Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Graphics Card replacement

KenK

Distinguished
Jun 4, 2011
3
0
18,510
Hello,
The NVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphics card has apparently gone bad. What may I replace it with? I am a home user and not a "gamer." Ken
 

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
That depends on how much you want to spend, what graphics card slot you have (AGP or PCI - Note the FX5200 does not appear to have a PCI-E version) and what you do want to use it for (I know, not gaming). You could pick up a replacement FX5200 for around $30. You could go for a GeForce 6200 for around $40. Both of these come in both PCI and AGP flavors. If you have an AGP slot, you could go ATI HD 3xxx or 4xxx series (at a substantially higher cost).

-Wolf sends
 

KenK

Distinguished
Jun 4, 2011
3
0
18,510


Thank youfor responding to my question. Unfortunately I am not a highly educated computer person and so I do not know what type of card slot I have neither do I know the difference between AGP and PCI. Perhaps if you could take the time to educate me a bit, maybe I can come up with the answer. I am looking at the specs of the system (Dell 4600 Series Intel Pentium 4) which is quite old (2003) that I received when I ordered the system. Perhaps its time to order a new system and forget trying to fix this one.

By the way, my problem only occurs when I am on-line. Does that tell you something? Anything you can advise me on would be most welcome. Ken
 

mightymaxio

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2009
1,193
0
19,360
If your problem only occurs when your online, that could be alot of different things than your graphics card. When was the last time you reformatted, defragged, or ran a virus/adware/malware/spyware scan? A computer that old will have issues browsing the internet because of how demanding of hardware the internet is these days. Such as you would be getting near 100% CPU usage if you open up a few tabs or even tried to play a youtube video.

Personally i would replace the computer if it is that old because the amount of money you would be investing to fix it might not be worth it if you can find a much faster computer for 200-300$.
 

KenK

Distinguished
Jun 4, 2011
3
0
18,510
I apologize for not being more detailed. At the outset, the screen goes blank and then restores a couple of times. Ultimately I get a screen that is completely without color and contrast; it contains a panel that tells me we have a serious computer problem and that I should address a problem with my video device driver. It goes on to say that "You received this message because a hardware devie in your computer caused Windows to shut down unexpectantly and restart. This is a serious problem, commonly referred to as a 'stop error' or 'blue screen.' "

It further intstructs me to check for thje most current driver for my video card which I did, downloaded and installed it, but the problem continues. Does this help you? I am open to getting a new system if that is the best course of action but I am also open to other options. Thank you for your response and inquiry. Ken
 


Glad to se you realize this -- seeing that you've suggested

I would look for a cheap 8800GT/9800GT. What power supply do you have?
Only a couple left it says.

when the system in question does not have a PCI-e slot suggesting that they buy a PCI-e card as a replacement is equally useless !


@ KenK -- From the system manual for your system ( HERE )- it seems your system has an AGP slot available as well as 2 open PCI slots --- so you could get an AGP or PCI video card if that is indeed the problem -- but first we would need to know more about what the problem is to determine if indeed it is the video card or something else (Since you say the problem only occurs when online that would suggest something other than the video card is the problem) -- The FX5xxx series cards do have shader implementation problems that cause problems running some programs that use them so it might be a video card problem but it also could be numerous other things so giving any suggestions for replacement cards at this point would be useless. Can you provide a bit more information on what the problem is and when it occurs etc.

In the meantime you might try installing the final WHQL version of drivers that Nvidia released fo the FX series cards (since they had some tweaks done to the implementation of some of the shaders to score better benchmark scores than they should there are sometimes problems using newer drivers that were not specifically made for these cards so it might help ( Download Link for Forceware release 95 version96.8 )
 

mightymaxio

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2009
1,193
0
19,360
Well if he wanted to upgrade the card chances are the power supply is about a 150-200 watt one that dells use from that era. I have 2 of those computers collecting dust doing nothing. If he were to find a AGP card, it may be hard to accommodate the graphics card with the power supply in his computer.

