XP Plus Not Reporting Video Memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Major Malfunction
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Major Malfunction

I recently installed WinXP Pro on a PC that was originally a Win98 machine.
No problems there, did a clean install after formatting the drive. I
installed WinXP Plus and during installation I was informed the video card
did not have 32 Mb of memory. This was correct as it was an OEM card. After
completing the installation of all my programs, I swapped the video card for
a Viper V770 with 32 Mb of memory. I went back to re-install Plus to pick up
the portions that did not install . Plus checked the card (screen flickered)
and I got a message the video card does not have 32 Mb of memory. I watched
the screen during reboot and the video card is identified as having 32 Mb.

Any clues what's going on? Other than this annoyance, everything else seems
OK.
 
Major Malfunction said:
I recently installed WinXP Pro on a PC that was originally a Win98 machine.
No problems there, did a clean install after formatting the drive. I
installed WinXP Plus and during installation I was informed the video card
did not have 32 Mb of memory. This was correct as it was an OEM card. After
completing the installation of all my programs, I swapped the video card for
a Viper V770 with 32 Mb of memory. I went back to re-install Plus to pick up
the portions that did not install . Plus checked the card (screen flickered)
and I got a message the video card does not have 32 Mb of memory. I watched
the screen during reboot and the video card is identified as having 32 Mb.

Any clues what's going on? Other than this annoyance, everything else seems
OK.
Click to expand...
The problem was the WinXP supplied driver. No one came forward to help with
his problem, but I will hopefully save someone else the aggravation I had. I
found a better driver on Nvidia's website. The specific driver is at (Watch
for line wrap}:

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=winxp-2k_44.03

Plus! was uninstalled prior to installing the driver. Once I installed the
driver, the Advanced Settings tab finally showed 32 Mb of video RAM. I was
able to install the entire Plus! for Win XP without any missing pieces.
 
Major Malfunction said:
I recently installed WinXP Pro on a PC that was originally a Win98 machine.
No problems there, did a clean install after formatting the drive. I
installed WinXP Plus and during installation I was informed the video card
did not have 32 Mb of memory. This was correct as it was an OEM card. After
completing the installation of all my programs, I swapped the video card for
a Viper V770 with 32 Mb of memory. I went back to re-install Plus to pick up
the portions that did not install . Plus checked the card (screen flickered)
and I got a message the video card does not have 32 Mb of memory. I watched
the screen during reboot and the video card is identified as having 32 Mb.

Any clues what's going on? Other than this annoyance, everything else seems
OK.
Click to expand...
No one came forward on this issue, but I kept pushing on by myself. The
problem was tracked down to the Microsoft supplied driver incorrectly
reading the amount of RAM on the video card. I was able to locate a more
current driver from the Nvidia website and the operating system is now
reporting the full 32 Mb on the video card. The driver was found at (watch
for line warp):

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=winxp-2k_44.03

Prior to installing the new driver, I uninstalled Plus!, booted to the Safe
Mode to uninstall the Windows Driver and finally installed the Nvidia driver
(in safe mode) and reinstalled Plus!. I rebooted after each phase of the
operation, maybe overkill for reboots, but it seem like a good idea at the
time! I now have the full Plus! suite at my disposal.

I hope the forgoing can save someone the aggravation I went through.
 
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