GrrlGamer

Hello,

I am unfortunatley having a problem. I recently had my computer re-formatted and a 2nd hard drive installed. Ever since then my graphics card is not recognized by the computer. If I try to play a game such as half life or WoW, I get a message that there is no suitable display device. Whenever I boot i get a message from ATI saying that no drivers are functioning or installed and to please install the appropriate drivers.

I have installed the latest drivers but they do not work. DxDiag doesnt even show a video card in there. The people who worked on the computer said the card is just old, but i find it hard to believe that it just happens to die when they worked on the computer. I have reseated the card, and the fan on the card turns on when i turn the computer on.

I believe the problem is that the card (AGP ATI Radeon Pro IceQ3) is ATI, and the mother board is Nvidia (MSI- 7025). The person who built this computer is no longer around for me to ask them which drivers they used to make the system work.

Originally it has XP on one WD 36 GB drive, but now it has Vista on that drive and Windows 7 on a second WD 1TB drive. I also tried to latest Vista drivers with the card before Windows 7 was even put on here, but it didnt work then either.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

comp_ali

What model of ATi ? also make sure the Catalyst you installed has your card in the supported list , Ati has been dropping support in new released catalyst since a while. So check the last one that can support your card model and install it.

GrrlGamer

sorry, don't know how I forgot to add that in there. Its the x1950. On their website the catalyst suite is what it tells me to download and claims to include all of the x1950 series.

SeraphicSorcerer

It looks to me like you need to install the hotfix driver for that card, I think 9.3 is the last version to support it but I am not sure, As it's AGP. and an older series.


does the card show up under device manager at all??
If so, you should be able to install, though I would suggest totally uninstalling old drivers.

I would give these a try -
http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/ati.htm

The 8.12s should work for your card. Otherwise you can get the 9.3s here

http://www.guru3d.com/news/download-...d-xpvistawin7/

Most of the older cards have been moved to the legacy support structure. There should be no problem with motherboard incompatibilities. As I have had ATI cards in nforce boards (the problem would come down to not being able to crossfire)

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GrrlGamer

The 9.3 was what i was using, and it didn't work. I completely uninstalled the 9.3 and tried the 8.12 but it too failed.

comp_ali

Try to remove the card , reset CMOS (by using a jumber manually) and attach the card again and see if it work.
BTW , welcome to DH .

Tyrsonswood

Have you also installed all the motherboard drivers?

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GrrlGamer

I haven't' psychically installed the drivers myself, but I assumed the person who reformatted the computer did, but maybe I should re-install them. Is there a way to find out which specific motherboard I have? I know its the MS 7025 series, but I haven't seen any drivers for them yet.

Thanks Comp ali, Is the easy to reset? I am not very familiar with the insides of computers yet.

Tyrsonswood

There's a live update on MSI's page here....... MSI Global ? Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Mainboard, Graphics and more

Or you can download the drivers manually from that same page, as far as telling which of the three versions I would match up the specs or there is probably a version number printed on the board itself...... The live update should do this automatically. (key word "should", I've never used MSI personally)

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comp_ali

Yes , very easy . Try Tyrsonswood suggestion first , if it didn't work time for your hands to get involved (hopefully with no losses ) .
Also check the "Device Manager" and see if any of the component had yellow "?" icon on it , if there any that means it the computer can't recognize it , if not maybe it means the computer can't see your card.

simonw

A quick google on MSI-7025 shows that you probably have the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. On the MSI download site, the drivers do not offer any Vista/7 drivers (except for Ethernet).

Your motherboard uses Nforce3 chipset so I checked the Nvidia website, but they only provide 2000/XP drivers.

Another google search found these 2 links of interest:

bit-tech.net | nForce3 users out in the cold with Vista
nForce3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You may be out of luck. Windows 7 is also based on Vista so it's unlikely that will work either. If you still have the XP disc, I'm sure it will work as that is what you were using previously.

