A video card, also known as a display adapter, graphics accelerator card, or graphics card, is an expansion card for generating and outputting images to a display. Some video cards offer additional functions, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light pen, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors.

The images you see on your monitor are made of tiny dots called pixels but generated by the video card. The video games you play depend strictly on this.

In fact, the video card is equivalent to a micro-computer system. GPU of the video card is like CPU of the host which is a computing device for handling complex graphics transform.

Since it is a dedicated processor optimized for accelerating graphics, it plays a very important role for graphic designers and 3D animators, who tend to require optimum displays as well as faster rendering. Its performance is highly depending on its core frequency and memory frequency. The memory of the video card is used to access and exchange data, whose size is very important on playing games. When playing 3D games, graphics performance will be fully tested. When a monitor can provide a resolution of 1440 × 900, your system will be able to play 3D games. At the same time, the high-definition video decoder of graphics card can easily cope with H.264 and VC -1 encoded video files.

Video hardware could to be integrated on the main board with early computers. The drivers in the CD that you got when you bought the machine are outdated for the current games and video files. In this case, if you want to change the whole board to upgrade the display performance, it is very easy but expensive. Updating video card with a program will save you much money and also be helpful to other driver performance.

Older graphics hardware that does not perform well may have a variety of problems, which can be generally divided into two kinds: crappy connections between independent video card and slots, and incompatibility of graphics card and main board.

1. The loose connection often happens between two places.

First is between the graphics card slot on the main board and the golden finger of the card. It may result in warning prompt or black screen occurring after boot up. If warning prompt or black screen pops up after boot up, we should firstly check the video card slot, for example, removing dust, cleaning the golden finger, checking that whether the card's fixed board is bending, whether the port between golden finger and slot is steady, and whether the screws used to fix video card's board is too loose or too tight. Besides, for the built-in on-board display card, if black screen or crashes happens, we should also check whether the memory bank is plugged in the first memory slot tagged DIMM 1.

Second is between graphics card port and VGA port of the monitor. It may result in OSD deviance after startup. If VGA port is loose connected, there will be color pure missing, color shift, tearing or even due to “No Video In” on the screen. Once we eliminate monitor's problems, we should check the connection of cables and whether the VGA pin is good-working.

2. Incompatibility problems between display card and motherboard could happen in software or hardware.

The main feature of the software incompatibility is display deviance or words and pictures showing incompletely. The problem is mostly caused by wrong installation of display card drivers, drivers with bugs or wrong settings. If the problems are not the ones I mentioned above, and then try to resume the Registry or reinstall the operating system. In addition, if the picture is clear, just delete video card driver and properly reinstall right drivers. If display mess or dimness appears after entering system, the possible problem may be the monitor's or the video card does not support the display resolution.

Hardware incompatibility often comes as restart failure or black screen warning; and in most cases they are incompatible problems between display card and main board after eliminating the possibility of loose connection between signal transmission lines. For example, we can not start the computer after replacing the original low-end graphics card with a high-class one, however, we can set up another computer successfully with the advanced graphics card (we used in the former computer) inserting into another motherboard. Additionally, though the computer can be started up normally with some graphics cards, the drivers will be lost after running for a while. It's because the quality of the video card is not good, the video card is not compatible with the main board, or video card is overheating. Usually, we can change another video card with different band and model to solve such problems.

A problem video card often has symptoms such as crashes, graphics artifacts (display corruption), freezes, hangs and more.

It is very difficult to find the video card problem causes because there are so many different problems could result in the same symptoms, so here we suggest that check your computers thoroughly with below steps correspondingly and see which step can solve your problems. Most video card problems can be solved by the following methods.

Step 1. Install the latest mainboard chipset drivers

Before you install your chipset drivers, you have to find out which chipset is used by your motherboard, and then find the right drivers for the chipset. It’s best to download the latest and greatest drivers from the website of the manufacturer of your chipset and install the drivers once Windows is up and running.
Download a chipset drivers’ file, unzip it if it’s a ZIP file, and then follow the instruction to run it.

Step 2. Download the latest video drivers, uninstall the old ones and then install the latest ones.
Make sure to uninstall the old drivers before you run the new one. And even though the Driver you are already running is the latest one, uninstall it then reinstall it, which can help assure that you have installed the driver properly and none of it has been damaged.Sometimes it’s better to install an older driver if your video card is an older one.

