Member Avatar for shintosuru

Hey everybody I have a problem with my video card. Everytime I start certian games it says a 3d accelerator could not be found. Everything worked fine before I installed Windows 2000 Proffesional (I used to have Windows 98).
I have a NVidia Riva TNT 4 Video card.

I tried installing new Nvidia drivers but they said they probably wouldn't be compatibal with my card. Some 3d applications pop up, but they either crash or freeze now after installing the new 3D accelerator drivers.

Also, OpenGL isn't as fast as it used to be.

Anybody got advice for me on how to restore my video card to its original state?

BTW, I installed 128 bit encyption and installed (almost) all of the critical updates to my OS.

If you need more info, I can post more. Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Catweazle

Dani AI

Generated

Short, practical checklist for a Riva TNT card that lost 3D acceleration after an upgrade to Windows 2000.

A few things to gather first: the Display page from Device Manager (driver provider/date, any error flags), the Display tab output from dxdiag (DirectDraw/Direct3D/AGP acceleration status), and any System event-log entries mentioning display/driver failures. These show whether Windows is using a vendor driver or falling back to a software/standard VGA driver.

Suggested troubleshooting steps:

  • Verify AGP support is working. Lack of a chipset/AGP driver or wrong BIOS AGP settings can disable hardware acceleration. Check the motherboard vendor for Windows 2000 chipset/AGP support and try toggling AGP options (FastWrite, AGP rate) in BIOS if stability/acceleration is inconsistent.
  • Confirm OpenGL is using the vendor ICD. In Windows the OpenGL ICD must be registered under the OpenGLDrivers registry key so 3D apps use the hardware DLL instead of a slow software fallback. Back up the registry before inspecting HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers.
  • Do a clean driver removal and reinstall from Safe Mode: remove the display adapter (delete driver from disk if prompted), reboot, then install a legacy NVIDIA driver explicitly listing the Riva/TNT family and Windows 2000 support. Modern installers that refuse to accept the card usually mean the wrong package is being used.
  • Use dxdiag and Event Viewer to confirm acceleration is enabled after the reinstall. If issues persist, swap the card into a second machine (or try a known-good card in this machine) to separate software versus hardware failure.

Context and cautions: was right to look at chipset support; AGP/chipset issues are a common cause. If the card is behaving correctly but performance remains poor, it may simply lack features newer games expect—replacement can be the most practical choice, as noted. Always back up critical data and registry settings before driver/BIOS changes.

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Member Avatar for Member #2466

I'd say spring about 30 bucks for a new video card and put that one only as a backup.

30 bucks will get you a GF4 MX card which will be better than the Riva.

Member Avatar for shintosuru

Are you talking about the GeForce4 MX by nvidia?

Your right, sounds like a good idea.

Member Avatar for Member #2466

yeah...it's not entirely bad...some people think it isn't a good card...but it's a bunch better than the one you got. 30 bucks is pocket change.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

I'd suspect you have neglected to install the motherboard chipset drivers.

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