FX5200DT Drivers problem (nVidia/Abit)

[Vincent]

I've recently had to reinstall my WinXP setup and am having trouble with my GeForce 5200 drivers. My CD has went walkabout so I've downloaded drivers from nvidia and Abit (I remember the adapter being called Abit FX5200 something) but none of them seem to work.

With the Abit 21.83 it gets to roughly 35% done then gives a "device not found" error and stops.

With the 56.xx from Abit I can install the archive, when it asks to restart I do. When it all loads up again the drivers haven't been installed (I get in the adapter properties).

With nvidia drivers the same thing happens as with the 56.xx

Can someone either point me to the right drivers or send me the drivers?

I can't play Half Life on the software drivers and scrolling jumps like buggery! Please please can someone help :-)

[Ilwrath]

First, exit everything you're doing, because you'll need to reboot at least once.  (Maybe twice -- so much for Windows XP not needing reboots.)

Anyhow, go into your Device Manager (from the System Properties screen, Hardware tab...) and find where it has your display adaptor, and delete whatever garbage it has detected as your video card.

Windows will grind the HD for a bit, maybe ask if you're sure, grind a bit more, rebuild the hardware database, and then prompt you to reboot.  Do it.  (Skipping this reboot is very bad.)

When XP comes back up, you'll be greeted by the "New Hardware Detected" screen.  Hopefully this time it'll find the right driver.  If not, force it to the directory you extracted the nVidia reference driver to.  (Usually c:\nvidia\win2kxp\56.64\ or whatever version you are attempting to install.)

Let it grind away and install.  If it asks to reboot, let it.  That should be it.  Now just go to your desktop properties and configure your prefs.

[Piru]

Another note: Be sure to disable any AV software before installing the driver. Some AV are known to mess up display driver installation.

[mikeymike]

Sanity check your BIOS settings.  Run them by me here if need be.

[Ilwrath]

@piru-
Good advice.  I've heard of this happening.  Never seen it happen, but it could, if the AV software monitors certain hardware database registry keys.

[Vincent]

@Ilwrath

Done all that, it doesn't detect new hardware so I manually do it myself and when I select Display adapter it gives me a list... which has ATI Technologies on it twice.

I go to the Have Disk nVidia drawer and select the .inf file but absolutely nothing appears in the model box (there's no manufacturer box doing this) so I can't continue.  I've tried 45.23 and 56.72.

@mikey

Which settings in the bios?

[Ilwrath]

I go to the Have Disk nVidia drawer and select the .inf file but absolutely nothing appears in the model box (there's no manufacturer box doing this) so I can't continue. I've tried 45.23 and 56.72.

Don't force it like that.  Let WinXP detect the hardware, when it pops the first prompt, there should be an option to pick in the search path that lets you type a directory.  Pick this option, and type in (it won't let you browse)
C:\nvidia\win2kxp\56.72

Click "Next".  It should sort itself, from there.

[mikeymike]

Which settings in the bios?

Tell me what pages/sections you've got in your BIOS, and I'll tell you which of those you need to reel off the current settings for.

The problem is, different companies name stuff differently, so it's hard to say just straight off.

[Vincent]

@ilwrath

WinXP doesn't auto detect the card at all, I've to go to the add hardware wizard myself and force it to look.  I say I've plugged it in but display adapter doesn't come up on the list, I've to "add a new device".  It doesn't know what it's meant to find so I've t select display adapter from the list.  Then it comes up with the ATI Technologies stuff.

@mikey

the only relevent BIOS stuff I saw was in Advanced Chipset -> AGP & P2P Bridge Control ->

AGP Aperture Size  [128M]
AGP Mode  [4x]
AGP Driving Control  [Auto]
AGP Driving Value  [DA]


Oh, and on a boot the very first screen says the GeForce 5200 is version 4.34.20.27.00 if that's any help.

[mikeymike]

There are a lot more options in most BIOS's that affect PnP, AGP etc than that, sadly.

The FX5200 should be AGP4x so those settings look ok.  The 'version' is going to be the ABit BIOS version, check on the ABit site to make sure it's the latest version (if they provide any BIOS updates at all).

I think the FX5200 is newer than XP, so I wouldn't expect XP to detect anything useful about it ("PCI compatible VGA adapter" is all I'd expect).  XP only detects devices it has a driver for, and/or has been fed an INF file for at some point.

I'm very much inclined to think this problem is lower-level than the OS.  BIOS, motherboard I'm thinking.

That is, if you've removed all possible obstacles (AV is a bit of a thin one, but worthwhile as a desperate measure, anything like multiple desktop manager type stuff, upgrade DX to the latest version, what motherboard drivers have you got installed, etc).

[blobrana]

Hi,
The bios look ok...
(You don't have onboard graphics...and disabled that option)

But it looks like the registry may be at fault....
You will have to completely remove your old installation of the driver.
The latest driver (for all) is 56.72

Try loading up a generic vga driver (or go into safe mode) and then remove the nvidia driver...reboot and let XP find the new display adaptor....
(Try it manually if that fails)

i have that graphics card and it supports dx9 and agp 8X(so check  your dx drivers also)

[mikeymike]

NVidia's graphics driver uninstaller has worked for me ok, I've changed driver versions back and forward with or without the uninstaller without issues.

I'm using 56.64 with my Ti4200 without problems, and on an ABit GF2MX.

[Ilwrath]

But it looks like the registry may be at fault....
You will have to completely remove your old installation of the driver.

Exactly.  You're going to have to remove whatever botched driver there is installed.  Do this through device manager.  Remove every single display adaptor in your system.

On the reboot, Windows HAS to detect something.  (It's not a valid config for Windows to have NO display adaptor, and Windows can't just add something without going through the "New Hardware Detected" wizard)

Once in that wizard choose the option to "Specify the location of the new driver" and use the directory you expanded the nvidia reference driver to.  The "Have Disk" stuff only works for legacy drivers, not current ones.  (Honestly, I have no idea why they left it as an option, anymore.  It does more to confuse people than help them.)

[blobrana]

Hum,
it`s maybe the Motherboard CDROM  that he should be looking for...i`ve just thought.
It`ll have maybe a specific Abit PCI/AGP driver on it that will allow the graphic card to be recognised?
(as well as audio /lan etc)

[Vincent]

SOLVED! :-D

Something so stupidly simple...

The motherboard CD didn't install the AGP drivers automatically along with everything else.  They seem to be tacked on to the end of the cd with no way to get them from the main installation/menu.

Installed, rebooted, "Found new hardware" :-D

The wierd thing is, I don't remember having to install the AGP drivers a few months ago when we got the mobo and gfx card.

@blob

I've installed 45.23 at the moment (it was the quickest I could find), I'll install 56.72 and DX9.0 tomorrow (DXwebsetup doesn't want to work just now and I'm going out again tonight)

@mikey and Ilwrath

Cheers anyways :-D  Guess this means I don't have to write down the menu system for my bios now :-D

/me thankfully wipes brow :-D

The annoying thing is I won't have time to play HL:DoD until tomorrow now :-( but at least I'll be able to play it :-D