cycas Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 (edited) We have this machine sitting here that doesn't get used for anything any more. It's a home-build, and basically it's full of bits swapped out of machines that have been upgraded. So, I thought rather than have it gather dust, we'd give it to a rescue. Problem is, we do need the XP licence. But, luckily, we have unused, paid-for Windows ME licences gathering dust. So, yesterday we formatted the hard disks & reinstalled ME. So far so good. Only, for some mysterious reason, it's now detecting the graphics card as a VGA Standard PCI Graphics Adaptor. And showing everything in 16 colours at 640 x 480! (you can imagine what the Refuge looks like. It's not good.) The graphics card is an NVIDIA geforce 2. I downloaded the ME drivers for it from the NVIDIA site, but it won't recognise the card as being that or list the card in the available hardware list. Unfortunately, I can't find the original driver disks - but even if I could, that wouldn't explain why it's detecting it as a VGA PCI adaptor, when it clearly isn't??? If you remove and restart, it just redetects it again. I can't give it exactly the right drivers as they aren't appearing in the list, and it won't accept the nearest available. I'm running out of ideas, and my OH wants to bin it, which seems like a pity for a system that is sooo nearly working! This is a long shot, but I thought I'd just ask if anyone out there could think of anything else I could try? Was working Ok under XP - a little flaky on other things, but graphics were fine! Edited July 26, 2006 by cycas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamJade Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Can you google for exactly the right drives? They may still lurk on another site somewhere and as long as you virus check them first then they should be OK, mind you so should the drivers from the makers site! Sorry can't suggest anything else, not very techie. Pam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 I already have what Nvidia say are the right drivers installed - the machine just refuses to let me use them with the graphics card. Instead it's insisting it's a vastly inferior card that is really unusable with today's websites. I just downloaded the drivers again and reinstalled them, hoping that the download had messed up somehow, but no joy. And I found a website that suggested limiting the amount of memory in use to less than 512Mb, but that doesn't help either. It's driving me nuts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (The Sane) Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Exactly what model geforce 2 is it? Also is it agp or pci? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 AGP & it's a geforce 2 ultra. We can't work out why it's saying it's got a pci card in there . It's definitely running off that card; there are no on-board graphics, and the monitor is plugged into the graphics card. But the ultra doesn't appear in the list of possible drivers, even though the driver I downloaded says it is for all geforce 2 models.... I'm doubting myself now. I may need to go open the box to double check... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamJade Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Is this the same problem? All the drivers that I tried to install (minus 1.7300 which is the latest that I can run) has gave an error message, stating There are no compatible drivers with your video card or somesuch message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (The Sane) Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 (I've done that before...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingu Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Windows ME is a big bag of s**te. ... IMO. try a win 98 driver. cant really add much more than has already been said except to boast of my graphics card(s) two... yes two 7900gtxs in SLI mode giving me a whopping great big 1 gig of video memory. (I play online games) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 I've opened the box. It's a horrible box, I shall probably be minus a finger later getting the door back on. Woe is me. It's a 3D prophet II ultra 64MB. Pamjade, that is one scary forum. I am not sure I am up to it tonight, but will have a go at making sense of it tomorrow! Pingu, I don't do hardware (in this house, a woman's work is networks, but you need a man for anything that lives inside the box), so I can't boast back, but I shall tell my OH tomorrow so he can gasp and look suitably impressed. I do have spare win98 licences. Not sure I can bear to format the bloody hard disks again, but maybe that is the answer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 I've found some specific prophet II drivers from Hercules. Will they work??? It worked! It worked! I have solved a hardware problem!!! I feel so grown up. Thank you Richard for making me open the box and check, and thank you Pam: you were 100% right and stop saying you are not very techie, if you had not said that I would have taken your reply more seriously, serves me right! I am so happy!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (The Sane) Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Glad you got it sorted. It was in my mind that hercules GF2's were always a dit dicky in ME when I asked what card you have.... Well most things were a bit dicky to be honest but hercules stuff more so. cant really add much more than has already been said except to boast of my graphics card(s) two... yes two 7900gtxs in SLI mode giving me a whopping great big 1 gig of video memory. (I play online games) I've got one of those, they are quite good aren't they. I have recently watercooled my pc and now I can overclock the crap out of the CPU and VGA without seeing the temperature on any of it clear 40 degrees. Which is nice. I remember the days of the dual voodoo 2 where SLI meant something different and provided exactly double the framerates/3d power (not the case any more ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamJade Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 YAY! Delighted it's sorted. I'm NOT techie but I mess a bit - then ring Rick I now have visions of Richard with a hosepipe attached to the back of the PC and probably steam coming out the drive when he plays level 64 of Mega Whompom Blastit. Pam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingu Posted July 28, 2006 Report Share Posted July 28, 2006 Glad you got it sorted. It was in my mind that hercules GF2's were always a dit dicky in ME when I asked what card you have.... Well most things were a bit dicky to be honest but hercules stuff more so. I've got one of those, they are quite good aren't they. I have recently watercooled my pc and now I can overclock the crap out of the CPU and VGA without seeing the temperature on any of it clear 40 degrees. Which is nice. I remember the days of the dual voodoo 2 where SLI meant something different and provided exactly double the framerates/3d power (not the case any more ) sim,ilar though on CS:S I get 96 fps at 1600X1200 in non sli mode in sli mode i am getting 200+ have looked at water cooling but my machine is very quiet anyhow even when its being caned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts