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Unidentified Video Card

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12 replies

by rkuhn040172

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I have a old PC that I'm rebuilding to give to my kids. Plain white box, no model numbers.

I'm installing Win '98 for backwards compatibility for their games.

Problem is...don't know what brand/model the video card is, don't have a driver.

No markings on the card itself or the PC of what it is. Do have some S/N's and stuff.

Any ideas? It's a fairly new card(2 years old maybe) and quite nice.

12 replies

by ken g.

After you get your system up and running go to Windows Update and the hardware detection engine should pick it up and offer you the right driver in the Hardware Updates link. You'll also notice the manufacturer's name next to that driver.

If you want do not download the driver; instead take notice of the manufacturer's name and then go to their website and download the full driver suite for that card and SAVE IT TO DISK. That way you have it in the future.

by rkuhn040172

Win Updates didn't work.

What I guess I'm looking for is a good website that can look up a S/N or UPC or something.

Trust me, been in IT for years. I tried all the obvious. I think it's a nVidia but not sure what model. Do they have a generic driver?

by blackcurrant

Hi

Another option is to run the Belarc Advisor. This has a comprehensive hardware database and will probably be able to identify the card or at least give you a little more information so you can use a compatible driver at the very least.

You can download it from here:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

and it's free for personal use...

Good luck

by rkuhn040172

Already tried Belarc Advisor and it only detected a generic windows driver and not the card manufacturer or anything.

What I guess I'm looking for is a good website that can look up a S/N or UPC or something.

Trust me, been in IT for years. I tried all the obvious. I think it's a nVidia but not sure what model. Do they have a generic driver?

by rkuhn040172

Already tried Belarc Advisor and it only detected a generic windows driver and not the card manufacturer or anything.

Win Updates didn't work either.

What I guess I'm looking for is a good website that can look up a S/N or UPC or something.

Trust me, been in IT for years. I tried all the obvious. I think it's a nVidia but not sure what model. Do they have a generic driver?

by thechas

Unless you have the FCC ID number there is no reliable method to identify the manufacture of the card.

The S/N and barcode on the card are internal items for the specific card manufacture.

Yes, the nVidia driver covers nearly all models.

Both nVidia and ATI drivers will not install unless the installer finds a compatible video processor.

However, I suspect the W98 is not identifying the video card because it does not see the card properly.

Download and install the chip-set driver for the motherboard.
This will install the AGP mini-port driver and open the door for W98 to actually see the GPU.

As a side note:
Both nVidia and ATI drivers require the correct version of DirectX installed on the PC prior to installing the video driver.

Chas

by rkuhn040172

Tore off all the stickers, found out it was a ATI dual monitor card. Only a 32 MB card...POS!

Ended up identifying the card but replaced it with something better.

Thanks for the help. Been a while since I had to dig this deep.

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