On-board is OK GPU(s) doesn't(don't) work

[soup]

Well folks, I have been at this for hours and I am no further forward .

Son has my old system up in his room .

It was losing time so I thought "ah new battery time" had to remove the graphics card to get at the battery, replaced it no more losing time/days etc.

However both this card (MSI's NVIDIA GTX geforce 210) and another (ASUS's GTX 520) are reported in the device manager as default VGA display drivers . 

Have been into the BIOS(well CMOS) several times and changed primary display driver from onboard to pci-e (no automatic detection of a GPU ) have a strong suspision I have actually screwed the PCI-E slot as I have tried restoring, re imaging and then a full nuke and pave using both onboard and the GPUs as outputs .

 

Does the panel think there is any future in reflashing the BIOS or should I just keep this system as a surfing, youtubing, office tasks system using the CPU's on-board graphics rather than trying to let my son play his (pretty much non demanding) games?

[comicsansms]

Have you installed the drivers from http://www.geforce.com/drivers

[LabRat]

i guess this is a legacy bios........... when you removed the battery you reset the cmos ( that's one way of doing it ). so after you reboot into bios you need to look for the vga ( don't remember anymore but can still do it when i'm staring at it ) where it is, but, make it set to PEG/or auto if that's what the option is. then hit F10 and then enter. it will reboot by itself and should work....... try it out.

[soup]

i guess this is a legacy bios........... when you removed the battery you reset the cmos ( that's one way of doing it ). so after you reboot into bios you need to look for the vga ( don't remember anymore but can still do it when i'm staring at it ) where it is, but, make it set to PEG/or auto if that's what the option is. then hit F10 and then enter. it will reboot by itself and should work....... try it out.

 

Pretty sure what you are saying there I have done time and time again (5th line of my OP).

As I say, I think I have physically broken something rather than misconfigured it, ie a hardware rather than a software problem.

Still keep the ideas coming, I am fairly determined not to 'let him down' (chronologicaly he is 21 but mentally he is about ten [learning difficulties/special needs all that]and thinks daddy can do anything with computers) so I will try virtually anything, I just can't see what that thing might be.

[soup]

Have you installed the drivers from http://www.geforce.com/drivers

 

Tried to, kept 'saying' there was a line missing in INF .

[LabRat]

if you're in the device manager you should right click and uninstall both cards. let the machine reboot with whatever card you think works. windows should find it. after that you can install drivers from nvidia.

 

might be a good idea to visit MS updates too.

[soup]

if you're in the device manager you should right click and uninstall both cards. let the machine reboot with whatever card you think works. windows should find it. after that you can install drivers from nvidia.

 

 

 

Tried that (actually what caused the full nuke and pave), the whole system defaulted to a default VGA driver tried reinnstalling the cards not recognised as anything but VGA drivers, however the on-board video came back. Both cards were "not recognised" which leads me to thinking it is not the cards (unusual for them to have the same fault) but the PCI-E slot on the MoBo that is goosed.  Been in the CMOS lots of times looking for anything to do with Graphics the only thing that is in there is this "choose the primary video adapter" option have tried that on "on-board", "PCI-E" and even in desperation "PCI"  but nothing seems to bring the cards back to life.

   Cabling and monitor are fine, card actually passes electricity/minimum signal as they will work as basic VGA devices.

Looks more and more to me that something went far wrong when I changed the battery perhaps I did something (there was no "oh crap" moment.  Battery change went without a hitch) which along with the age of the system broke something on the MoBo which means the PCI-E slot doesn't work properly.

 

Every time I try the latest drivers from NVIDIA I get this error report about a line missing in INF

 

Basically any details I can remember I will post but I tried so many ways to fix it yesterday that it all has sort of merged into one mega session (six hours worth)

 

I think surfing/youtube and basic office tasks it is, just thankful this is a wee third life system, nobodies primary computer.

 

Still does anyone have any wild out there ideas (willing to try just about anything "except incest and morris dancing"   ) just not the urgency there was before, son seemed to take it well when I told him it was actually broken not anything that I could sort.  Perhaps he has one eye turned towards Christmas.

[LabRat]

he's no  fool.....LOL.

 

what motherboard is it?