SeraphicSorcerer

Ah yes, I completely forgot it was the nforce 3 boards, for some reason I thought that neo board was the Nforce 4,

Here's a link to a 64 bit vista driver (completely beta) but it will install GART (which is the necessary driver) for AGP acceleration support and allowing your card to operate (I hope)

WinXP 64 / Server 03 SP1

Let us know.

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GrrlGamer

The graphics card does have this yellow sign next to it.

I hesitate to do the live update because it warned if you don't meet the stipulations it can flash your BIOS and they aren't responsible for the consequences, and it said for OSs up to XP but not above it.

SeraphicSorcerer, the drivers didn't work

Since I do not have access to the XP disc, should I just go ahead and buy the new motherboard then? At least I feel better now knowing more about the problem and why it is a problem other than 'its old'

SeraphicSorcerer

Okay to clear up some confusion, because you listed 3 OSes in your original post.

What OS are you currently running? If you are running XP you use XP drivers, what I posted was Vista 64 bit drivers, there are also vista 32 bit drivers, and because windows 7 Is based on vista, you can use vista drivers you just just have to click okay on them because they are unsigned.

As for a new Motherboard. I am assuming it's socket 754, Not many of those left.... So you'd pretty much be going for an upgrade.

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GrrlGamer

before i had just 1 hard drive with XP on it. I bought a 2nd hard drive, and the person working on the computer put Vista on the old drive when he reformatted it, and put Windows 7 on the new drive (really not sure why though). So I no longer have XP, but when I boot up I can choose which OS to run.

He had told me that my video card was just too old and was unusable and told me to buy a certain new one (GeForce GT 220 by Nvidia). So i bought it, and when I'm trying to install it I find out that the new card is PCI-Express and my motherboard doesnt have that option, just AGP and PCI. I tell him this, and I am quite mad because I can not return the new video card now, and he says i didnt waste my money, i just need a new motherboard. He said it would cost me $40, then said i need this one ( MSI 7125-030 (K8N NEO4-F) Socket 939/nForce4/SATA/PCI-Express/Gigabit LAN Motherboard ) which is $90.

That is when I decided to post here, figuring this person knows enough to do what needs to be done, but doesn't want to actually put the effort into making sure everything will actually work properly and the paying customer is happy.

What is your opinion on that board? It would be for the new video card, not the original one.

comp_ali

hmm , too expensive and yet outdated too. I don't know about you but if you are low low on budget your choices are limited , otherwise you better upgrade your cpu , (I guess you have single core now? )can go with this for example
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA785GT-UD3H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards 94$
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops 99

Those will be decent in gaming (Probably one of the cheapest combination) beside your GT220 but again forget about it if your on tight budget.

What do you want to do now , use your x1950 and figure a solution (btw it is not that bad like your friend said) or build a new system which will cost you 200$.

GrrlGamer

dxdiag tells me the cpu is this:

Dual Core AMD Opteron (tm) Processor 185 (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz


If I'm going to buy a new mother board I'd prefer to use it with the GT220 card since I can't return it.

DJ BIG T

after you reformated your computer did you update your windows before installing your drivers for your ati card? because when i had my 1950 i had to make sure net frame 2.0 was install for the driver to work..

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GrrlGamer

When I got the computer back from the person, he said windows was installed and updated, and all i had to do was download and install the drivers

DJ BIG T

double check it just in case he miss something..

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GrrlGamer

ok, silly question, how would i tell if its fully updated?

DJ BIG T

go to start then menu then on top you see windows update click on it and there you go..

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SeraphicSorcerer

Just remember it might take a few times. Always recheck the updates after it asks you to restart.

Comp_ali's suggestion will help you out, but then again you may need new ram, etc.

honestly it sounds like he's not helping you what so ever.

At this point It's what I calla SNAFU type situation, where you just need to restart this process.

Think about where you want this computer to go, in terms of "performance" is this something you'll be on quite a bit?

there are many, many options in terms of upgrading and even on a budget.

However, your processor is socket 939, compatible. So My only suggestion is if you want to just replace the board.

www.pricewatch.com, unless you got a small vendor near you, I don't know but I am unsure if I'd trust some gy who sold me nonreturnable parts and keeps "upgrading" you.

