nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 64/pro driver issues

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Ho-kay. After setting up broadband on my girlf's computer I thought I'd set about updating everything, as the machine had never had Internet access before. Windows XP updated fine, but when I tried to update the video card's drivers, I hit a snag. The auto-updater claimed there were no new drivers. Since the Device Manager dates the current versions from April 2004, I was sceptical. Sure enough, a quick journey to nVIDIA's website and I found a much newer version: 7.8.0.1 as opposed to 5.6.7.3. Problem was, when I tried to install said driver it claimed I didn't have a compatible piece of hardware for the driver. WTF?

After trying various combinations of things like languages (just in case) I resorted to the last refuge of the damned - Windows "Help and Support". This has suggested I may have a BIOS problem. Yikes! I used to change BIOS in the good ol' DOS days, but trying to do something similar to my old WinMe-based laptop, Edwin, nearly destroyed it. Is it really the BIOS? Can anyone shed some light on the issue? The current driver doesn't seem to work at all correctly; with full acceleration enabled the screen flicker on most games is unbearable. I'm only trying to run IWD2, for Pete's sake!

Any and all suggestions appreciated.

 

If you look in the release notes of the 78.01, you see that the riva tnt 2 is no longer supported by the driver "package". This means that to get the most up to date driver you will have to digg into the driver history untill you encounter a driver that still supports riva tnt2.

I did the following to find this out: I went to the page of the 78.01 and clicked on supported products. There is a link that's supposed to bring you to the page of the driver that still supports it. It will lead you to the page of the 71.89. I suggest you try this one.

The reason I seem hesitant is because the page you get when clicking on the supported devices link is the page for the 71.84. As such, if the 71.89 should fail you, just go back to the page of the 71.89 and replace the 71.89 in the website address with 71.84. This will bring you to the page of the 71.84 which correctly links to its own page of supported devices.

But only do this in extremis, try first the linked to 71.89, trusting the maintainers of the nvidia site know what they're doing. Worst case you will get again the message you get with the 78.01.

There is also good news for you: since they no longer include the tnt2 in more recent drivers, you will never have to worry about updating your video driver anymore.

Also, please post here if the 71.89 is the good driver or the 71.84. It might help other people with their antiquities.

 

Meatdog: after doing some more digging on t'Internet after posting last night, I too found the 71.89 patch. Which is also as much us as a fart in a force-10 gale, giving the exact same error message. So no joy there, either, I'm afraid. However, I hadn't heard anywhere about a 71.84 patch, so I'm going to give that a try now. I'll edit with the results, good or bad...

EDIT: Found the 71.84 patch, and it doesn't work either.

EDIT2: I've managed to find a patch (66.93) that will recognise the graphics card correctly, but Windows claims that the driver is unsigned and will come into my dreams and murder me in my sleep if I install it. Or something. Seriously, is patch likely to work... or not?

[ August 07, 2007, 18:37: Message edited by: The Magpie ]

 

Oh forget about stupid unsigned rubbish. If the driver is good enough to be on Nvidia's website, then it should be good enough for Windows

The driver's probably much older than XP, and MS probably never bothered to certify an older version of the drivers and only went for Nvidia's current ones. In any case do try it and see if it works (from the version number I'd say it should be old enough to support the TNT2).

 

Yup, the only thing that unsigned message is telling you is that the driver was never tested by microsoft. It is however tested by nvidia, or at least is supposed to be, before they put it on the site.

Indeed, the only way to get a driver is to slowly climb up the version numbers to older versions till you hit one that does find your card. I once found on the nvidia site a listing of all the versions of the driver, but I can't seem to find it back.

EDIT: Found the listing. I checked the 66.93, but in its release note it doesn't mention your tnt2 in the list of supported hardware. However, the 61.77 does list it, meaning that even if you can install it with the 66.93, you'll probably only get the same version as is included in the 61.77. I'd suggest you try the 61.77.

[ August 08, 2007, 14:37: Message edited by: Meatdog ]

 

Wow, what a blast from the past. I remember thinking about those poor souls who still had that "pepper" version of TNT2 while I had a real GeForce (the original).

 

Well, the 66.93 driver installed and hasn't melted the computer, so I'd call that a win. Thanks everyone for your assistance.