Even if you did upgrade the power supply, the chances of finding one that fit in that case are really slim because back then dell made all the power supplies proprietary, i cant even fit a generic ATX power supply in one of them plus depending on which motherboard dell provided you, it may have a dell specific Motherboard power connector which are the 10 pin ones.

My experience with upgrading anything with computers older than 8 years is to junk the computer scrap the parts and get a new computer.

Now on to solving your problem, I would try and use a registry cleaner such as CCleaner, Or Glary Utilities to see if you have some left over registry problems from an old Nvidia Driver.

To diagnose the problem further i need the following:
1) What webpages are you on when it bluescreens?
2) Are you playing videos on the internet when this happens?
3) Does it automatically restart the computer when this happens? or does it just stop and not do anything?
4) What service pack of windows XP do you have? Anything less than 3 will have problems on the internet because of updates and patches.
5) Do you use IE? and if so what version? anything below 7-8 is not supported and will have issues on the internet.
6) Do you have an antivirus installed? And if so how often do you scan/update?
7) When did this start happening?
8) How often do you physically clean out the computer? Built up dust on the CPU and Graphics card fans can cause bluescreens due to overheating. Which is likely on a computer that old.


Thanks,
Hope this aids in your solution
 


Followed the conversation just fine including his post before yours mentioning the system that he has so no crystal ball needed ! -- and evidently it was you having trouble following the conversation if after he posted the system you felt the need to suggest a PCI-e card as a replacement (which could give him the feeling that it was what he needed since as he also mentioned he is not that up on what he has so making a suggestion and then also saying only a few left might cause him to rush and buy something he has no chance of using.) -- and if you were waiting for him to tell you if he had AGP or PCI where does the suggestion to buy PCI-e even enter the convo ??
 
JD, I think your under the impression that I care what you think. I assure you I don't.

I simply suggested a good deal, on a card that would be a good match for his system. If he can't determine what slot he has, then he can't get either until he figures it out.

Nobody can help someone that can't help themselves. He still has not even told us a single thing about this problem that he's asking us for a solution too, so who knows if he even needs a video card.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

Thanks for your slightly educated knowledge, I'm sure he appreciates it.

 

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
@JDFan and GeekApproved
Might I suggest you put your differences aside and focus on the problem at hand, please?

@KenK
To be honest, from your description, it is very difficult to state what the problem could be. It sounds like it's a driver issue, but installing newer drivers should have resolved the issue. Of course, driver issues don't always resolve themselves by installing new ones.

Based on the specifications of your system, it looks like you have an integrated graphics chipset on that system. If this is the case, the first thing I would do is uninstall the FX5200 and connect your monitor to the on-board graphics port. Does this resolve your issue?

If it does, then we've narrowed the issue down to either graphic drivers or hardware. If not, then we need to look at it as a system corruption in which we may need to do a format and re-installation of the operating system.

BTW - This Tom's Hardware thread contains an image of the Dell 4600 motherboard. As WR2 states in that thread, the three white slots are PCI and the aqua colored slot is your AGP slot.

Additionally, I found out that there actually is a PCI-E version of the FX5200, but I think that's irrelevant at this point. Please confirm that your motherboard's expansion slots match the ones in the image on the other thread. Then report back if your system operates normally when the monitor is connected to the on-board graphic chipset.

If your system did not come with an on-board chipset (only had the FX5200 to connect the monitor to), Then I'd go straight to a complete uninstall and re-install of the card and drivers.

Go to http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us and download the latest drivers for your FX5200 graphics card, but do not install them, yet.
Boot your system into safe mode.
In Device Manager, expand the Display Adapters tree to show your FX5200.
Double click the graphics card to bring up the Properties page.
Click on the Drivers tab and click the Uninstall button.
This *should* correctly remove the drivers for your graphics card from the system.
When complete, reboot your system, allowing it to boot normally.
Your system *should* find the graphics card and see it as new hardware. It will attempt to install the drivers automatically. Cancel this operation. Then navigate to where you saved the previously downloaded drivers and install those.
Reboot your system once again and see if your problem has been resolved.

-Wolf sends