Installing graphics card problem

[Sita Atis]

The following is a recount of my failure of replacing my graphics card, anyone have a clue what I can do?

It's a Nvidia Geforce2, I downloaded the driver from http://www.nvidia.com/ , getting the win 95/98/ME one for Geforce and TNT. Opened and extracted it into a folder. Then I opened the tower and took out the old graphics card (it was really wedged in there, I had to really pull). Then put in the new graphics card, connected everything up. started the computer, it had crappy graphics, it said detected graphics card, building driver database or something, I directed it to the folder where I extracted the drivers, it said please restart to take effect, I restarted, then when it tried to load windows it restarted again! Then it said windows had problem starting, start in safe mode to fix? I said normal mode, it tried starting windows and just before it tried to it said "error in config.sys on line 1" (it flashed really quickly), then it tried starting windows but it just restarted again, you know what I mean? everytime it tries to start up windows it just restarts the computer. So I went to control panel in safe mode and uninstalled nvidia, then restarted the computer and it started up fine and it said, detected graphics card, install drivers? (see how it goes in circle?) I tried installing again, same thing happened. So the next time I said no to installing the drivers, everything's fine except I have crappy graphics. So I looked at my config.sys and it was exactly the same as it is when I had installed nivia and had a look in safe mode. So I don't know what's wrong. I reinstalled my old graphics card back in and it works fine. (except that my old graphics card can't handle games like monkey island 4 in the graphics dept.)

[Yamaneko]

Ok. First off. Pull out your old graphics card. Uninstall all Nvidia stuff off your computer. Put in the new graphics card. Restart your computer. When it says "building driver database" cancel(if you can).

If you can cancel just go into Windows find the Nvidia drivers you downloaded and install them in the default directory. Restart your computer and hopefully it'll work.

If you can't cancel. Go into Windows after it has built the driver database. Uninstall the current drivers. When it asks you(if it does) to restart your computer, click no. Then go to the drivers you downloaded and install them. Restart your computer and hopefully it'll work.

Try downloading different drivers. Example try the Detenator 40 driver. The universal one. Hope this helps.

[Dr Unne]

Yeah, when Windows tries to auto-detect and install drivers, try to cancel it, then boot up (even if you have crappy graphics) and run nVidia's driver program from inside Windows. If it doesn't come with a .exe, you can go to the control panel and Add Hardware or something. Doing it manually generally works better than letting Windows do whatever it wants, because Windows is dumb. I don't know why it'd even touch your config.sys.

[crono_logical]

What was the old graphics card? It must have been erally old if it's doing stuff in the config.sys file.

Anyway, safest way to change a video card is to change it to lowest resolution possible before swapping it for the new one, less likely to get conflicts that way. Then install the new driver after the new card is in.

If it still doesn't work, methinks I might like to see your config.sys file contents.

[Sita Atis]

Is it normal for this kind of problem to happen?

My old graphics card (I'm currently using) is an S3 Inc. Trio3D/2X.

I have two config.sys files. One in C:\ that says DEVICE=c:\essolo.sys
[common]
DEVICE=C:\CDPRO\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001

and the other one in C:\windows\command\ebd that says stuff like:
[menu]
menuitem=CD, Start computer with CD-ROM support.
menuitem=NOCD, Start computer without CD-ROM support.
menuitem=HELP, View the Help file.
menudefault=CD,30
menucolor=7,0

But it's exactly the same stuff it said when I put the new graphics card in and checked it in safe mode compared to what it was previously.

[Rainecloud]

Hi Sita, long time no see.

Before you ever purchase a Graphics Card, always check the site of your Motherboard to see whether or not the new card is compatible. I can say that this is very important, because I have had many problems like yourself. I bought a Hercules card last week and installed it, and I was getting unusual error messages, similar to the ones that you describe. The card crashed regularly, and I had to reinstall the Geforce 2 at the end of the day in order to get everything working again. I checked the website of my Motherboard, and low and behold, the card wasn't at all compatible. So, I checked the Motherboard site again and obtained a list of cards which had been tested on my board. One of these was the new Geforce 4, which I bought and have had no trouble with as of yet.

If the Motherboard's website is telling you that this new card is compatible, then all we here can do is suggest things that may help. The other replies in this thread could possibly fix your problem, or it could be one of many things.

Now, I'm presuming you've downloaded the latest Detonator Drivers. These are said to be good, but there have been reports of failure on certain systems. If you haven't already done so, download the next driver down from that, which is located at this little page. As everyone else has already said, make sure that every trace of your old graphics card is completely removed before you install these drivers, or you'll probably get conflicts.

One more thing, before you leave, and this is quite an important thing - did you remove your old device from the listings before you installed the new card, or did you just physically pull it out? Go to your control panel, click the "System" icon, go to the "Hardware" tab and click on the "Device Manager" button. Under the "Display Adapters" heading, you should see your new Geforce card. If there is another card there, right click and disable it. If you're still having problems, try uninstalling it. If you don't, it may cause conflicts. Well, at least that's what happened to mine.

Good luck, I know how irritating graphics card problems can be.

[Sita Atis]

Is it okay to get the detonator drivers instead of the ones that say Geforce and TNT? why is it that if detonator caters for geforce like it says in the link Rainecloud, it is listed separately from geforce in the nvidia website? (www.nvidia.com). Just wondering, I am confused.

How do I know if the card is compatible? I got it from a friend because they didn't need it anymore. All I know is it is a nvidia geforce 2, and I have a pentium III, 600mhz.

In some instructions I read I changed my old driver to standard VGA before I installed the card and set it up, then after I checked my computer it lists only the geforce in the display adapters.

[Squally Leonharty]

Er, if you're referring to Detonator 40 drivers, you don't have to. The drivers for GeForce and TNT are also detonator drivers. It's only version 30.82. The 40 series are all beta, so you shouldn't download them.

Recommended: download 30.82 here:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=win9x_30.82

If you want to use the beta file instead, download it here:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=win9x_40.72


As for compatibility, if the card is AGP (which is most likely the case), you won't have to worry about compatibility. Your motherboard has AGP, so it'll support it straight away. The only thing you have be careful with is the power supply. If you experience regular reboots or shut downs, it's your power supply. But the GeForce2 series aren't power hungry, so you'll be fine.

[Sita Atis]

Yeah I think so, I was referring to Rainecloud's link: http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/nvidia9x.html

Yup my motherboard has AGP and that's where I put the card.

[Squally Leonharty]

Ah, both links have exactly the same file, so it doesn't matter. But it's always preferable that you download the drivers from the official site, namely www.nvidia.com.

[crono_logical]

I'd just like to say, Detonator drivers have never been stable for my PC, I've always gone back to the manufacters drivers since they're the most stable for me and fast enough too I have a Geforce2 GTS Pro, btw

[Sita Atis]

so you say I should not get detonator and get the Geforce and TNT for win 95/98 one again?

[crono_logical]

Up to you really, you've got a different type of Geforce card to me, so who knows how stable it'll be If you want to test then be prepared to remove the drivers and reinstall the dafault, go ahead