what card and drivers you do have, go get the latest
driver from the card manufacturer's web site, and remove the old drivers
with add/remove and reboot. When (if) it comes back up and says new hardware
found, cancel out and leave it as Standard VGA. You may or may not have a
yellow ! in device manager. Doesn't matter. Run the new driver's in setup
program and go from there.

HTH,
SC Tom
 

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