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GrrlGamer

it says there are no updates available, even after i restarted it.

I do use this computer a lot, for schoolwork, i do a lot of photo editing, surfing the web, and some gaming, but nothing really graphics intensive. The person who did the work on the computer was a friend's boyfriend, but I do not trust his opinions. I bought the card from compUSA (now tiger direct, actually), and he told me to install it myself. If I would have known about the different types of slots on the MB then I wouldn't have opened the box, but since the card was taken out of the box CompUSA will not take it back.

does the processor being socket 939 mean only certain motherboards will accommodate it?

SeraphicSorcerer

Well The processor, and the socket have to match, and as new features are added, they change sockets, currently, AM3, is the latest and greatest from Intel with Intel having different sockets.

you can still get Socket 939 boards, however, I have no idea to the quality of these boards as the problem is it's still 5-6 year old tech.

If you want to just replace the motherboard, I would get an nforce4 board (at least) And make sure it has a PCI express card port. I use to run a DFI lanparty Nforce4 board with a socket 939 (4400+) That can run windows 7, the problem is they no longer really make em... So all we can do is try and make recommendations. Now, if you *want* to upgrade, we have no problem with that either, but obviously it's your money and we don't want to waste it.

So let us know, there's no shortage of geeks, nerds, and opinions here. Hope all this info has helped and if you weren't properly welcomed before, Welcome to Driverheaven

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GrrlGamer

thank you so much, everyone, for all the information and help you have given me!

I was initially going to just get an nforce4 motherboard, but you are right, they are hard to find. CompUSA/Tiger Direct seems to have good deals on motherboard/cpu packages, but i also need to upgrade my memory to DDR2 also

SeraphicSorcerer

you may also want to look at the AM 3 platform which would include DDR3.

I don't know if you're aware of newegg, but I put together a package for you.
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864BN1337 - Desktop Memory

All together $250ish+shipping for that.
for the memory, I went with 2 GBs. You can go to 4 GBs with 30 more dollars, also the platform will allow you to upgrade the processor for the next conceivable year. You can also go up as much as you want. Phenoms are very nicely priced. You can get a 955 BE, for 189$, I don't know your budget, also Kris23 has an awesome Guide for building pcs in the hardware section of our forums.

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GrrlGamer

hmm...I was trying to stay in the 170ish range or cheaper, though i know that may be wishful thinking. What do you think of either this CompUSA.com | | MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard & AMD Athlon II X2 215 or CompUSA.com | | Asus M2N68-AM SE2 MicroATX Motherboard & AMD Athlo and then adding memory?

I have used newegg before, and i dont mind using them if they have good deals. There is a compUSA location not too far from me, so if i go to their storefront I can get the items there, or if i order through their store I get free shipping, though it is a hassle.

SeraphicSorcerer

I take it you're in South Florida then? I was a lead tech for them like 5 years ago out of the navy, I don't always consider them the best deal maker...

Give me a few, I'll edit some links up here, you really want to "get your monies" worth when it comes to computers.

Here's a chart showing the difference in Farcry, a semi CPU intensive game

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2....0.1,1401.html

Here you go, 170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130235
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688

And you can go with the 60 dollar memory.

I would strongly recommend a better processor, but it's your call. I'm trying to get you in mid-range so you don't feel slow in 6 months, hope that makes sense.

I did however include an AM3 Board, so that you can upgrade like I said anytime in the next year no problem.


since it's Christmas Season compusa (The new one, anyhow) may be willing to "price match" locally, to save you the waiting of ordering from newegg, although newegg is normally very good about 3 days from your order. I say normally because my last order was delayed by 2 days, but they upgraded shipping... but I'm still not getting it til tomorrow.

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GrrlGamer

yea, tampa area. I never used CompUSA until they merged with tigerdirect.com. I bought my new hard drive and a card reader through them, and they were the same price as Newegg. Only reason I bought them through CompUSA was the bonus points on my AmEx

thankyou so much for all of your help Seraphic. I'm going to save those, and see if I can't manage to pull that set off.