Videocard Help

[PsychicHeart]

Okay, i opened my device manager today to find that, for some reason, my RIVA TNT2 64 had Problem Code 10, 'This Device Cannot Start'.
I have:
*Uninstalled and reinstalled it
*Downloaded all possible updates and drivers for it
*Looked inside my PC for anything wrong, eg. the card having cracked
*Done basically everything else my troubleshooter tells me.
Does anyone know how i could remedy this, as it is really beginning to annoy me.
Cheers,
Fluke.
PS-Does Counter-Strike (the original CS) require a videocard at all?

[Mr Flibble]

...At a guess, this is just a guess mind you... have you tried disabling any other graphics cards you may have, and your motherboard's onboard graphic's chip?

[PsychicHeart]

1. I don't own any other graphics cards

2. This IS my motherboard's onboard graphics chip.

[Ishmael]

PS-Does Counter-Strike (the original CS) require a videocard at all?

Anything requires a video card. You wouldn't see anything on your screen if you didn't have some excuse of a video card running.

And you're talking about the first Half-Life there, which did run on a 2mb software card. Which still is a graphics card.

[ildu]

He might have an onboard display card that he's not aware of. I'm no expert though, but Riva TNT sounds reaaally old.

[PsychicHeart]

If it helps, here's a screenshot of the error message in the properties:

[TheYak]

The Model 64 and Vanta series were castrated versions of the full-blown TNT 2 chipsets.  IIRC they're from around '97 or so.  There's no reason it shouldn't run HL / CS though. 

Since it's a card (I'm guessing from the convoluted assessments), you could double-check for an onboard graphics chipset that needs to be disabled by checking BIOS or the manual.

In any case, regardless of onboard graphics, there's still a possibility for conflicts.  WinXP's System Information tool might be a good thing to check (Programs/Accessories/System Tools/).  Under there go to Hardware Resources and Conflicts/Sharing and it should list if the device is sharing system resources with another device.  I've had more reliable results from checking the startup sequence screens when the machine boots though.

Another possibility is the driver version.  Was this updated via Windows Update or did you find/install a driver set?  nVidia stopped supporting the TNT2 after their 70.xx release though they've still got older drivers that support it here: Link. 

Why would this suddenly happen? Hard to say, but if a conflict then likely there was a CMOS reset or Windows system file failure, likely due to a crash, hardware failure, or fiddling around with settings. 

For the driver installation -
1) Preferably start in Safe Mode (hit F8 before Windows gets into its loading routine) If you're in safe mode, sometimes you'll find that there are multiple instances of the same device listed under the device manager.  If that's the case, remove 'em.

2) Under Add/Remove programs, check for nVidia drivers and remove any nVidia display driver there.  Since I don't know what driver set you're running, it might be listed as Forceware drivers, Detonator drivers, or TNT2 drivers.  If it asks you to reboot, don't let it yet.

3) Back in the device manager, right-click and choose uninstall (or go to its properties and choose that under the driver tab).

4) It should tell you Windows needs to restart... go ahead.  If the hardware wizard comes up with anything, ignore it, close out the found new hardware windows and otherwise refuse to cooperate with Windows insidious user-friendliness.

5) Run the downloaded installer for the 71.89 or older nVidia forceware drivers, after restart, hopefully the problem's cleared up.