Can't install GeForce 7 Card - Installation SW says "Graphics Card Not Found"

HugoSP

I have just bought a GeForce 7 graphics card and have physically fitted it into the PCI slot in the motherboard.

The PC is a Patriot of 2002 vintage running Windows XP.

When I install the driver disc it says "Graphics Card Not Found". It won't install.

When I bought the card the lad at PC world advised me to install the SW first but it wouldn't install before or after the card has been fitted.

Can anyone shed any light on this please, I really don't want to spend another £30 getting it installed. I had enough issues with a 2nd Hard Drive a few years ago.

Thanks

mostly

Hmmm, I take it you had an agp gfx card before. Is there a pci gfx slot on the mobo, you aint just plugged it into the pci slots under the agp slot have you?

If thats all good then uninstall the software, download the lastest drivers from nvidia and give that a go.

HugoSP

I didn't have an agp gfx card before, there is only one agp slot and that was vacant before I put this card in.

What do you mean by the mobo?

I have removed and re installed the card. The driver won't actually install at all.

mostly

ok, so the gfx before was from the motherboard, what is the monitor plugged into at the moment?
You'll need to disable the gfx in the bios, but I think that maybe you dont have a pci gfx slot.

rygon

not many pcs have an agp and a pci-e slot. also if its a geforce7 it would be a pci-e not a pci card (2 different types) im guessing its only agp for 2002

http://www.diamondmm.com/howtobuyvideocard.php

this tells you a bit about different types of cards

HugoSP

mostly wrote: »

ok, so the gfx before was from the motherboard, what is the monitor plugged into at the moment?
You'll need to disable the gfx in the bios, but I think that maybe you dont have a pci gfx slot.

The monitor is plugged into the old socket, I assume from the on board graphics. Plugging it into the new gfx card produced a black monitor ie no display.

I have identified the slot from the instructions and it is the only slot that the card will physically slot into. All the other slots are too far forward.

superscaper

What's the exact model of the graphics card? And what's the exact model of the motherboard (you should be able to physically read it on the board if you're slotting the graphics card into it?

Alfie_E

Counter-intuitive as it may sound, you need to get the card working first, then install the graphics drivers. Your computer and operating system will be able to communicate with the card, at a basic level, without the need for any extra software.

Most modern graphics cards require more electrical power than the AGP connection can provide. If this is the case, your card will have an extra power socket on it. At its edge, there will be a big white thing with four prongs inside it. It’s the same as the socket used by hard discs and CD/DVD drives. The plug for it looks like this. Once you get the card up and running, I would hope that your computer will automatically detect its presence.

banger9365

according to the pc world web site they do not do a model off the nvidia 7 series in pci only pci-e they do do a 6 and 7 series card in AGP ,so can you give the model and make off this new card so we can help better ,has i think they has sold you the wrong card a PCI-e and not a AGP one that you really need, that why you get Graphics Card Not Found and these cards do not need extra power to run

ormus

as far as i remember, the patriot was a weird puter. it uses almost no generic items. space is very limited inside. think you need to disable the onboard/video card in the bios before you install an agp card.
make sure the agp card is compatable. there were 2 main types. i doubt that later ones will work in the patriot?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

edit.
i am assuming that you dont have a pci-e card! cause that wont fit at all.

b33r

As others have pointed out, PCI (i.e. what we use to plug sound cards, usb cards, modems etc.) isn't the same as PCI-express, a PCI-express graphics card will physically fit into a PCI slot but it's not the same thing, you are very likely to need a new motherboard to use this graphics card, one with PCI-express.

EDIT: Oh and with or without drivers if the graphics card is fitted in a correct slot and any on-board graphics are disabled you would get something on the monitor on turning it on if the card was working and it was in a pci-express slot (I don't THINK there are any GF 7's which are normal PCI, may be wrong though).