fx5200 issues with windows 7

[MSlv]

I have installed windows 7 professional (x86) on my very old home PC and while most of the process completed flawlessly, i ran into a couple of problems with the graphics card.

The drivers were quickly installed through WU, but I realised that there was no nvidia control panel to be found. I searched everywhere for it, but there was no right-click menu option, no tray icon, not even a start menu entry.

So I can't make any changes to 3d settings or other stuff that can be modified in the nvcp. But that wasn't really an issue as the pc is too old for gaming.

If you can't remember my specs, i have an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (2 GHz, single core), 512 ram, PCIe version of nvidia fx5200 with 256mb, and an ASRock nforce3 MB (i previously had a Gigabyte one but it broke and this is all i could find for my cpu).

Limited mostly by the low ram, i turned off most of the settings visual effects, that means no aero and transparency, almost no animation or transitions or other really useless stuff, leaving only:

show thumbnails instead of icons
show window contents while dragging
smooth edges of screen fonts
use visual styles on windows and buttons

the biggest problem that bugs me is screen tearing. And it is really bad. it's everywhere. I move something a bit faster that snail speed and it tears. I watch a movie (wmp standard settings, no codesc installed) and unless the picture is static, it tears.

i tried enabling aero and transparency, and it seems to somehow enable vsync, but when watching a movie it still happens.

what could be the problem with the tearing? why doesn't nvidia control panel get installed? the same thing happens with the drivers from nvidia's site (the old betas for the vista beta). is there anything i can do? i don't care about 3d settings, i just want to get rid of all the tearing when in desktop or while watching video.

 

[MSlv]

update: i uninstalled the display adapter, restart, install from windows update and finally found the nvcpl hidden deep inside the control panel (had to switch to another view, the default one makes it impossible to find anything). I went through my usual settings (max anisotropic, device controlled AA, vsync on + triple buffering, and some other stuff), but i was limited to only 3d settings and another one for secondary display. oh well, no biggie.

but even with vsync forced on and triple buffering, screen tearing is just as present as before. Is 7 overriding my vsync settings for desktop? And if so, is there a registry entry to enable or force vsync?

I know that when i enable transparency screen tearing is minimal (still there, but more than acceptable) in desktop, but it's still strong when watching a video (full screen or windowed, no difference whatsoever).

I didn't get the chance to play with ffdshow yet, but i don't think this is a codec-related issue... And transparency (+aero) is a bit too much for my 512 mb ram (dwm jumps to over 15 mb from ~700 kb with it enabled, and that's a precious bit of memory)

any help would bring forward all the greatfulness it deserves.

 

[lazycamel]

All I can unhelpfully say, having problems with GeForce 5200 / Windows 7 / making anything work, and having researched this extensively on the internet, is that it appears there are lots of people with completely inexplicable GeForce 5200 problems out there.

 

[squall leonhart]

update: i uninstalled the display adapter, restart, install from windows update and finally found the nvcpl hidden deep inside the control panel (had to switch to another view, the default one makes it impossible to find anything). I went through my usual settings (max anisotropic, device controlled AA, vsync on + triple buffering, and some other stuff), but i was limited to only 3d settings and another one for secondary display. oh well, no biggie.

but even with vsync forced on and triple buffering, screen tearing is just as present as before. Is 7 overriding my vsync settings for desktop? And if so, is there a registry entry to enable or force vsync?

I know that when i enable transparency screen tearing is minimal (still there, but more than acceptable) in desktop, but it's still strong when watching a video (full screen or windowed, no difference whatsoever).

I didn't get the chance to play with ffdshow yet, but i don't think this is a codec-related issue... And transparency (+aero) is a bit too much for my 512 mb ram (dwm jumps to over 15 mb from ~700 kb with it enabled, and that's a precious bit of memory)

any help would bring forward all the greatfulness it deserves.

Driver level Vsync is not enforceable on Windows 7 and Vista for D3D applications. You need to hook directx prior to launching the api and enable it, which is done by D3DOverride. It is bundled with RivaTuner.