Help! Video Card Problems

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I finally got a GeForce 2 MX200 (32Mb), but now I'm having trouble installing it. I can't even get any video to appear on-screen.

It's a PCI card. My motherboard doesn't have an AGP slot but it does have an onboard AGP card. Sometimes the computer will emit one long beep and three short beeps during the POST and continue with the startup procedure (I can tell from the sound), but sometimes no beeps are emitted and it does not go through the startup procedure. I think that might have something to do with how the card is seated in the PCI slot, but I'm not sure.

Considering that I get no video at all, I think either the card doesn't work or there's something wrong with my BIOS settings. Unfortunately, I lost or misplaced my motherboard manual so I don't know what most of the BIOS settings do. I went through and picked out settings that look like they may have an affect, and I'm hoping someone might be able to help me. Where necessary, I also included comments or the other options in parenthesis.

PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: Disabled (When this is enabled and I'm using the on-board video, I see the POST but the system doesn't boot to Windows!)
Video BIOS Shadow: Disabled
Video BIOS Cacheable: Disabled
Init Display First: PCI Slot (AGP)
AGP Aperture Size: 32M (128M, 64M, 16M, 8M, 4M)
AGP Master 1 WS Write: Disabled
AGP Master 1 WS Read: Disabled
Assign IRQ for VGA: Enabled

Yes, I understand that I'm an idiot, so there's no need to mention the fact.
 
>I finally got a GeForce 2
>MX200 (32Mb), but now I'm
>having trouble installing it.
>I can't even get any
>video to appear on-screen.

A *PCI* GeforceMX 200 *32megs*? Nickel and diming an already poor system adds little benefit. Save up and upgrade *all* your components at once or buy more RAM. Don't waste your time on a new (old?) video card that isn't even for the standard card slot. But as for your problems...

>Video BIOS Shadow: Disabled
>Video BIOS Cacheable: Disabled

These have no effect.

>Init Display First: PCI Slot
>(AGP)

I would think this would be what it is...

>AGP Aperture Size: 32M (128M, 64M,
>16M, 8M, 4M)
>AGP Master 1 WS Write:
>Disabled
>AGP Master 1 WS Read:
>Disabled
>Assign IRQ for VGA: Enabled

No effect.

If you've got Win98+ you can install the drivers and then set that card as your primary video out in the Display settings of your computer.

>Yes, I understand that I'm an
>idiot, so there's no need
>to mention the fact.

But not because of your BIOS or computer settings...

-Xotor-

[div align=center]

[table width=200" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0][tr bgcolor=#000000] [td style=font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold; color: #FF0000; text-decoration: none]PAS:[/td][td align=left" valign="top" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]People Against Stupidity[/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px][td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3] [/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; color: #FFFFFF] [td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3]"Ignorance is excusable. Stupidty is not."[/td][/tr][/table][/div]
 
wow, that was prety harsh.
You know, there is nothing wrong with trying to save a bit of cash buy nickel and dimeing a crappy system, not everyone can afford to replace/upgarde their coputer with "t3h 1ee7est p4rtzor" every 3 months, some people have actual lives that are away from the keyboard and so their computers are a fairly low priority when it comes to budgeting. But hey, if your the kind of person who works a good job 9 till 5 and has no social life, then go ahead and blow all your cash on bits and bobs for "j00 1ee7 m4ch1n3".
 
>wow, that was prety harsh.
>You know, there is nothing wrong
>with trying to save a
>bit of cash buy nickel
>and dimeing a crappy system,
>not everyone can afford to
>replace/upgarde their coputer with "t3h
>1ee7est p4rtzor" every 3 months,
>some people have actual lives
>that are away from the
>keyboard and so their computers
>are a fairly low priority
>when it comes to budgeting.

Ah the cliché "I have a life and you don't" condescending reply. A *classic* attempt to boost self-importance and ego by way of portraying your position as a sort of "higher ground." Do you know how *ineffective* that kind of response is, or how many roll-eyes it receives?

We're also talking about *Doyle* here, who considers himself a serious gamer (http://www.nma-fallout.com/cgi-bin/forum/ForumID2/1157.shtml). Gaming is *not* low on his priority list. If it were low on his list he wouldn't even bother buying another video card, but rather invest in a much wiser choice, RAM. Instead he opted for a piece of hardware which is not very effective for a system which needs an overhaul before it can progress.

It's like buying rims for a MINIVAN. It is fundamentally unprogressable.

> But hey, if your
>the kind of person who
>works a good job 9
>till 5 and has no
>social life, then go ahead
>and blow all your cash
>on bits and bobs for
>"j00 1ee7 m4ch1n3".


