Nvidia Riva 128/128ZX

[schultzm]

I have an IBM Aptiva 2164 732 which has just been upgraded from Windows ME to XP. I understand from Nvidia that there is no XP drivers for this video card. At present the video output is being driver at very low resolution.

Is there any chance that I can get this card working or should I siply buy one that supports XP?

[hiredgoonz]

Have you run Windows Update to see if M$ has updated drivers? I would be surprised if they didn't...they still update voodoo drivers...

[schultzm]

Nvidia say:-

There are not drivers for the Riva 128 under Windows XP. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

The Riva 128/128ZX was the first video card we made. Following the Riva 128, we decided to move to a unified driver architecture so that we could continue to provide driver updates through a single unified driver. Unfortunately, because this came after the release of the Riva 128, we were not able to include this into our unified driver architecture.

Microsoft say:-

The Microsoft Hardware Compatibility list @ www.microsoft.com/hcl and find that the device is listed as being compatible, however only for basic functionality as you have found.

Drivers are written and supplied by the hardware manufacturer concerned and not Microsoft.

In this instance you will need to contact the hardware manufacturer regarding the availability of Windows XP compliant drivers and their installation and use under Windows XP.

If they are unable to provide any suitable drivers then you would need to address their support policy to the company concerned.

[saphalline]

In cases like this, we need to try a little thing called third-party program support. ;) In this particular case, a nice shareware program called Powerstrip (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm) whose usefullness I'm just coming to realize. :cool:

Overclocking, forcing refresh rates, adjusting color schemes for each application/game you run, and yes even providing a way to change your resolution and color depth - all for only 627KB of downloading time. The very best way to keep "obsolete" video hardware functioning. :D Heck, this program knows more about what my monitor is capable of than I do! And I'm still trying to figure out how it knows the size of my monitor's glass tube - a ballpark figure but nevertheless it's just a program! How can it see it?? :confused:

[hiredgoonz]

I would put the money you could spend on powerstrip towards a new video card...not trying to say anything bad about it, but I doubt you're going to see much of an improvement just by using powerstrip.