Nvidia drivers not detecting video card

[2fat2dance]

Hey guys,

I just bought an old desktop system from a friend. The specs are the following:
-Motherboard : Asus M2N-E SLI Deluxe (There is no onboard video card on the motherboard. )
-CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5000+ 64bit
-6GB RAM
-Video card : Nvidia 9500GT 512MB PCI-Express

The problem is that I can't get the video card to work. The system starts up, but I don't see any video card information in the top left corner as it should normally appear (or maybe not all video cards do this?).
In BIOS I have two options for the video card, PCI and PCI-e..I've tried both options, no difference.
I've tried both Windows 7 and Windows Vista for 64 bits (even Vista for 32bits). The video card is not detected..all my system sees is a Matrox video card with 16MB of video memory.
If I update the drivers and navigate to the location where the drivers downloaded from the nvidia website are, and select the GeForce 9500GT model, it will install them, but then in the Device Manager I can see that the display adapter has a problem and if I try to update the drivers automatically, then the Standard VGA Adapter is re-installed and it says it's fine now.
I've tried the latest version of the drivers provided by Nvidia, as well as an older version, but I always get the message that no compatible hardware was detected.
Even the auto detection from the Nvidia website shows me that I only have a Standard VGA adapter installed.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Freezeron]

You should look if the BIOS of your graphic card is right (Riva tools) and if not try to flash it, looks like you have a screwed up hardware.
So, if under warranty (although I doubt it, but you never know), go to your computer store and ask to them to fix it.
If not you, can start to experience, although have in mind that you can brick your video card so find at least someone who knows about BIOS Flashing as I will not take responsibility of a damaged card.

If you can't do anything of the above, try at least to get your card to your nearest computer service shop.

Can you say which "brand" is your card? or at least some photos of it (front, back and the side the display adapter is located).

 

[2fat2dance]

I don't know the brand, I'll take a look as soon as I get back home.
The thing is that it worked for the friend i bought the pc from, maybe I have damaged it while moving? I couldn't imagine how, since the case was closed at all times, but who knows...
Or maybe I should just buy another one? A board around 150$ would be a nice upgrade for the system I gues...

 

[johnnyq1233]

First I would remove the side panel and confirm that it is an actual nvidia card...
Sounds like you got a Matrox card in there...
The drivers from nvidia will not work on a matrox card...
But, if it was cheap enough to buy then a card will not be too expensive to buy...either!
Hope this helps...JQ

 

[vvhocare5]

...and please dont go the gpu bios flashing route. While it may be a possibility there is very little gain for that work.

a 9500GT is an old card. Your $150 will buy you a VERY nice current generation card, without these issues...

 

[2fat2dance]

Yes, I also think it's worth the money for the upgrade. I'm not a big gamer, but from time to time I do play some games and I should get a decent gaming card then.
Which one would you guys recommend? I know the main performance bottleneck here is the motherboard, so what video card should I buy to maximize performance?
Is the motherboard good enough for any 150-200$ video card these days?

 

[johnnyq1233]

On the Nvidia side there are some good deals on GTS250 with 1GBof ram, GTS450 with 1GB of ram...
On the ATI side I would look at the hd5xxx series or even the 6xxx series there are some sweet deals on these at newegg and other e-tailors.
Hope this helps...JQ

 

[nebun]

it's an nvidia driver issue...just do a clean install of the drivers and all will be well

 

[nebun]

sometimes the windows generic video driver will interfere with the envidia one, i have had this happen to me a few times....don't forget to manually delete the nvidia folder on your system drive, this will remove all previous drivers...also don't let windows install any drivers, just cancel if it asks you do install one

 

[Mousemonkey]

it's an nvidia driver issue...just do a clean install of the drivers and all will be well

sometimes the windows generic video driver will interfere with the envidia one, i have had this happen to me a few times....don't forget to manually delete the nvidia folder on your system drive, this will remove all previous drivers...also don't let windows install any drivers, just cancel if it asks you do install one

If nothing is coming on screen during POST then it may well be a hardware issue although W7 and Vista both need to be patched and updated before version 270.51 can be installed from what I've found.

 

[2fat2dance]

Nope, absolutely nothing shows up on the screen.
But my friend confirmed that this was an old card and he forgot it wasn't working..so..problem solved it's a hardware fault.

Now I have to decide what card to buy. One question though, will any PCI-e 16x card do the job or has the motherboard's systembus any influence on this? I found the specs of the motherboard here and it says the systembus is 2000/1600 MT/s..What does this mean?

The motherboard also supports SLI. Should I get one good videocard or two average videocards and set them up for SLI?
Would a 1GB Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme be ok for this system?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[2fat2dance]

Best answer selected by 2fat2dance.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey