Older video cards with Vista

So, I recently obtained a copy of Vista Ultimate x64 (legally!), and I wanted to try it out. I have a 64-bit processor, but had been running regular 32-bit XP, so I wanted to see what it could do with a real 64-bit processor.

Of course, with Vista nothing is easy. I re-partitioned my hard drive to set aside a piece for Vista and installed it so I could dual-boot between Vista and XP. The install went well, but I hadn't counted on the fact that my video card, which was top of the line when I bought it quite a few years ago, was actually not compatible with Vista!

I have a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4400, and upgrading is not really an option because my motherboard is too old to support any modern cards (it's just regular PCI, not PCI-Express or anything like that). If I wanted to upgrade the card I'd have to upgrade the whole computer, and while I would love to just buy a whole new computer I'm trying to save money at the moment.

Has anyone ever gone through something similar who could give me some tips? I've installed a few XP drivers to try to get it working, and I've gotten to the point where I can get a decent resolution on my monitor, but I've yet to get my second monitor working. This is really the deal-breaker for me. If my second monitor can't be used then I'm going back to XP.

...but even going back to XP won't be easy. When I started using Vista it started reporting that my hard drive was about to have a massive failure. It had been working fine up until now, but I figured that I may have done something bad to it during the re-partitioning process, so I quickly backed up the entire drive. Did the backup in XP and I left it to run the backup overnight. After the backup was done XP decided to install some updates and reboot all by itself. Of course, when it came back up it booted into Vista. I was very confused when I came back to my machine in the morning and saw Vista when I had left it at XP the night before. The backup succeeded, but somehow in the xp-update-reboot-vista process it killed my ethernet card in XP. I can get internet just fine when in Vista, but I have not found a way to fix it in XP.

So right now my choices are to get my video card working in Vista, get my ethernet card working in XP, or just give up and buy a new PC.

Help?

(By the way, I'm a manager of the tech support department for a small software company and am a Microsoft Certified Professional, so my tech comfort level and computer knowledge are both very high.)

Edit: I should mention that, while Vista continue to report imminent hard drive failure that my drive has been working flawlessly for about a week now, and shows no sign of hardship whatsoever in XP. I'm guessing that Vista is just having problems with my older hard drive and it's not actually due for failure. Still backed up the entire thing to my brand new 500 GB external drive, though.

Wow, you're running Vista on a motherboard so old it doesn't have even have PCI-Express? Yeesh. What's the processor? Is it a former server or something?

Nvidia does not offer Vista drivers for their GeForce 4 series, so you're basically out of luck on that front. That you've gotten this far is pretty impressive.

We know the ethernet card works, so it's probably a driver or detection issue. I'd yank the card from the hardware manager, reboot, pop into the bios, disable the card (if you can) or physically remove it (again, if you can), boot into XP, reboot again, re-enable/re-insert the card and cross your fingers. I'd also hit the manufacturer for updated drivers, or even firmware if they have it.

Merkuri said:

I have a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4400, and upgrading is not really an option because my motherboard is too old to support any modern cards (it's just regular PCI, not PCI-Express or anything like that). If I wanted to upgrade the card I'd have to upgrade the whole computer, and while I would love to just buy a whole new computer I'm trying to save money at the moment.

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Just as an FYI here, you can get PCI versions of some relatively modern cards; NewEgg shows a Radeon HD2450 for $65, and a GeForce 6200 for $45.

Well, I don't think running Vista on a computer that old is a good idea; it's quite resource-hungry.

Besides, 64bit OS is pretty much pointless unless you also use 64bit applications, which is unlikely at best.

Just keep it stashed aside until you get your next computer.

Bye
Thanee

XCorvis said:

Wow, you're running Vista on a motherboard so old it doesn't have even have PCI-Express? Yeesh. What's the processor? Is it a former server or something?

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It's an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ 2.0 GHz. I bought it four or five years ago as a top-of-the-line barebones system and plugged in the video card I had in the machine before it (since, at that point, the video card was still fairly decent). I have 2 GB of RAM, and the machine itself is not that bad. It just seems that most of the technology in it has reached the point where if I want to upgrade further I need a new motherboard, which means I basically need a new PC.

XCorvis said:

Nvidia does not offer Vista drivers for their GeForce 4 series, so you're basically out of luck on that front. That you've gotten this far is pretty impressive.

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I've done research online and found some people who got Vista to run on a GeForce4, but none of their tricks have really worked for me. They've basically said that XP drivers often work in Vista (which I find weird, but hey, whatever works). I've tried drivers that install, but none of them have recognized my second monitor or have been able to correctly identify the resolutions that my main monitor is capable of.

