Windows 7 Doesn't Detect nVidia Graphics Card

Hello, I recently performed a clean install of Windows 7 x64 Ultimate onto my computer. While doing so, I had to unplug my graphics card and use the onboard video, otherwise I'd get an error about unexpected restarts.

After installing, Windows 7 doesn't detect the graphics card (the card works, but it doesn't show up under the device manager and I can't install nVidia drivers). If I use the BIOS to switch to onboard video, then that shows up on the device manager and works fine, but I use this PC for gaming so I'd prefer to use the video card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Graphics Card - nVidia 9600 GT
Motherboard - ASUS M2NPV-VM
CPU - AMD 64 4800+
RAM - 3GB

Which drivers did you try, these?
NVIDIA DRIVERS 196.21 WHQL
Also, did you try running windows updates afterwards, specifically "optional" updates?

What indications do you get when you try to install the drivers? Also verify that your slot isn't bad. You might want to try to reseat the card just in case and verify there's power to the card.

Having to remove the card to install Windows 7 is a bad sign. Win7 has native drivers for your card. The problem either lies in the BIOS not turning off the onboard video, the card not getting enough power through the pci-e power connector or your system memory isn't stable.

Rik55 said:

the card not getting enough power through the pci-e power connector .

Click to expand...

Actually a good point here..whats your power supply rated?

Desslok said:

Rik55 said:

the card not getting enough power through the pci-e power connector .

Click to expand...

Actually a good point here..whats your power supply rated?

Click to expand...

Antec 350W SmartPower. I know that's not great, but the card worked under XP.

I guess I'll try poking around the BIOS a little, but I set the output to PCI-E and the onboard video seems to be off.

Edit: I don't know if this is relevant, but the onbard video shows up under the device manager when I switch the BIOS to the onboard video.

Staple Head said:

at minimum in device manager under display adapters you should see standard vga. you may simply need to make sure your onboard video is off in the bios, go into windows uninstall the standard vga, if asked to uninstall the drivers tell it yes, restart. in most cases this should fix the problem. make sure after this if it fixes your problem and you deside to update the drives make sure you use the 162.21 drivers and not the 162.75. i do not know if this is just a problem with win 7 and nvidia cards or if it is a problem in general with win 7 and video cards, but i do know i am seeing this problem a lot. i have even run into it on a couple of clean installs.​

Click to expand...

DMonkey08 said:

Desslok said:

Rik55 said:

the card not getting enough power through the pci-e power connector .

Click to expand...

Actually a good point here..whats your power supply rated?

Click to expand...

Antec 350W SmartPower. I know that's not great, but the card worked under XP.

I guess I'll try poking around the BIOS a little, but I set the output to PCI-E and the onboard video seems to be off.

Click to expand...

go into device manager and check you display adapter.

350W PSU very low for Win7. Did the PSU even have the pci-e power connector to plug into the end of the nvidia 9600

OK, my bad: it turns out I just needed to install the updates I hadn't gotten around to installing yet. Worked perfectly after that. Thanks for your help, though.

Glad it's working.