Nvidia TNT2 64 Vid driver that works???

folks
I have a PCI [not PCI express not AGP] Nvidia TNT2 card and need it to work in a dell dimension, Windows XP Home Edition.
I did what anyone would do... installed it, went to Nvidia site, looked up the right family [TNT2] for the OS, and downloaded this MONSTROUS 40MB file. When I run the install program it simply says "did not detect any appropriate hardware" and shuts down. The card does come up with the correct ID at boot time [correctly identifies what it is] and, with windows in SAFE MODE, the display is driven off the Card, not the onboard. The Windows OS again correctly shows the card in the Device manager [no bangs... calls it by the right names etc.]. So all that looks good, but absent the real NVIDIA drivers, when I boot into normal Windows XP, not safe-mode, it acts as though it is a two monitor rig. and unfortunately, the display from the nvidia card seems to be the #2 display, thus not exactly usable. Then I go to reboot, and the next time, it will not even display to the monitor once windows XP boots. very frustrating.

I NOTE that the Dell Dimension 3100 bios does NOT allow the option of shutting off the onboard. it only gives two choices "onboard" or "Auto".

So, anyone have a clue what's going on here?

 

OMG...Used to have one of these cards and it lasted about 1 hour and i trashed it. My diamond viper card was more powerful and am still using it to this day in my backup rig. Am thinking the last drivers that work are the 9.04 or something series. As far as your mobo i have no clue on a dell how to disable on board video...Goodluck

 

If you are getting max resolution out of you monitor i wouldnt worry about it, the bios will detect it being plugged in,pci is not much better that onboard anyway [if any]. ed

 

First, nosing around for specs, it looks like your Dell Dimension 3100 should have Intel's "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900" graphics built in.

While a discrete video card us usually a better option than the onboard graphics, in your case, that TNT card is so out of date that the onboard graphics will far outperform the TNT. I'd uninstall the nVidia drivers and leave the onboard alone.

See here for a comparison test of how the Intel onboard stacks up against some of the older (but far newer/faster than yours) video cards.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/i915g.html

 

If you DO get a card that's better than your onboard, I'd suggest trying this. Since every BIOS is different, you'll have to look aroud for the settings.

If you can't disable the onboard, only choose "On" or "Auto", set that to "Auto".

Look around for an option to choose which video adapter to boot FIRST, as your initial display. (On my system, it's under the "Advanced" tab, then PCIPnP, but may be different on yours.) You should have choice of Onboard, PCI, or AGP, if you've got an AGP slot on that board; a lot of Dell boards do NOT have AGP. Set that to PCI (or AGP if you can use and get an AGP card). That will use your plug-in card as the initial (primary) display, and you should be able to install the proper drivers for it.

AGP is far better, if you can use an AGP card on your board. Most of the PCI cards still available won't be a lot better than what you've got.

 

I would like to know WHY you're trying to use the TNT2 card, instead of the onboard videochip; could you explain that for us?

Also, you might not be able to uninstall the nVidia driver until you FIRST:

Change the video driver from whatever is being used by the onboard videochip to the generic Windows video driver.

SECOND:

Reboot the system, enter the CMOS Setup, and change the video setting to "AUTO", as G.T. mentioned in a previous post. Then, save your settings on exit and reboot; Windows should load with the generic driver, using the nVidia card. Once you KNOW the system is booting with the generic driver and nVidia card, reboot the system again.

THIRD:

One last time, when you get back to the Desktop, check to be SURE that Windows is using the nVidia TNT2 card, THEN try to install the nVidia drivers for it, and reboot when required. If all goes well, you will then be using the TNT2 card with the proper nVidia drivers; right now, I suspect that the drivers won't install properly because the system is using the onboard videochip. If you can force it to use the TNT2 card, you shouldn't have any real problems installing the nVidia drivers.

Good luck, and please tell us WHY you want to use that old PCI card. The nVidia "Vanta" cards were one notch above JUNK, but the other TNT2 cards worked well back in the day, though they run HOT! You might need to add some extra cooling to your system to deal with the heat that TNT2 card will generate, or you can expect heat-related problems in the near future.