ProsavageDDR card needed

ronnyp · Dec 16, 2006, 04:34 PM

Can some-one help, my graphics card has gone dead, would appreciate some help as to were I can get another. I am using XP home edition. All I know about driver is what I printed out .
adapter type S3 ProSavage DDR,
adapter ram 32.00 mb (33,554,432 bytes)
installed drivers s3gnb.dll
driver version 6.14.10.0012-13.94.12

Please help some-one

**Grace** · Dec 16, 2006, 04:41 PM

That's one old card...

We need to know your full system specifications if we are to help, however with such an old card in your system the only thing that you can do is look for an old used AGP card. That is, if the card is damaged and it is not a software problem.

Matth · Dec 16, 2006, 05:25 PM

Prosavage? - that sounds like an onboard - if you're lucky, there may be an AGP slot (if so, it appears that it would be a 4x slot capable of accepting current 8x/4x cards), otherwise PCI (not -E) is a last resort.

Lelisevis · Dec 16, 2006, 06:02 PM

The S3 Prosavage DDR is indeed an onboard graphics solution so as for a replacement your out of luck. As suggested above you need to:

a)check for an agp slot on your motherboard
b)buy a pci graphics card
c)buy a new motherboard with integrated graphics but you'll have to let us know what processor (probably a 462 pin microPGA, Socket A) your using so we can offer advice, thats if you want to keep your current stuff.
d) pile a little bit of cash into a full upgrade (cheaper than you'd think).

ronnyp · Dec 17, 2006, 07:45 AM

Cash is a bit of a problem at the moment. What happened is I was working on pc when monitor just went white with very thin black lines running down the screen, I took it into local pc repair shop who charged me £20, he said the graphics card was dead but I could still use the on board graphics. When I use this when I boot up the screen is a very bright greeny colour and you cant read or tell what the icons are, so then I fumble about and do a reboot which gets things running but only with large icons which fill my screen but when I try to alter them the screen just goes a wierd colour again. I cannot afford a system upgrade as Iam disabled and do not work any more.
My system was bought in August 2004 and its a
Tiny Home Office 3200 PRO
Intel (R)
Celeron (R) CPU 2.40 GHz
2.41 GHz, 480 mb of ram
Iam using Win XP home

As you can most prob tell I am not very pc literate

Hope some-one can help

coldfrontt · Dec 17, 2006, 08:09 AM

IF the prosavage is the integrated card, you might try installing these drivers:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...0&SubCatID=112
These are made for the prosavage ddr video card, and should help with the problem. Another problem might be how much memory is allocated to the video card as it is usually shared with the rest of the computer. Too little allocated can lead to reduced capacility of the video card.

ronnyp · Dec 17, 2006, 09:54 AM

as I said the card is no longer in pc as the repairman said it was dead so took it out. Could I take out my hard drive and put it in another pc and still get everything

**Grace** · Dec 17, 2006, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronnyp

as I said the card is no longer in pc as the repairman said it was dead so took it out. Could I take out my hard drive and put it in another pc and still get everything

That card is impossible NOT to be in your PC, as it is part of your motherboard. The repairman did not get anything out, or got out some other card.

coldfrontt · Dec 17, 2006, 10:32 AM

You could do that if you have the windows cd. You would have to run the installation program and select repair instead of new installation and XP should install the new devices on your existing operating system.
Getting a cheap video card for your system is an easier solution if the rest of your system is adequate for your needs.
It's hard to recommend something because I cannot find any info on your system so I don't know if it has an agp slot or not.
Not knowing who's good in the UK, I looked at PCWorld as an example and they have AGP cards starting at 40 pounds. I'm sure there are cheaper to be found.

coldfrontt · Dec 17, 2006, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grace

That card is impossible NOT to be in your PC, as it is part of your motherboard. The repairman did not get anything out, or got out some other card.

God knows what the integrated video is if he did remove the Prosavage. It does sound like the onboard video has probs of it's own.

ronnyp · Dec 17, 2006, 10:38 AM

I have the card in my hand at the moment and there is the blue serial conector on it is an empty slot at the back of pc the slot has got a label saying Monitor

ronnyp · Dec 17, 2006, 10:44 AM

Hi Coldfront, I dont have the windows cd as it came already installed. The system is adequate for my needs, I would get a cheap card if I knew what to look for

coldfrontt · Dec 17, 2006, 10:52 AM

If we don't know which slot the card goes into, it's hard to recommend something. You likely have an AGP slot, so most cards from either ATI or Nvidia-based designs will work. You'll just have figure out your budget. To figure out which slot you use, you need to look inside your case and see if there is a brown slot offset from the row of white ones. If you do have this you can use AGP format video cards, if you only have white slots you need to find a PCI based card (but NOT PCI-e cards).

Matth · Dec 17, 2006, 11:36 AM

So it DID have a card, and also has onboard (ProSavage DDR) graphics.

If the display size and scan rates seems to be corrupted (mis-displayed icons, ripping etc.), try interrupting the boot (immediately after the memory count, begin hammering the "F8" key repeatedly, and if you can catch the menu, cursor key to "Enable VGA mode". Then try to obtain and install the VIA drivers mentioned earlier.

They could be the old method install, unpack somewhere, and then "update driver" ... actually, letting Windows search online for a driver may be worth a try - there should be a usable driver in Windowsupdate for most older graphics solutions, though maybe not the best driver possible.

ronnyp · Dec 19, 2006, 03:23 PM

according to a label on card it says GeForce FX5200 I don't know if it is 128 mb or what so if I was to get another card does it matter what size mb is

coldfrontt · Dec 19, 2006, 08:25 PM

No ronny, but most newer cards will likely be 256mb. The more memory it has the easier it is for the card to process information. It doesn't sound like your a heavy gamer, so the low end of current video cards will likely suffice.(and not kill your budget)

Matth · Dec 20, 2006, 10:24 AM

Size and standard of memory used on a video card, does not matter - you can use a card with DDR on a motherboard that uses SDRAM for system memory, or a card with memory completely different to anything used on any motherboard.

The FX5200 is a really bottom end DX9 card, so pretty well any current card would blow its socks off.

Taking a look around Ebuyer...
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115863/rb/23886387575 or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/104734...rb/23886394196 - Some cheap 6200's

You could get a 5200, but the cheapest of those is about the same as the cheapest of the 6200s, and they are a whole generation behind.

Unless you game, getting the onboard to work properly would probably be enough. Just depends, of course, on what you want it to do - while the 6200 is probably the equal of a midrange FX5xxx series and on a par with the most powerful of the generation before that, it is a pretty weedy card by today's standards, only a little above the best of today's onboards.