Help. 3850HD AGP no work with Vista

Rosco[CoF] · Mar 21, 2011, 11:20 PM

Just like the title says, I cannot for the life of me get my Sapphire 3850HD AGP card to work with Win Vista SP2. If anyone has any insight as to what I can do to get this fully functional would be greatly appreciated. I am on the virge of just wiping the drive and reinstalling XP on it instead since that worked just fine.

Here is the hardware list by the numbers:
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo MS-7025, nForce3 Ultra
Test Board: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (MS-7025) : NVIDIA, SiS and VIA Bring on Chipsets for AMD Socket 939
CPU is a AMD Athlon 3800x2
2GB(2x1GB) of Mushkin PC3200 DDR memory
2 hard drives, a WD 250GB and a 300GB Hitachi, both SATA
2 DVD drives, one Plextor DVD-RW and the other a Lite-On DVD-ROM
Soundcard is a Audigy 2
and the video card is a Sapphire 3850-HD AGP card
all juiced by a nice 500w Antec power supply.

A little background info: I recently bought Win 7 64 bit for my main system which previously had Vista 32bit installed on it. My daughter is trying to sell my old PC that I gave here a year ago. I thought, to make it more valuable maybe install a more modern OS on it. I honestly never had any problems with Vista (SP2) on the newer pc, and since mine now had 7 on it, I thought I would redeploy it on the older pc. Everything installed fine and it works, but I cannot get any of the hotfix drivers to work on it. It always fails to initialize on boot and video is kicked back to PCI mode which means no Aero and no 3D acceleration.

I have read and searched many places, including these fine forums, and have not come across any solid solutions. Maybe one just doesn't exist? If it does, I am just not seeing it. At this point I blame the motherboard, or for that matter lack of a solid driver for the motherboard chipset from nVidia.

If a solution works, please point me in the right direction. If one does not, no big deal and I'll put XP back on it. But I would like Vista on it if it is at all possible with being able to utilize the full potential of that DirectX 10 video card.

Fantasma · Mar 22, 2011, 01:40 AM

Just to get sure, Have you installed this driver?
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206..._64_dd_ccc.exe

if you were trying to install the 32bit drivers used on Vista, they would not work in win7 64bit.

Rosco[CoF] · Mar 22, 2011, 01:45 AM

No, I grabbed the 32bit version. The Vista install is the 32bit version. My Win7 install on my main pc is 64bit but i talso has a PCI-e GTS 250.
I just ran across this, it sounds like I may be SOL.
nForce3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm not about to pull out the dual core and put in a single core over this.

Fantasma · Mar 22, 2011, 11:03 AM

I´m afraid you are right. Your system can only use Windows XP 32 or 64bit (there´s a beta driver for the last one). Nvidia has not supported its chipset as it should.

Judas · Mar 22, 2011, 03:42 PM

Yeah unfortunately when it comes to Nforce boards..... nvidia has a habit of making everything complicated. *sigh*

Fantasma · Mar 23, 2011, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

Yeah unfortunately when it comes to Nforce boards..... nvidia has a habit of making everything complicated. *sigh*

It happened to me too. I have an old Athlon XP 3000+ in a nforce2 mobo and there is no Windows Vista/7 drivers. There is a workaround but it doesn´t work as well as it should, so stuck in Windows XP like the OP. Also, there was a problem of that mobos, they disabled the gameport for nearly all usual sound cards. However, it was a good overclocker.

It´s a pitty that Nvidia doesn´t give the support they should.

Judas · Mar 23, 2011, 03:29 PM

out of the nforce boards i've built with..

only 2 currently remain working.

both of them are nforce 4 ultra boards..

the rest... nforce 2/3/4s and newer.. have all failed shortly after a year.

I refuse to touch an nforce power motherboard because there worldwide failure rate is even quite high...

I thought via was bad.... but nvidia chipsets are total crap

Mar 21, 2011, 11:20 PM	#1
Rosco[CoF] HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Traverse City, MI Posts: 158 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Help. 3850HD AGP no work with Vista Just like the title says, I cannot for the life of me get my Sapphire 3850HD AGP card to work with Win Vista SP2. If anyone has any insight as to what I can do to get this fully functional would be greatly appreciated. I am on the virge of just wiping the drive and reinstalling XP on it instead since that worked just fine. Here is the hardware list by the numbers: Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo MS-7025, nForce3 Ultra Test Board: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (MS-7025) : NVIDIA, SiS and VIA Bring on Chipsets for AMD Socket 939 CPU is a AMD Athlon 3800x2 2GB(2x1GB) of Mushkin PC3200 DDR memory 2 hard drives, a WD 250GB and a 300GB Hitachi, both SATA 2 DVD drives, one Plextor DVD-RW and the other a Lite-On DVD-ROM Soundcard is a Audigy 2 and the video card is a Sapphire 3850-HD AGP card all juiced by a nice 500w Antec power supply. A little background info: I recently bought Win 7 64 bit for my main system which previously had Vista 32bit installed on it. My daughter is trying to sell my old PC that I gave here a year ago. I thought, to make it more valuable maybe install a more modern OS on it. I honestly never had any problems with Vista (SP2) on the newer pc, and since mine now had 7 on it, I thought I would redeploy it on the older pc. Everything installed fine and it works, but I cannot get any of the hotfix drivers to work on it. It always fails to initialize on boot and video is kicked back to PCI mode which means no Aero and no 3D acceleration. I have read and searched many places, including these fine forums, and have not come across any solid solutions. Maybe one just doesn't exist? If it does, I am just not seeing it. At this point I blame the motherboard, or for that matter lack of a solid driver for the motherboard chipset from nVidia. If a solution works, please point me in the right direction. If one does not, no big deal and I'll put XP back on it. But I would like Vista on it if it is at all possible with being able to utilize the full potential of that DirectX 10 video card. __________________ Consoles are schwag

Mar 22, 2011, 01:40 AM	#2
Fantasma HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Lorca (Spain) Posts: 757 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	Re: Help. 3850HD AGP no work with Vista Just to get sure, Have you installed this driver? https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206..._64_dd_ccc.exe if you were trying to install the 32bit drivers used on Vista, they would not work in win7 64bit.

Mar 22, 2011, 01:45 AM	Thread Starter #3
Rosco[CoF] HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Traverse City, MI Posts: 158 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Help. 3850HD AGP no work with Vista No, I grabbed the 32bit version. The Vista install is the 32bit version. My Win7 install on my main pc is 64bit but i talso has a PCI-e GTS 250. I just ran across this, it sounds like I may be SOL. nForce3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I'm not about to pull out the dual core and put in a single core over this. __________________ Consoles are schwag

Mar 22, 2011, 11:03 AM	#4
Fantasma HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Lorca (Spain) Posts: 757 Rep Power: 63 System Specs	Re: Help. 3850HD AGP no work with Vista I´m afraid you are right. Your system can only use Windows XP 32 or 64bit (there´s a beta driver for the last one). Nvidia has not supported its chipset as it should.