budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Panic attack. Had a problem with my PC - a virus wiped out the contents of my user folders. Managed to restore everything from backup and svae to a new user profile and that's fine. Games were running fine before I restored and changed user because they were in Program Fikes, which was untouched. But after changing, I get no luck starting games. They either say "Can't find 3d Drivers" or "Can't find OpenGL". I reinstalled the Nvidia driver for Windows XP but the problem still occurs. How do I get my PC to recognize the video card again? No more games means a big waste of the time/money invested so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NightCrawler 137 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 You might try pulling the card out, do a restart then reinstall. That might get it to recognize it again, worth a try. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 Sounds risky for a noob. Anything safer than that? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crimson 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 (edited) Trust him/me. Its quite easy. Changing graphics cards was the first thing I ever did. Make sure to uninstall the drivers, turn off the comp, and pull out the power cord to be safe. Edit - Oh, and touch the power supply before you touch the graphics card. Dont want to fry anthing now, do you? Edited June 24, 2003 by Crimson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WytchDokta 6 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 A virus wiped your drive and games don't work? Reformat ya 'puter m8. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 (edited) Okay, my drive wasn't wiped, just the information in my documents and any personalized stuff associated with my profile such as wallpapers etc...I seemd to be able to solve this problem without reformatting and everything is back to normal there. Even after I spotted the virus problem, my games worked fine until I replaced my user profile. Since then, I've tried reinstalling the drivers and they went in fine, but made no mention that they recognized my chipset (Nvidia Geforce 4 ti4200 agp8x) as the manual suggested they would. Likewise in my dsiplay settings I see no mention of a video card, whereas before the make and model was named. According to my computer I have no video card on board. I'm willing to try 'operating' on the contents of my case, but I need to know where the power supply is before I touch it - and anything else to 'ground' myself before going in. As for the Card - what does it look like? Name written on it? Can I just pull it out and slot it back in? Then do I just reinstall the drivers? Thanks for all your advice guys. Edited June 24, 2003 by budgie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crimson 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 (edited) You ask and I deliver. First off. Dont worry. Hopefully your computer has a better wiring job than mine. The square thing up in the top left corner is the power supply. Touch that to ground yourself. Zooming in now on the GFX card. You see the long brown thing thats holding the GFX card? On the far right of it, there might be a clip that prevents you from ripping the card and the AGP drive off the motherboard. Push on it and it will unlock. Now, if you look to the LEFT, they're might be screws that prevent you from taking the GFX card out. Unscrew the one that is holding the card in. (If there.) Touch the PS again, then pull the card straight out. Edited June 24, 2003 by Crimson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 This sounds good but it is still my last option. How about if I reformat the computer? Will it then detect teh hardware? If I reformat will i lose my saved games etc? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crimson 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Ok, reformatting is your last and final option. If you reformat, you will lose EVERYTHING. Your hard drive will be completely emtpy. Do you have an operating system on a disk? If not, you cant reformat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 Okay it's not that serious. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crimson 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 (edited) I guess I should tell you to place your computer somewhere other than the carpet when your working on it. (Although I live on the edge and dont.) Just make sure to take your socks off. Edit - Plus, you dont really feel like a real man untill you've opened it up and worked on it. Edited June 24, 2003 by Crimson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
supasniper 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Plus, you dont really feel like a real man untill you've opened it up and worked on it. Well in that case i must be a real man cos i build mine. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rocky 1,224 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Hey Budgie Before you do any of that other stuff you need to confirm you have done this... Control Panel>Add Remove software Locate the video card drivers in that list, and remove them. Reboot the PC. New Hardware found dialog fires up. Point it to your dirvers, either on CD or downloaded and on your HD. (I'd recommend using the ones of the cards driver disk to start with, then update them once you are up and running) Reboot Job done hopefully. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crimson 0 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Plus, you dont really feel like a real man untill you've opened it up and worked on it. Â Well in that case i must be a real man cos i build mine. LOL, you know what Im talkin' about then. @Rocky - So true. Start with your GFX cards drivers on the cd the came with your video card. If you do update your drivers, I suggest getting the latest ones from the company that made your card, and not the chip. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 I tried removing the old drivers and reinstalling. No luck. I just tried taking the card out and putting it back - still no luck. The computer doesn't seem to know it has a graphics card in it any more. Must be time to get a new card. I'll try downloading the drivers from Nvidia - but the site doesn't exactly dangle this stuff in your face. Looks like hours of internet hunting ahead. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 Tried downloading the drivers and they didn't work. Looks like my high end gaming rig has turned into an expensive word processor until I get a new GFX card installed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
snakebite1967 0 Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 in my humble opinion you dont need a graphics card id say go ahead format start fresh check bios settings and load everything again, if the games worked before the restore im guessing that in saving and moving some of your files you might possibly have changed the registry in some way thats causing this issue so go ahead delete everything and start fresh hopefully this will fix your issue Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ruin 17 Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Get in only yor socks (not only) and dance around on some shag carpeting which is next to your now open computer. Now, while dancing, grab every part of your PC. Then turn it on. Problem solved! Wait... wrong thread. Try what Rocky said. Baby steps before you do something too rash (heh, babies, diaper rash... nm). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NightCrawler 137 Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Budg, head over to the local book store and pick up a mag or book on how to build a PC and use that for a reference, then pick our brains for the more intricate things. Always use the reformat as a last option unless you feel comfortable going in that deep, it's really not that hard just time consuming, and you will have to start installing everything from scratch. GL and keep us posted. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budgie 1 Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 I've got so much stuff it would be a massive chore. I have music, movies, almost all Futurama and every BoB episode. Plus there are the mods and changes I've made to GR which add up to literally tens of hours of work. Muight be best just to buy a new GFX card. GeForce FX 5200 anyone? Wiith my P4 2.5gig rig that oughtta be fun....DOOM3 here I come! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NightCrawler 137 Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 You know anybody that you can borrow one from, to test first any card will do, just don't want you to go out and waste any $$. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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