PC Format: No way to discover my Graphics Card.

[Coldkilla]

I give up... My dad needs his system working again.

Brand: Sony VAIO
Model: PCV-RX550

He didn't have an XP disc so I gave him mine. The format went well and he made it to desktop running at 1024x1768. Now this is where the problem starts. He has a "Driver Recovery CD". On this CD, there are multiple folders respective to their drivers (Video/Sound/etc). The video folder contains 1 exe file called: "nvsvc32.exe" (Nvidia Driver Helper Service.... Nvidia Corporation). Executing this file brings up an empty command prompt. 15 seconds later, this command prompt goes away and after restarting the computer - the video card is still not detected.

We now turn our efforts online. The front of the PC tower still has the manufacturer sticker on it, and it says: 4X AGP nVidia TNT2 M64 for its video card. We did some searching and discovered Sony's official Driver page for this system. Link. The downloads on this site provide everything that was on the Drivers CD (most of which are newer versions than the ones we have).

Installing these files requires: First a scan of your system model, which requires a system restart. Second, after the restart - it will attempt to begin the install. At the second part, instead of installing the driver, it gives the error:

"This software is not for use on your system model."

At this point it goes to the desktop and we are still left without any graphics card drivers. DXDIAG displays nothing in the display fields - they are all empty.

At this point - we revert to going to 3rd party websites. After many attempts, we came up with a likely match. Link. After the attempted install on THIS one, we get the error:

"cannot find the correct hardware on your machine".

Argh... it does this with our soundcard too... What can I do?! Thanks.

We have DX9.0c if that accounts for anything - which I doubt because the sound is pulling the same story.

 

[rbV5]

Sounds like you need the laptop's motherboard chipset driver(s) installed before you try installing DX, video/sound etc.

 

[Coldkilla]

Well this link: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=PCVRX550

Is all that they provided us in the software as well. (Its a desktop pc )

I don't see anything on there that can indicated motherboard/chipset drivers..

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Coldkilla
4X AGP nVidia TNT2 M64

AFAIK, XP has built-in drivers to support that card. The computer that I'm using right now shows "NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro (Microsoft Corporation)" in device manager.

 

[Schmide]

After doing some searches you seem to have a ASUS P4B-LX motherboard which is a intel 845 chipset.

I don't know if this will work but you may want to try getting some stuff from intel.

Intel 845

 

[Binky]

Try GPUz. It may tell you what you're working with.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[BlackthornePCs]

Go through windows update that driver should automatically update.

 

[Coldkilla]

I will try all of these now.

 

[aka1nas]

71.89 is the last driver that Nvidia's driver wizard comes up with for the TNT and TNT2 series on XP.

Nvidia Driver Search Results

 

[cwilson]

For what it's worth, about a month ago I tried using a PCI TNT2 M64 recently for a temporary replacement in a windows XP machine (the PCI-E video card died) and I had the same exact issue of "This software is not for use on your system/cannot find the correct hardware"

I searched the internet for hours and tried numerous driver versions before I finally gave up and bought a more recent PCI video card online. I think it's safe to say you will never find a working driver, but if you do manage to get it working I will applaud your efforts!

The strange part is... The Pentium III machine I pulled the TNT2 M64 card from initially was running windows XP and it was not using the Microsoft default display driver.

Good luck

 

[VirtualLarry]

The microsoft driver works perfectly fine for 2D stuff and watching YouTube, etc. I don't know why this is even an issue, just use it. It's not like you would be gaming on a TNT2 anyways.

 

[cwilson]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
The microsoft driver works perfectly fine for 2D stuff and watching YouTube, etc. I don't know why this is even an issue, just use it. It's not like you would be gaming on a TNT2 anyways.

When I was using the default driver even slight scrolling through a web page was extremely laggy. It was definitely slide show status. I don't think it would even let me use 32-bit color. Maybe he's having the same issues. The only thing I can even recommend is $20 on a different video card, or $200 on a new tower.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

If Windows isn't detecting the card at all then it won't be using the default driver, it will be using a Generic VGA Device driver or something similar. In that case, you'll see slideshows like cwilson mentioned. If it was using the default driver for that card then you'd see it correctly listed in Device Manager, etc.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
If Windows isn't detecting the card at all then it won't be using the default driver, it will be using a Generic VGA Device driver or something similar. In that case, you'll see slideshows like cwilson mentioned. If it was using the default driver for that card then you'd see it correctly listed in Device Manager, etc.

Windows is detecting the card if it can load up the VGA driver for it. Most of his problems (and cwilson's) are stemming from them using drivers that don't support the TNT2 series.

 

[will889]

I have relative that still has a model very close to that one it's the RX-552 model with the same video card and motherboard. It has no IGP (which is weird for an intel-Asus mATX) just the AGP and PCI slots. When restoring the system (i did it the first few times) we never ran across that issue but it has been several years since they used the TNT NV card -- we replaced it with an used 9700 Pro (so she could play an older game better) and it also has no issues. If you continue to have issues just pick up a used AGP 9700-9800 pro, 6600 card if you can.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
If Windows isn't detecting the card at all then it won't be using the default driver, it will be using a Generic VGA Device driver or something similar. In that case, you'll see slideshows like cwilson mentioned. If it was using the default driver for that card then you'd see it correctly listed in Device Manager, etc.

Windows is detecting the card if it can load up the VGA driver for it. Most of his problems (and cwilson's) are stemming from them using drivers that don't support the TNT2 series.

There is a big difference between a generic VGA driver, and a default nVidia driver built into Windows. If it is detecting that card at all then it would load the default nVidia driver. If it can't detect the card at all, it will simply load a generic VGA driver that does not enable any hardware-based *anything* for the graphics card.

You don't get slide-shows scrolling browser windows when Windows at least detects the card and loads a default driver for it.

 

[Coldkilla]

We let the auto-scan feature in windows sit (over night, we didn't even know it started scanning), and it showed a list of available graphics cards. All the Cards were RADEONs, nothing about Nvidia TNTs.. Well, we picked one at random (the top one) and the windows run over smoothly and everything. :/

We always get a blue-screen of death when trying to install soundcard drivers... Windows can detect the onboard audio device, but once it starts "copying files" and gets close to the end, it blue screens. We tried getting AC97 drivers, and that blue screens during install.