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I bought a used Gateway system off of E-Bay. I loaded WIndows 98 on it, and noticed the display looked bad (low resolution). I checked the settings, and it was at 16 Colors. I went to change it, and my only other option was 2 Colors. I looked to see what adapter it was using, and it said "Standard Graphics Adapter (VGA)." I looked at the card itself hoping I could identify it and load the proper drivers. The only identifying marks on it is a sticker on a chip that reads, "Trade Name: Visiontek, Inc. Model Number NVD01.0" I went to the Visionteck web page to see if they had drivers for it. They don't even talk about making standard video cards. It looks like their stuff is all high end graphics cards. I did e-mail their tech support however and ask them. I have gotten no response. There are no FCC markings on the card to determine if it is made by someone else.
I find it hard to believe that in this day and age anyone is making a video card that isn't at least SVGA resolution. Yeah the computer is a little old (450 Mhz), but still even back then I find it hard to believe. The system was listed on E-bay as having 4MB of video RAM. Just looking at the card, I can't tell if that is true or not. Honestly I forgot to see what Windows reported before I replaced the card with an old S3 Virge I had laying around. I find it even harder to believe a VGA card would have 4MB of RAM either. The S3 Virge I put in the system only has 2MB of RAM. By the way, the card is a PCI card. Can anyone shed some light on this?
well can't you ask the seller what kind the video card is it? i am sure he knows.
else just search the model number online and see if you can find any results.
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Get the following free program. It will tell you what hard/software you have on the PC.
It will also tell the serial numbers etc..
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.htmlOne I have not used, but read might be better is from....
www.sisoftware.co.ukPlease post back your results for others to see ('cos you are not the first or last to ask this question).
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For almost any video card, you have to find and load the drivers for it (unless it is one of the few that your version of Windows just happens to have basic drivers for it). For example, Windows ME should recognize the chip set on the card and load basic drivers, while Windows 98 is so old it might not recognize newer chip sets used by AGP cards. All video cards do have BIOS code on them that allow them to be used in 16 color or 256 color mode (under DOS) untill you install the drivers.
NVD010 is listed as a 16Mb video RAM APG card by VisionTek. Maybe a bit old, but they should still have drivers for it. Their site does have a drive download that claims to support all of their video cards????
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Actually the sticker covers three small chips. I peeled it back and the chips are NANYA NT56V1616A0T-7.
I can't ask the seller. Well I could, but it was a company than sells used systems, so they probably don't know anything about specifics of the systems.
I do have Belarc loaded to my primary PC. Didn't think about loading it on the Gateway and see what it tells me. Will try it.
I did try the driver from the Vision Tek site that says it supports all cards. Windows told me those drivers aren't for my card.
Finally, I went to the Gateway web page to see if they had drivers. They allow you to plug in the serial number of your machine, and it will tell you what was originally shipped with it. This assumes the hardware hasn't been changed. But when I tried that, it told me I needed to enable cookies in my browser. I have cookies enabled, but it still tells me they aren't. It will also automatically detect your Gateway system, and analyze it. I don't have the Gateway hooked up right now.
So first I will put the card back in the Gateway. Then I will connect it to the Internet. Then I will try to have the Gateway site detect what I need. Then I will try Belarc if that doesn't work. Will post back how things turn out.
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Jesse,that card is a visiontek nvidia card most likely i have a gateway pc that says same thing .I loaded nvidia detonator driver for it.Im pretty sure you can safely do the same.let us know.
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OK, thanks to macdaddy I got it to work. Here is all that I did.
1. Put card back in computer, connected to the Internet, and went to the Gateway site. I had to download a small application that examined my system, and told me what drivers were outdated. It didn't list anything for the video card, so that was pretty much worthless.
2. With the Gateway hooked to the Internet, and on the Gateway site, tried to plug the serial number in to see what hardware it was originally shipped with. Also had it detect the serial number. Either way, after the serial number was plugged in, it told me I had to enable cookies in my browser. I had my firewall shut down, and IE set to accept all cookies. But it still complained I wasn't accepting them. More worthless then the first step.
3. Downloaded and installed Belarc. Belarc told me the video card was a "Standard PCI VGA" card. Same thing Windows was telling me, so that was worthless.
4. Based on what macdaddy said, I went to the Vision Tek site and downloaded what is supposed to be the latest "Detonator 3" software. I went to change the Graphics Adapter type. Told Windows to look at the files I downloaded, there were a lot of cards listed, but Detonator wasn't one of them. So that may have worked, but I didn't know what card to select.
5. Went to DriveGuide.com and looked for NVIDIA Detonator driver. Found one listed for the Detonator 3. Downloaded the file, it had an excecutable setup program within it. Ran the program, and BAM my card is now working!
NVIDIA had nothing on their web page I could find in regards to a "Detonator." The card is now listed (in both Windows and Belarc) as a "NVIDIA RIVA TNT." It is also listed as having 11 MB of RAM. I believe that, as there is a hand written sticker on it that reads "11 MB." I don't know for sure if it is a NVIDIA RIVA card or not. But the driver works, and I can change the graphics settings in Windows, so I am happy. Only one possible glitch, within about a 15 minute period, my monitor blacked out twice. This only lasted less then a second. Don't know if it is the card, or the monitor. I don't use that monitor much, so it could be either.
Oh also I said before it was a PCI card. Actually it is an AGP card.
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