Aquafox Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Hey guys, having a bit of trouble with a spare graphics card I have to replace my HTPC's MX440 AGP8X :blush: (which is kinda struggling with 720P). The card I'm trying to replace it with is a PNY GeForce 6600 AGP 8x 128MB DDR (Vanilla...not GT etc) The problem I'm having is that whenever I install any Forceware driver in XP (from series 90 up to series 160), the screen goes black and my LCD says "Out of Range" and gives a very strange frequency setting. This also happens on my other TFT and CRT monitors too, so its not my monitors. Admittedly, a while back I tried upgrading the BIOS as there were slight problems with the card, and the last time I tried I flashed it with a different branded one and it didn't go too well: the screen was very fuzzy and had random things blinking etc (though i can make out some bits of the original display). Unfortunatley i couldn't find the original vga bios I used so downloaded another 'updated' version designed for my card (PNY GF6600 128MB DDR) and blind flashed it. It looked like it recovered properly: when I turned on the pc the vga bios loaded (with no problems), and everything looked fine (this is still in DOS btw). So i installed a fresh copy of XP and this was successful...while the graphics driver was NOT installed (ie using window's generic VGA driver which is super sluggy). When I try and install a graphics driver from NVIDIA, while is says "Installing driver" the screen blacks out completely (though the computer continues to work without crashing...i can still light/unlight the numlock LED, pressing the power button once turns the pc off safely etc.) Will I be better off installing Vista - which has a built in WDDM Driver for my card (I know this, as it used to be my main GPU) and will this cause the screen to become black? Any suggestions guys, or does anyone even have the original bios for my card by any chance? :( I don't want to restrain my HTPC any longer with my old MX440 64MB AGP8X (it's my only spare - either that or a Parhelia 512)... Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEX4S Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 OK I know this isnt the kind of comment you were looking for but I have to ask... why in the world go through all of this trouble on modding ancient cards, or trying to make obsolete hardware tackle things which it clearly wasnt made to do ? the rest of the specs in your sig are good -- w'sup ? why not just go get another card and throw those things away ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquafox Posted November 2, 2008 Author Share Posted November 2, 2008 the graphics card isn't for my main rig found on my signature. It's for a HTPC I have to play movies and pictures on a 720p Samsung DLP, which I made using parts lying around that I didn't need (I don't want to spend/waste money when a HTPC isn't essential). I had a GF6600AGP that I also had lying around which I updated the Bios ROM as it had a few problems with the fan throttle (it was too low causing heating), when I used it back in 2006 :p. I haven't touched it since, but the MX440 I have in the HTPC is worse, so I though it would have been nice to have a decent upgrade: I ain't gonna play crysis on it, just a few 720p movies/pictures on MCE. Yes the 6600 is ancient compared to my HD3850, but it would do the job of 1280x720 playing DVD's just fine, and much better than an MX440. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEX4S Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 oooooohhhhhhh - :) I gotcha .. just to remove any other possibilities, have you run ccleaner or drivercleaner ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimLXJ Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 oooooohhhhhhh - :)I gotcha .. just to remove any other possibilities, have you run ccleaner or drivercleaner ? I don't see how CCleaner can do anything here.... Oh and Aquafox, "Out of range" usually means resolution is too high or refresh rate is too high for the video card so try lowering them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAID 0 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 I don't see how CCleaner can do anything here....Oh and Aquafox, "Out of range" usually means resolution is too high or refresh rate is too high for the video card so try lowering them. She's right about the out of range.. but that's kinda hard to change when you can't see! Ccleaner might help once the old drivers are uninstalled. It's worth a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimLXJ Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Just head to safe mode and change it over there (if not then figure out a way to change it by the nVidia CP) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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