You don't need to work nine to five at a good job and have no social life to own a decent machine. Obviously you're living on the wanting side of life if you think that's what it takes to get a decent system. Anyone who has to scrounge around *that* much needs to set better priorities in what the money is spent on. Either that, or save up.

Here's a hint that may help you out in life: A person with a good job and enough spare cash to spend it on a hobby usually indicates that the person is pretty *successful* in life to a degree. Justifying "have not" with "people with lives don't want that," usually indicates an excuse on part of jealousy or lack of insight.

-Xotor-

[div align=center]

[table width=200" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0][tr bgcolor=#000000] [td style=font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold; color: #FF0000; text-decoration: none]PAS:[/td][td align=left" valign="top" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]People Against Stupidity[/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px][td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3] [/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; color: #FFFFFF] [td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3]"Ignorance is excusable. Stupidty is not."[/td][/tr][/table][/div]
 
>wow, that was prety harsh.
>You know, there is nothing wrong
>with trying to save a
>bit of cash buy nickel
>and dimeing a crappy system,
>not everyone can afford to
>replace/upgarde their coputer with "t3h
>1ee7est p4rtzor" every 3 months,
>some people have actual lives
>that are away from the
>keyboard and so their computers
>are a fairly low priority
>when it comes to budgeting.
> But hey, if your
>the kind of person who
>works a good job 9
>till 5 and has no
>social life, then go ahead
>and blow all your cash
>on bits and bobs for
>"j00 1ee7 m4ch1n3".

Back in reality, those who value their money won't throw away money for something that is relatively obsolete already when there's alternatives. Spending money on crap that is already obsolete and of no use is a *waste*. Instead of yammering out a blown-up absurdity like upgrading every three months and being a twit with the "leetspeek", try to grab onto a clue. There's video cards with current processing capability for under $60. In fact, I got my current nVidia card for about $40, and it works quite well for recent releases. They are quite easy to get, if you shop around and a PNY 64MB GeForce2 MX400 can go for under $60, or lower if you can get it on sale. It's a pretty decent card, too, and should be in standard for at least another year or so.

Unfortunate that he has to use a PCI card, I have one too since I use more than one video card. The major factor is the 32MBs, which is seriously now a low-end spec. 64MB makes games in general run much smoother and without stutter, even moreso than adding more motherboard RAM. Buying a 32MB card right now is, frankly, stupid. It's like buying sticks of 64MB RAM.
 
Don't worry I am not here just mouth your video card. The best thing I can think of to help is try www.nvidia.com and check the support section. I think I saw some stuff about Bios settings and such like when I went there after I recently got a new card. If its not in their FAQ or trouble shooting section,then there is probably no one better to E-Mail you problem to.
 
It's a moot point anyway. I tried numerous solutions with a lot of help from a lot of people, but in the end I just took it back. Chances are I'll spend the money on the RE remake or some other 'Cube title.

You've got a valid point about wasting money, but I'm not looking to build a powerhouse machine out of this piece of crap. More than anything I wanted to make newer CS levels more playable. Although a processor upgrade might help more, the video card would have helped significantly, too. Not to mention it's about half the cost.
 
Xotor, often times your responses are magnificently brilliant, often times they are thought provokingly witty. However, the example of putting rims on a MINIVAN tops them all.

"One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."-Josef Stalin
 
>You've got a valid point about
>wasting money, but I'm not
>looking to build a powerhouse
>machine out of this piece
>of crap. More than
>anything I wanted to make
>newer CS levels more playable.
> Although a processor upgrade
>might help more, the video
>card would have helped significantly,
>too. Not to mention
>it's about half the cost.

The most significant upgrade you can make to just about any system is buying more RAM. RAM is dirt cheap now, in fact, it is cheaper than dirt. I've used DIMMs (64 MB of PC100 RAM) that were once worth hundreds of dollars only a few years ago as straight-edges for drawing pictures, it is so worthless. The cost of buying 128 megs of PC133 RAM is usually less than the shipping costs.

You could even use your spare RAM as a RAM drive and temporarily store your data files for your CS for faster texture load time.

And fuck, you could spend $60 and get a Duron 900mhz WITH a motherboard and have a pretty damn fast system. At least then you'd have a spare AGP slot.

Hardware, GOOD hardware, is at the cheapest ever. You don't need to be the "kind of person who works a good job 9 till 5 and has no social life" as Despot so lamely put it, to get a system that will play virtually ANY game decently. But don't spend that cash on no-hitter items like 4th generation *old* video cards.

-Xotor-

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[table width=200" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0][tr bgcolor=#000000] [td style=font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold; color: #FF0000; text-decoration: none]PAS:[/td][td align=left" valign="top" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]People Against Stupidity[/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px][td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3] [/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; color: #FFFFFF] [td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3]"Ignorance is excusable. Stupidty is not."[/td][/tr][/table][/div]
 
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