Help with geforce FX 5200, i just got the card from a friend.

[deadboltmk]

Ok, so a friend of mine gave me the card, with no cd, and it doesnt work in my computer. Im pretty new at this, so i tried to find a download a couple of drivers, but the computer doesnt seem to recognize the card at all. whats the problem?

AMD athlon 2400+
windows xp
352 MB of ram, 60 gb drive.

thanks.

 

[deadboltmk]

sorry, my processor is 1.88gHZ

 

[DonNagual]

We need some more details from you. Is the card the PCI version or the AGP version? What make/model is your motherboard? Does it have integrated graphics, or are you replacing some other graphics card (if so, what was the previous card)?

If you had integrated graphics, the usual routine is:
(note: you should already have the drivers downloaded and saved on your hard drive before starting. You can get them from http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp)

1. Boot up in safe mode, and go into your device manager. Find the drivers for your current graphics and delete them.
2. Reboot system into your bios, and see if you need to manually adjust your bios "init display" settings from onboard to "pci" or "agp" (depending on what your card is).
3. Shut down system and unplug.
4. Remove old graphics card if there is one, and install the new.
5. Plug monitor into new card.
6. Boot up into windows, and it should automatically ask you to install the drivers.

 

[deadboltmk]

the only thing i see as far as graphics go is called S3 Graphics Prosavage DDR. does that sound right? it says its in PCI bus slot 1. i dont know if i should delete it because i dont want to **** anything up.

 

[wolfram]

the only thing i see as far as graphics go is called S3 Graphics Prosavage DDR. does that sound right? it says its in PCI bus slot 1. i dont know if i should delete it because i dont want to **** anything up.

That is an integrated graphic card. Remove ANY software related with S3 graphics, and then install the nVidia drivers.
That should make it work!

 

[deadboltmk]

alright. i disabled the S3 program. how do i get into BIOS, and what do i do when im there?

 

[wolfram]

You don`t necessary have to enter the BIOS (I think :suspiciou ).
After you have removed everything related with S3, install the latest nvidia drivers. DonNagual gave you the link.

That should make it work, unless your PC is a very stubborn computer

 

[DonNagual]

alright. i disabled the S3 program. how do i get into BIOS, and what do i do when im there?

A lot of newer motherboards will adjust the bios settings for you. If not, then you'll need to go into your bios (your motherboard's manual will tell you how to do this - usually the del key or F1). There you'll have to look around for the bios setting for your "initial display device". This setting tells your system where should it look to find the video card when you power up. It is likely set to "onboard". You'll need to change it to PCI or AGP depending on what your video card is (again, this is only if your system doesn't do it automatically).