Without opening the case, how do I know which video card I have?

[jimflint1]

I don't pay attention to the graphics all that much--I just made sure I installed a card that would be good for my kids to play their games with. That was a couple of years ago. Now, I have to re-install the driver for the graphics card, but I've misplaced it, so I'll need to download one. Without taking the case apart, how can I find out which card is inside there?

Shane

 

[Molson316]

Right Click a clear area on your Desktop, click Properties

Click the settings tab and it should be there. If not, click the advanced button and then the adapter tab.

 

[jimflint1]

Right Click a clear area on your Desktop, click Properties

Click the settings tab and it should be there. If not, click the advanced button and then the adapter tab.

Okay, I did that and under the heading "Adaptor Information", every category is listed as "unavailable". Also in the "conflict" box was this:

Input/Output Range 03B0 - 03BB used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller
Input/Output Range 03C0 - 03DF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller
Memory Range 000A0000 - 000BFFFF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller


So what does that all mean? The CPU isn't recognizing the card because of a conflict with the MB? How do I solve that?

Shane

 

[vnf4ultra]

Hmm, yeah, sometimes if you don't have the driver installed it says unavailable. The only thing I can think of is maybe a program, like everest home, might say what you have.
http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

 

[Molson316]

It's coming up like that because the correct drivers aren't installed. If you have nothing kicking around your house that can tell you what company and model the video card is, then you might have to look in the case. Maybe some1 else here will have a suggestion.

 

[BigJames54]

Right click my computer then go to properties click on hardware/device manager/display adapters. Should be there.

 

[Molson316]

It won't be there because the correct drivers aren't installed.

 

[Lynn Jones]

You could try going through another way.

Control Panel,System,Hardware,Device Manger

 

[Molson316]

Hmm, yeah, sometimes if you don't have the driver installed it says unavailable. The only thing I can think of is maybe a program, like everest home, might say what you have.
http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

Do what vnf4ultra says. If it don't work, look at the video card inside the case and see what it says.

 

[jimflint1]

Thanks--all of you. I guess I'll need to open 'er up and look at the card. Now I know at least that it's the driver for the card, and I can go from there.

Shane

 

[halo71]

DL Aida32

I would suggest downloading Aida. I have used version 3.2 in the past. I'm sure there is a newer version. I never looked to see if it shows graphics cards. It probably does because it shows everything else you can think of about you PC.

Hope this helps.....

 

[IronDuke]

I would suggest downloading Aida. I have used version 3.2 in the past. I'm sure there is a newer version. I never looked to see if it shows graphics cards. It probably does because it shows everything else you can think of about you PC.

Hope this helps.....

This is now called Everest as suggested by vnf4ultra.

 

[halo71]

hey...thanks for the update! Guess its been longer than I thought since I last used that program...lol

 

[bigadm]

Thanks--all of you. I guess I'll need to open 'er up and look at the card. Now I know at least that it's the driver for the card, and I can go from there.

Shane

In the future u can go to www.pcworld.com and look for belarc advisor its a small program and its free it will tell you everything thats in your computer.I find it handy

bigadm

 

[bigadm]

A Great program

A good program is at www.pcworld.com search for belarc advisor it will tell you everything under the hood

bigadm toronto Canada

 

[jimflint1]

The Everest did a great job of finding out that I have a Radeon 9200 se card. So thanks for recommending it. I still can't get the card to work. I've tried uninstalling all drivers in safe mode, using Driver Cleaner and Cab Cleaner, then doing a clean reinstall from the web. I've tried the same thing using the original disk, which I finally found.
I still get the same message before the driver can completely install:

Setup was unable to complete the installation.
Try to set up your display adaptor with a standard VGA driver before running setup.

So if any of you have any other ideas on what's happening, I'd love to hear them.

Once again, thanks for all your suggestions, including the programs that tell you the various components of your comp. Those should prove most useful in the future.

Shane

 

[Tranq]

maybe you need to install chipset drivers? I'm not sure but that fixed alot of my problems.

 

[jimflint1]

maybe you need to install chipset drivers? I'm not sure but that fixed alot of my problems.

That might be it. How do I go about doing that?

 

[IronDuke]

Open Everest and on the motherboard page you'll find a link to the makers site. Checkout there and download the latest driver. Then install it, there should be complete instructions on the download page.

 

[jimflint1]

Open Everest and on the motherboard page you'll find a link to the makers site. Checkout there and download the latest driver. Then install it, there should be complete instructions on the download page.

This will probably sound like a stupid question, but, are the chipset drivers the same as bios drivers? I'm thinking yes--but if there's a distinction, I'd like to know.

 

[jimflint1]

Anyway, I installed the new chipset drivers. Still no go with the graphics driver.

 

[Vinodkumar]

Install the correct driver

Hi Shane

It sounds that you have't installed the correct driver. A good place to search for a driver for your card might be www.driverguide.com .

Vinod

 

[jimflint1]

Hi Shane

It sounds that you have't installed the correct driver. A good place to search for a driver for your card might be www.driverguide.com .

Vinod

I found the driver at driverguide.com, downloaded it, and once again it failed. I've tried drivers from the original disk, from ATI site, and now from driverguide--all with the same result. Now I believe that the drivers themselves aren't bad, but that my Windows xp has a glitch, like a corrupt file or something.
What do you think?

 

[IronDuke]

This will probably sound like a stupid question, but, are the chipset drivers the same as bios drivers? I'm thinking yes--but if there's a distinction, I'd like to know.

No. The bios is the lowest level and the motherboard chipset is above this and specific to the motherboard. It contains drivers and cotrollers for all the features the manufacturer has put on the board.

If you're still getting nowhere try downloading the driver again from the ATI site (double checking that it is the correct one for your motherboard; you may want to grab the previous one also (can sometiomes be that latest is not the best for you)) make sure you're running in vga mode and try again, selecting have disc and pointing to your downloaded driver.

If this fails I think it is down to openning up the case, taking precautions - especially for static and cleaning the contacts on the graphic card with an eraser. Make sure you blow off any rubbish and if you have an air can you could blow out the slot.

 

[jimflint1]

Great--thanks. I'm not sure how to find the second-to-last driver made for this card. When I go to ATI's site, it seems like the Catalyst download is kind of the one-size-fits-all for Radeon products. I'm going to look and try and find out--but I may have to wait until Wednesday (my day off) to get into the case. Thanks again for your help.

Shane