what video card do I need for my system

Hi

I found out today that my graphics card driver is out of date and courtesy of windows, that it doesn't support WDDM (which I need if I am using Aero in Windows).

Could someone please tell me which card I need that would support WDDM, please. The following are my pc specs:

It is a self build with an Asrock 2Core1333-2.66G Motherboard, PCIE Slot, DDR3, 4GB Memory, Windows 7 Ultimate.

I have 4 internal hard drives and 2 external hard drives.

My current graphics card is a Zotac Geforce 210 1GB DDR3 Synergy Edition.

If any more information is needed please ask.

Thanks for reading and in advance for any help offered.
hedley

without actually doing any research, i think the first thing for you to do is update your graphics driver, and i think you may find your current card does support wddm.

 

get the driver from here :- http://www.geforce.co.uk/drivers

 

Hi terry, thanks for the reply.  Before doing that I should say that I have tried to update my card before now, both through windows update and via NVidia website.  Every time my pc fails to reboot afterward and I have to restore the pc through the repair facility in windows.

 

Yesterday I went looking for the reason why and found that my graphics card is shown in Device Manager as Standard VGA Graphics Adapter, perhaps this is my problem?  How do I get Device Manager to show my graphics card and not the standard one, please?

 

Thank you for your help.

hedley       

sounds like windows is not recognising your video card for some reason, you sure you were trying to install the correct driver from nvidias site before?

 

think first things i'd do is uninstall it from device manager, shutdown the pc

check it is it fitted correctly and any power leads needed are connected. (disconnect pc from power before doing this step and use proper safety procedures, static,etc.)

on startup go into your bios/uefi and see if there is a setting in there to use graphics card and not onboard video.

save and reboot, let windows find it and install it again.

now go to the nvidia site and try the auto detect and see if recognises the card and install the correct driver for you or if you prefer manual select the correct driver making sure it is the correct one for your os 32bit or 64bit.

 

Hi terry, did all of the above, even replaced the power lead.  The graphics card is in the pcie slot and the bios are set for the pcie slot as primary slot..but….

 

when I installed the driver a message came up on the screen from Nvidia that 'This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware'.

 

Now when I turn the pc on all I have is endless reboots because it won't boot since the driver was installed and it keeps going into startup repair which says a bad driver is to blame for the non start.

 

When I choose system restore, I don't have enough restore points to choose a good restore point from to get me out from under the driver install.

 

Any other ideas I could try?  I don't know any command prompts myself if there's anything like that to get out, but at the moment, all that's left is a reinstall of windows.

 

Thanks again for the help.

hedley

tap f8 on power on to get into safe mode, then uninstall the device again and let windows find and install the correct driver on reboot.

 

once started go into device manager and see if it is still listed as Standard VGA Graphics Adapter.

 

exactly what driver did you try and install? 32bit? 64bit? and how did you install it? manually or let nvidia find and install the correct driver?

 

 

always uninstall old drivers before installing new ones :- http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/IO_13955.html

 

i found this topic that seems to suggest it is a ram memory problem when using nvidia driver causing the no boot, seems it works fine for some if they remove a certain ram stick :- https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/458727/windows-7-32-bit-freezing-with-geforce-210-drivers-installed/?offset=15

 

what power supply do you have in that pc? thinking about people saying running less ram solved their problem made me think it sounds like a power problem to me, so started wondering if maybe it's a weak psu that is causing your problems when running the nvidia driver.

Hi terry,
Thanks for the reply and for that tip to get back into windows to take out the driver.

I installed the driver from the disc supplied with card. When that didn't work, I uninstalled it and I tried installing from the link you gave on your first answer. Nvidia gave the same answer after trying to install the latest driver from the website.

After reading those links you gave in your last post, it would seem that the GT210 causes a lot of problems for a lot of people. My PSU is Earthwatts 380. In fact, the following are my pc specs:

Asrock 2CORE1333-2.66G Socket 775 Motherboard Bundle including E2140 Overclocked to 2.66GHz
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY
Antec Black NSK4480B ATX/MATX Mini Tower - With 380W EarthWatts PSU.

When I restarted the pc, windows tried to install the Nvidia GT210 driver from windows update, but a message came upon screen that said

'Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it - NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - The required line was not found in the INF'.

Maybe I should just try another type of card?

Thanks again for the help.
hedley

make sure you completely removed all traces of old nvidia drivers and then try again, see if this helps you do that :- http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/358664-33-uninstall-nvidia-drivers

 

Hi terry, thanks for the reply.

 

Ok, did all that.  Now I have a new quandary.  Having done all that and installed the latest driver from NVidia website using the automatic search, everything went fine until I restarted the pc.  It wouldn't restart. It went into startup repair again.

 

So I did f8 and took out the driver and took everything else out with Revo Uninstaller Pro which I have installed on my pc.  When I restarted the pc windows started to install the Geforce 210 from windows update and this time it installed ok, until I restarted the pc.  Again it wouldn't restart and went into startup repair.

 

Now my dilemma is every time I get into windows, the GeForce 210 is downloaded from windows update and so begins the endless circle.  I've done it 4 times already.  I tried hiding the update, stopping windows update service before restarting the pc, but to no avail.  It seems this card definitely does not agree with something in my pc, or just my pc.

 

Could you please advise where I go from here, short of changing the card?

 

Thanks again for the help.

hedley

first question is did you let it complete the startup repair? maybe windows has some corrupted files that only show up when using the nvidia driver so needs to be repaired.

 

so that would be my first suggestion, see if it will complete the repairs (may take a long time.) and start up normally.

 

Hi terry, so just ran through it all again and startup repair said 'Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically' and the pc wouldn't start without using f8, safe mode and taking out the driver again.

Now when I reboot, I have Video controller (VGA compatible) in Device Manager with a yellow exclamation mark beside it and the Geforce 210 update has disappeared from windows update.

The startup repair log said a bad driver was the problem signature for the non-start. Local ID 1033, if that is any help.

What should I try next, please.

Thanks for the help.
hedley

sorry but the only thing i can think of at the moment is to try older versions of the nvidia driver and see if 1 of them installs and works correctly with your card.