XCorvis said:

We know the ethernet card works, so it's probably a driver or detection issue. I'd yank the card from the hardware manager, reboot, pop into the bios, disable the card (if you can) or physically remove it (again, if you can), boot into XP, reboot again, re-enable/re-insert the card and cross your fingers. I'd also hit the manufacturer for updated drivers, or even firmware if they have it.

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I uninstalled the card from Device Manager and reinstalled it, I've rolled back the driver in Device Manager, and I've pulled out the CD that came with my computer and put all my drivers back to the version that came with the computer (stupid thing can only do all of them at once, which means I'll have to fix my sound card AGAIN at some point... I hope I saved those drivers so I don't have to search again). Neither of those worked. I feel like a newer driver probably won't help because I KNOW the driver on the CD works, and that CD has helped me recover from driver issues before.

I'll try completely yanking/disabling the card this weekend, and maybe I'll go for drivers from their website, too, but I don't have high hopes for those.

drothgery said:

Just as an FYI here, you can get PCI versions of some relatively modern cards; NewEgg shows a Radeon HD2450 for $65, and a GeForce 6200 for $45.

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Eh, if I'm going to buy a new video card I'll just go with a whole new computer. Like I said earlier, most of the pieces in my PC are at the point where the technology used has begun to fall by the wayside. Instead of upgrading to the limits of my PC's technology I'd rather get a new machine that has more chance of being upgraded in the future.

I can afford a new machine, I was just hoping I'd get some more life out of this one. Honestly, at this point I'm kinda hoping that I can't get my video card or ethernet card working again so I have an excuse to buy a new one. But I am trying to save money so Awayfarer and I can buy a house someday, so I'm gonna make every reasonable effort to get one or both working before I start shopping.

Thanee said:

Well, I don't think running Vista on a computer that old is a good idea; it's quite resource-hungry.

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My computer can handle it, aside from the video card. It's a very nice old computer, which is another reason I don't want to buy a new one, but like I said above, I'm getting tired by being thwarted by older-style technologies. I wanna play Oblivion and Spore, damnit.

I would get a whole new computer, no question. If that's the technical question - that's my technical advice.

Mind you - that response is divorced from the larger issue of money and if you can afford it.

Which, I suppose, is the unspoken real issue.

Ok, that computer certainly seems powerful enough to handle Vista. I had something less beefy (and with less RAM especially) in mind.

I can afford a new machine, I was just hoping I'd get some more life out of this one.

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And why would you need Vista for that?

Bye
Thanee

Thanee said:

And why would you need Vista for that?

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Because it's shiney. I use Vista Business at work and I've found that there are a lot of things about it that I like. Plus I wanted to see what my machine could with a 64-bit OS, though I know it wouldn't affect individual programs as much.

I was given this copy of Vista for free and decided to try it out, thinking I'd be able to go back to XP if it didn't work or if I didn't like it. Then something I did ate my network card in XP and that got me all frustrated. I wounded my working OS by installing an OS that was already lame on my machine. I probably could've gotten another year or two out of this machine if I hadn't fiddled with it so much, but I didn't think I was going to permanently harm anything.

Now that I have wounded it I'm considering just shooting this old horse and getting a brand new filly instead of trying to nurse it back to health.

Steel_Wind said:

Mind you - that response is divorced from the larger issue of money and if you can afford it.

Which, I suppose, is the unspoken real issue.

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I can afford it... the real question I'm dealing with is if I want it more than I want a house in a few years.

Well, you could buy a reasonable computer for like $500-$800, not the best that is available (and totally overpriced), that shouldn't hurt your building plans too much, while giving you a shiny new machine that can fully handle Vista.

Bye
Thanee

I'm probably going to start doing some comparison shopping this weekend to see how cheap I can put my own PC together.

I know a new computer won't put too much of a dent in my long-term plans, but I've been doing a lot of spending lately (mostly becasue I just had an expensive vacation) and have had to cut into my savings a tad. Last month I said, "no more big spending! we're going on a budget!" but then I keep finding reasons to keep spending. ("Well, this is for somebody's birthday. This was because it's our anniversary. All this was from vacation. That's because my computer is breaking down.")

My cashflow has just been going in the wrong direction lately. It'll be a long time before I'm in trouble, but it's not a habit I want to keep. The savings account should be going up, not down. Well, at least my car should be paid off this month... though I'm going to act like I'm still paying it and putting that money into its own "car fund" savings account, so it won't count towards the house. ...But it will be more savings.