Hi all,
i recently perchased a second hand computer, which was custom built.
the computer it self seems to be fine but im haveing trouble with the graphics card.
the computer came with a NVIDIA geforce 2 MX/MX 400 already installed, however when i try to run any newish type of game it comes up with an error report.
The program begins to instalise then the message... please insure that you have direct x 8.1 or higher installed, also check your graphics card is working properly.
i have managed to run a couple of older games but a game needing 32mb video card wont play. is there something wrong with my computer or is it simpy that my graphics card isnt good enough to handle the type of games i want it to.
i am unsure as to the spec of the card i already have and would greatly appreciate any help with solving the problem.
if the graphics card isnt good enough to run the games would you be able to recomend something that will as im unwilling to buy something that wont help.

the second part of my problem lies with direct x, the computer continualsly ask's me to insure that i have direct x installed however each time i install it from one of the games i own ( as the game also contains direct x 8.1) it dosent seem to solve it, i check where i have installed the file and the file is there but there is nothing inside the file labelled direct x.

thanks Ian

Try getting the latest version of DirectX ( 9.0c ) & the latest nVidia drivers which currently are the 71.84 for XP/2000 / 71.84 for 98/ME.

geforce mx400 is not a bad card,i have had this card in my second machine for about 2 years.its 64 mb version and runs doom3 and hl2 on lower settings.you problem might be screwed up drivers and directx and other utilities since its a second hand pc.remove any traces of the video drives first you can get a utility to do this correctly,then install an older version of the driver...yes i did say an older version like 30.82 or 45.32 as they were designed for these cards and came out witht them,all geforce card run on unified driver architecture so any version of driver would run every geforce card but difference in performamce and stability issue might creep up on the newer versions,then install the latest direct x and you should be set.

thanks for the reply but the problem seems harder to fix than i thought it would. the computer with the problem isnt connected to the internet and as such i am unable to install any drivers as most internet sites scan your computer for and detect which version of drivers you have, so i havent a clue as to how to install the drivers onto the computer.
Also with the direct x problem i dont think it is a simple case of installing it as evertime i install it it fails to initialise when running any games. im unable to find the direct x file on my computer, the folder called direct x is there but there is nothing there so it seems like it isnt installing at all.

thanks, Ian

hey you could download the driver to another pc connected to the net and then transfer them over to this one through either a burned cd/cdrw,usb/pen drive or lan(you could easily set up a small network between 2 pc's if both have a lan card(nic)but be warned that your pc(the one witht the problem) might have virus or spyware etc. on it as well.the best thing to do would be to format the entire hdd and do a clean install and install driver etc.this should take care of a lot of problem that might arise in the future,since you already stated that this is a second hand pc then you dont exactly know what might be on it like spyware,trojans,viruses etc.just make sure you have all the drivers first before you do a clean install(for the mobo and other devices)

ok thank you all for the advice, ill install some new drivers and possibly format the hard disk

thanks, Ian