Vista Graphics Card Troubles

April 29, 2007 4:28 AM

Graphics card problems with Vista

I successfully installed Windows Vista (Home Premium) on a 3-year old Dell Dimension 2400 PC with an Intel 845g integrated graphics card, however the graphics suck -- it will only show decent colors in 640x480 and when I look at the details of the graphics driver it says "standard VGA adapter".

Tried installing the driver from the disk that came with the PC and it gets an unknown error and doesn't work. Also tried installing it in XP compatibility mode, no dice.

My twofold question: 1) Any other way to get better graphics out of this card on Vista? I don't even need Aero, I'd be happy with just decent quality in 1024x768! 2)If I'm screwed with this graphics card, I've seen some cheap ones that people have had good luck with using on Vista, but since my current card is "integrated", will it be difficult or impossible to replace the card?

posted by mattholomew to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Looks like you may be screwed with this graphics card. A quick search of the Intel website brings up very little Vista driver support.

As far as upgrading your graphics card, you won't need to "replace" the integrated graphics by physically removing anything. You will just add the additional card and it will take precedence over the integrated graphics. If you have any problem, you should be able to actually disable the integrated graphics completely from the BIOS menu.

It will be important to find out what type of graphics slot you have for the upgrade. Most any computer can use a PCI graphics card, but if you have a slot for PCI Express x16 or AGP 4x/8x either of those is preferrable.
posted by doomtop at 5:22 AM on April 29, 2007

It sounds as though you're going to have to replace the card, unless you can find a 3rd-party driver somewhere.

This would be a good time to go ahead and get something that can handle Aero, though--cards really aren't that expensive these days, and it would also make your computer run games better, if you're into that.
posted by DMan at 6:39 AM on April 29, 2007

Is there a particular reason you need to run Vista, by the way? The cleanest way to get decent graphics may be to just go back to what was working on XP. Also, if you've got the default 256Mb that this system came with, you're also going to be hurting there.

It may make sense to hold off on the Vista upgrade until your next full hardware upgrade.
posted by bemis at 6:44 AM on April 29, 2007

Thanks all. Looks like I'd better start shopping. The reason I'm trying to run Vista is because my XP installation got hosed and I lost the original disc. I happened to have a friend at Microsoft so I picked up Vista for $40 figuring I'd just go ahead & upgrade.
posted by mattholomew at 7:14 AM on April 29, 2007

I also agree that you should use XP with this old hardware. The problem with upgrading the graphics on hardware this old is that it's very unlikely that it will support PCI Express, meaning you'll have to find an AGP video card (which are becoming more and more rare, it's a dead end technology) or suffer with really slow performance of a PCI card. Especially since it has integrated graphics, there's a high chance it won't even have an AGP slot, and you'll be stuck with PCI. If you just care about 2D, and have no intention of gaming or using Aero Glass, then sure, you can pick up almost any $40 card and it will work fine as long as it has drivers. There is no sense at all at trying to get a decent 3D card in AGP, it would be better to start from scratch.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:11 AM on April 29, 2007

Thanks folks, how can I tell whether I have AGP or PCI?
posted by mattholomew at 8:45 AM on April 29, 2007

"Thanks folks, how can I tell whether I have AGP or PCI?"
posted by mattholomew at 11:45 AM on April 29

There is only one AGP slot on most motherboards, and it is usually nearest the processor, and intentionally offset from the PCI slots. Article with picture links.

Don't spend any more than $50 on an AGP card, if that, as this is a blind alley technology wise. Virtually any new machine you buy will either rely on integrated graphics, or PCIe (which is yet another physical and electrical slot spec from standard PCI).
posted by paulsc at 9:03 AM on April 29, 2007

There is no question that you will have a PCI slot or three available. The question is whether you have a PCIe (PCI Express) slot or AGP slot. PCIe is very different than PCI, don't confuse them. To make matters worse there's also PCI-X but ignore that completely.

To summarize, if you have a PCIe slot, it might make sense to upgrade the video card. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother and go back to XP. You can still upgrade if you want, but it would be mostly a waste of money.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:58 AM on April 29, 2007

This happened to me at first when I loaded Vista, after a crash. I was pretty much in the csame boat as you with OEM CD's. (Fortunately my integrated graphics are ATI, so YMMV but it IS an intel desktop board.) Those intel drivers WILL usually work. You just need to download their latest ones and not use the old ones on the CD.
posted by IronLizard at 11:00 AM on April 29, 2007