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laptop won't detect video card!

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9 replies

by jkota11

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So I'm trying to play civilization 4 and i get this error saying I have an invalid 3d device, which is odd because i've played games like empire earth 2 before which require 3d. So i go to see if something is wrong with my video card and apparently my laptop won't detect one at all. I went to dxdiag and this is what i got.

name:
manufacturer: n/a
chip type: n/a
dac type: n/a
approx total memory: n/a
current display mode: 1024 x 768 (32bit)(1hz)
monitor:

on the other side it says my main driver is
vga.dll

I know this is referring to vgasave, which kicks in when there is no other video card detected. I even went online i got my system scanned on systemrequirementslab.com and even they couldn't detect a video card. I'm not exactly sure what card i had but i'm pretty sure it was a GMA 950, my laptop is a dell latitude d620. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

9 replies

by jkota11

in device manager i know the video card is supposed to be under display adapters but display adapters doesn't even show up, and theres nothing about a video card anywhere else in device manager

by oh smeg

You'll see that the D620 has 2 possible drivers one for a Intel 945GM Chip Set and one for a NVidia 110M Chip Set.

http://tinyurl.com/5cb9v4

Download both and then open the Device Manager and right click on the Video Card then chose Up Date and allow it to install the preferred Driver. You may need to point the system to the Folder where you have the drivers saved to and if they come Zipped you'll need to unzip them but that will cure the problem.

Col

by Former member

Run this:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
It might take a little time but it will show you what make of graphic card you have on board. Another thing to check is in your bios, make sure that on-board graphics is enabled.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by jkota11

hey i ran that program you gave me a link to but it couldn't detect a video card either, under the display section it said "none detected". I've tried like a million ways to detect the card and none of them worked, I'm starting to get the feeling that maybe it got disconnected or damaged somehow, but i'm not sure exactly how that would have happened. Oh and how exactly do you check that the onboard graphics are on in BIOS?

by Former member

Bootup your computer, keys to use are either, F1, F2 or DEL keys depending on your system.
Look at the bottom left of the screen to check for which key to press, then look for something like "on-board graphics" or something similar. Make sure it is enabled. Another way is to download and try these:
http://www.driverfiles.net/Other/nVIDIA/nVidia-WDM-Video-Capture-(universal)/download/page,sh,12878,459,3,.html
http://www.drivershq.com/

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by oh smeg

Go to the Dell Download Site here

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=LATITUDE%20D620&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Download the Intel Video Driver of 14 MEG and try installing it. If you get Video Adapter not found download the NVidia Driver of 56 MEG and try installing that. It is one of these two drivers according to Dell so one of them will work.

What is likely to have happened here is that the Video Driver has been corrupted and the system has reverted back to the Default Video Driver or someone has reloaded the system with a OEM Disc and not installed the Video Driver.

Col

by jkota11

yea that worked and it turns out i had the NVidia after all

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