No video card in device manager at all

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael C
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael C

How can I install drivers for my VGA card if the card is not listed in
Device Manager at all. There's no driver there, no exclamation mark,
nothing. It's not there in safe mode and it makes no difference if I boot up
in VGA mode. I can't install drivers without an entry in device manager and
if I run the ATI installer it just quits without warning. Any suggestions?
The PC wouldn't boot so I had to do a repair install but the VGA card was
working fine before all this.

Thanks for any replies,
Michael
 
Michael said:
How can I install drivers for my VGA card if the card is not listed in
Device Manager at all. There's no driver there, no exclamation mark,
nothing. It's not there in safe mode and it makes no difference if I boot up
in VGA mode. I can't install drivers without an entry in device manager and
if I run the ATI installer it just quits without warning. Any suggestions?
The PC wouldn't boot so I had to do a repair install but the VGA card was
working fine before all this.

Thanks for any replies,
Michael
Click to expand...

How is the OS going to display the desktop, unless there is a
path to get to the video ? There has to be an entry there
somewhere, which corresponds to your "VGA" display.

To give you an example of a thing that can happen, my sound
card has one PCI bus pin that doesn't make good contact.
When that happens, there is an "unknown" device, and the
existing driver is unhappy it cannot find hardware.

Your card could have suffered a similar fate. It no longer
identifies itself properly (for whatever reason). If the
VID and PID no longer match the driver, there is no reason
for the driver to load or be happy. If the card is still
able to be enumerated (indicates it is a "video" class
device), then the Windows OS may be able to use a default
VGA driver with it. There should be some sign, somewhere
in Device Manager, that something like that has happened.

You can also try Everest, for a second opinion. But interpreting
the results here, will be every bit as difficult as doing
it in Device Manager. There may be an "unknown" entry in
Everest, and that might point to your card. You can use a
pci.ids file from the Internet, to decode a truly "unknown"
card, or discover from the known entries, which bus bit is
no longer making good contact.

(Everest Free Edition)
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

If the card was really broken, there are plenty of things
that would have failed along the way, such that you wouldn't
be sitting in Windows right now. Even if all acceleration
features on the card died, Windows still needs the address
of the frame buffer, so it can draw the desktop. So it
knows it is using something, to render video.

The BIOS would not start either, if it thought the video
was dead. So the BIOS must have used available enumeration
info, to render the startup screens properly. Otherwise
the BIOS would beep the "missing video" error. Both the
BIOS and the OS, currently know of some "video" class
device.

Paul
 
Paul said:
How is the OS going to display the desktop, unless there is a
path to get to the video ? There has to be an entry there
somewhere, which corresponds to your "VGA" display.
Click to expand...

Nope, there is definately no entry in device manager. It is quite simply not
there.
To give you an example of a thing that can happen, my sound
card has one PCI bus pin that doesn't make good contact.
When that happens, there is an "unknown" device, and the
existing driver is unhappy it cannot find hardware.
Click to expand...

There is no unknown device, there is no yellow exclamation mark. The vga
driver in any form is simply missing. Trust me I have looked for it at least
20 times, if it was something that simple I wouldn't be asking the question
here.
Your card could have suffered a similar fate. It no longer
identifies itself properly (for whatever reason). If the
VID and PID no longer match the driver, there is no reason
for the driver to load or be happy. If the card is still
able to be enumerated (indicates it is a "video" class
device), then the Windows OS may be able to use a default
VGA driver with it. There should be some sign, somewhere
in Device Manager, that something like that has happened.

You can also try Everest, for a second opinion. But interpreting
the results here, will be every bit as difficult as doing
it in Device Manager. There may be an "unknown" entry in
Everest, and that might point to your card. You can use a
pci.ids file from the Internet, to decode a truly "unknown"
card, or discover from the known entries, which bus bit is
no longer making good contact.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a hardware problem because it worked before I had to do
the repair install.
(Everest Free Edition)
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a go tonight.

Michael
 
kony said:
See if the ATI installer left a report file, possibly in
your /windows/temp folder somewhere.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will have a look.
Read ATI's release notes for requirements of their
installer. Shut down other background tasks while
installing the driver including antivirus/etc.

It seems possible your windows(?) installation is damaged
still, what was the prior problem leading up to your need to
do a repair install.
Click to expand...

When booting it would stop with a message claiming a certain folder was
missing. It wasn't one of the big ones (eg system32!) but something it
needed.
You wrote that it wouldn't boot but is
there anything in particular you suspect as leading to that
situation?
Click to expand...

It's my nephew's computer so anything could have happened. He says it just
started doing it. Maybe he deleted the folder himself or maybe the disk got
faulty or possibly he was turning it off without shutting down.

I have now got it to the stage where the VIA 4-in-1 drivers are claiming to
be not installed correctly but reinstalling them doesn't help. I might have
to uninstall them and try again. I'm going to do a full reinstall soon, it
only takes an hour and all problems are solved. :-)

Michael
 
Michael C said:
How can I install drivers for my VGA card if the card is not listed in
Device Manager at all. There's no driver there, no exclamation mark,
nothing. It's not there in safe mode and it makes no difference if I boot
up in VGA mode. I can't install drivers without an entry in device manager
and if I run the ATI installer it just quits without warning. Any
suggestions? The PC wouldn't boot so I had to do a repair install but the
VGA card was working fine before all this.

Thanks for any replies,
Michael
Click to expand...

What happens if you right click on the desktop and do Properties. In the
settings tab, what graphics card is listed - this should match the device
manager, so it will be interesting to hear what is listed in the display
properties. Also, what resolutions will it let you select?
 
Michael C said:
How can I install drivers for my VGA card if the card is not listed in
Device Manager at all. There's no driver there, no exclamation mark,
nothing. It's not there in safe mode and it makes no difference if I boot
up in VGA mode. I can't install drivers without an entry in device manager
and if I run the ATI installer it just quits without warning. Any
suggestions? The PC wouldn't boot so I had to do a repair install but the
VGA card was working fine before all this.
Click to expand...

In the device mangler, go to the View menu and show hidden devices. You
might find it that way.

Also, in Add/Remove programs, are there any drivers listed there that you
can use to repair or uninstall?
 
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