Video card issues

[Bandit77]

Hi all.
I have a problem. For some reason, out of the blue, my video card (compaq OEM nVidia TNT2)isn't being rcognized as a 3D card. It was working just the other day and now it isn't. I tried starting one of my games and am being told that I have no 3D card available. I don't think I've made any changes that would effect the card. I've gone so far as to switch the card with another with no luck. I even swaped out the mainboard thinking maybe a problem with the AGP slot was the culprit. No dice. I've downloaded the latest drivers from nVidia, but that didn't help either. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Bandit77 If it ain't broke, it will be when I'm done with it.

 

[cdogg]

Try reinstalling DirectX drivers. While you're at it, make sure you're at least on DX 7. You can find out what version you have by running dxdiag. Also, you can run tests from there...

ck_blk@yahoo.com

 

[Bandit77]

Thanks cdogg,
I already have DirectX 8. What are the odds of a vid card losing it's 3D capabilities while retaining the ability to work everywhere else? If it ain't broke, it will be when I'm done with it.

 

[cdogg]

Actually, now that I think about it, did you make sure "hardware acceleration" is turned up to the max? In Win9x, you can check by going to Start -> Settings -> ControlPanel -> System and to the Performance tab. Click "Graphics" at the bottom which will show you the "Hardware Acceleration" slider. If this is turned down even one notch, it will turn off 3D acceleration on most video cards...

ck_blk@yahoo.com

 

[Bandit77]

I'm pretty sure it'set to max, but I'll be sure to double check it when I get home. I'm running Win 2K Pro, by the way. If it ain't broke, it will be when I'm done with it.

 

[ntnet]

Not sure this is the case for you but I had a TNT2 that did the exact same thing in games...
Solution was to bring up color depth (not too sure how exactly I found out !)
Anything under 16Bit colors would keep the card from being detected as a 3D card by games.

Please let know if this helps. S. Gagner
MIS
A+ MCP

 

[Bandit77]

Hey ntnet,
I gave that a shot and bumped it to 32bit. No dice. I do appreciate the input, as I hadn't tried that yet.
Thank you for the advice. If it ain't broke, it will be when I'm done with it.

 

[ntnet]

Hey Bandit77, Sorry it didn't work for you...

But here is another shot at it...
NVidia has a driver called "DETONATOR" (sounds powerfull doesn't it)...
Anyway, it is a generic driver refered to by many software producers as a solution to video problems with TNT2.
It can be found at :

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000

Once again, please let know if this helps. S. Gagner
MIS
A+ MCP

 

[Bandit77]

Hey ntnet,
I had already downloaded the latest Detonator drivers. I'm afraid I may have some corruption somewhere. One thing I did see was the video adapter is sharing the same IRQ with 5 other devices; sound, NIC, SCSI controller,ACPI, and PCI to USB host controller. I didn't realize that this was common practice used by Win 2K until this problem arose. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the IRQ settings in this case. Looks like a reload may be in order.
Thanks again. If it ain't broke, it will be when I'm done with it.