Bizarre video card problem.

[Xine]

Alright, I'll try to explain this as best I can. I'll give you specs first:

OS: Windows XP Pro
Ram: 512
Processor: AMD Athlon 1.8 ghz
Bios: American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T
Motherboard: MSI MS-6380E
Chipset: VIA Technologies Inc. VT8366 (Apollo KT266)
Video card: nVidia GeForce 4 MX 400 AGP 64 mb
Integrated graphics: Yes
(Yes, I know it's an old system. It's my older machine. )

I'm already personally aware that my BIOS is outdated and I'm in the process of updating it, but I can't seem to wrap my head around this problem, at least as I understand it now. I can't quite remember when, or how it happened since I'm on my other, newer machine more than this one, but my video card reverted to an older model. Under display settings for the adapter, it says my GeForce 4 is a VisionTEK Vanta/Vanta LT. I've never even heard of that adapter, and I have no idea why it's saying that's what it is.

I've tried installing all kinds of nVidia drivers for the card, but to no avail, this Vanta business won't go away. It's an AGP card by the way, and originally it had 64 mb's of ram, but now that it's saying it's a Vanta card it's only enabling it to run with 8 mb of video memory. That's harsh. There's integrated graphics on this board as well, and when I went into the BIOS I didn't see anything that enabled me to turn it off, so updating my BIOS is a must. For now, I just want to see if any Tech Gods could shed some light on this before I do so.

I also have a newer video card (GeForce 6800) I'd like to install on this machine, but I'm not going to bother with it until I fix the current problem with the card that's already in it. I can't even disable integrated graphics, so I'll need to do that first. Anyway, take your best shot and good luck. I apologize for the length, but I want to be as clear as possible from the beginning. Thanks for your time.

EDIT:

Hmm. I uninstalled the current drivers and found something interesting. When I click to view the adapter under settings, then go into Properties and under the Resources tab it lists it as 'VgaSave'. There's a conflicting device list as well ... So, I suppose I answered my own question. Now, I pose another one. How do I go about fixing these conflicting devices so I can get my true video card back? This is the conflicting devices list:

CONFLICTING DEVICES:
Input/Output Range 03B0 - 03BB used by:
VIA CPU to AGP Controller
Input/Output Range 03C0 - 03DF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP Controller
Memory Range 000A0000 - 000BFFFF used by:
VIA CPU to AGP Controller

EDIT:

Just noticed that even though I have an AGP card, it's saying it's located on a PCI slot. Is that because of onboard graphics?

 

[Xine]

Geeze. Over three hours. Would it help if I dusted off my paypal account?

 

[gaara]

First thing would be to go into the device manager and make sure all of your components are working properly. It's really easy to tell what is what since any devices with problems will have an exclamation mark beside them

Most hardware conflicts deal with IRQ conflicts, and unfortunetely all IRQs are assigned permanetely and automatically by Windows and the only way to change them manually is to reinstall Windows with the HAL

Therefore in your situation the best thing to do is make sure said conflicting devices are not important to your system, and disable them...and then update all drivers. Obviously updating the BIOS is a given so you can disable your intergrated sound

So go through the device manager and disable the conflicting devices and update drivers and that should hopefully fix the problem

 

[Xine]

Hmm. Good call. Would it be a good idea to do this before or after I flash the BIOS? By the way, Bleach and Naruto own.

EDIT:

Hmm, not sure if it's relevant or not, but for the time being I installed the default drivers and under the Vanta title for Resources it's saying there are no conflicts. Strange ..

 

[gaara]

Well I'm thinking that Vanta is your intergrated video chip or whatever...I dunno your motherboard features so I wouldn't know for sure though

That's why I suggest disabling from the BIOS so that you can use your AGP card

 

[Xine]

Yeah, the Vanta is the integrated chip. I wonder if downloading the latest AGP drivers would have an effect. Thanks for your input.