Step 3. Disable your sound system.
If your computer crashes during games, maybe it is not the problem of your video card but your sound card. Try to disable your sound system. In Windows 2000 or XP, you can go to the Device Manager to disable the audio devices.

1. Click Control Panel from the Start menu.


 

2. Click Performance and Maintenance.



 

3. Click System to enter the System Properties sheet.



 

4. Select Hardware in the System Properties sheet.



 

5. Select Device Manager in the System Properties sheet.



 

6. Enter the Device Manager sheet and double-click Sound, video and game controllers.



 

7. Double-click Realtek High Definetion Audio.



 

8. Select Properties.



 

9. Double-click Audio Devices and double-click Realtek High Definition Audio.



 

10. Disable the device and click OK.

If the crashes stop, then update your sound drivers. Download the sound card drivers from the website of your sound card manufacturer, or if your sound card is integrated in the mainboard, then download the drivers from the website of the mainboard manufacturer.

Step 4. Slow your AGP port down.
AGP is short for accelerated graphics port. AGP runs at a quite high speed and it is used to send data from and to video card. If your computer crashes, stutters, and video data corruption, try to slow down your AGP to see if it is the AGP instability causing those problems. You can slow down your AGP port by modifying two of its parameters: Speed multiplier (8X, 4X, 2X and 1x) and fast write. You can use a slower multiplier to slow down your AGP.

As to fast write modifying, if you are using an ATI video card, then you can use SMARTGART to slow down your AGP. Access the SMARTGART control panel and open it, then double click Display to see Display Properties, then select the Settings tab, click Advanced and select SMARTGART tab.

Before you use the SMARTGART, make sure you have installed the ATI video card driver. You can download the latest drivers from ATI website.  

Step 5. Cool down your computer with a fan.
Sometimes the video card crashes, hangs, stutters, or gets display corruption after you start a game, maybe it is due to overheating. Use a desk fan to blow into your computer and see if the problem can be solved.

Step 6 Underclock your video card.
If you think the video card problem is because of overheating, the step 6 and step 7 are also applicable. You can use ATITool to underclock your ATI video card in Windows 2000 or XP, try Cool Bits or Riva Tuner to underclock your NVIDA card, or Power Strip to underclock other kinds of video cards. For example (picture instructions)

Step 7 Check your computer physically
Remove and then reinsert the video card. Disconnect and then reconnect auxiliary power cables. Check and clean the heat sink. Check and make sure the capacitors are not bulging or leaking. Make sure the video card is properly connected.

Step 8 Check your CPU and RAM.
You can test your RAM by downloading and running free MemTest86. You can test your CPU whether it is reliable under load by downloading and running free Prime95.

Step 9 Check your power supply.
Connect your computer to another known-good power resource to see if it is a bad power supply causes problems. Or your can check whether the voltages are in range.

If your video card is old, outdated, or even missing, it will affect the PC normal functioning. You need to check the hardware drivers, make sure they are properly installed and updated. Firstly, make sure the device is connected to the computer correctly. For example, make sure all cables are plugged in fully and that the display adapter is properly seated. Secondly, you can update it with the following methods. New version drivers are released to fix bugs or add functions by manufacturers frequently to improve the device performance and security.

1. Go to the official website of the hardware



NVIDIA	Official Website
ATI	Official Website
INTEL	Official Website
SiS	Official Website
VIA	Official Website
3DFX	Official Website
3DLabs	Official Website
Adaptec	Official Website
ALI	Official Website
AMD	Official Website
Aopen	Official Website



2. Enter your product name/number in the search box
3. Select your product from the search results
4. Select your operating system
5. Download the right video card package

Automatic video card driver updates
Step1. Scan all your devices instantly.
Step2. Select the video card driver and click Next to update

From the original vendor
The following products have been moved to the legacy software support structure (including Mobile and All-in-Wonder Variants):

ATI Radeon 9500 Series / 9550 Series/ 9600 Series / 9700 Series / 9800 Series / X300 Series / X550 Series / X600 Series / X700 Series / X800 Series / X850 Series /
X1050 Series / X1300 Series / X1550 Series / X1600 Series / X1650 Series / X1800 Series /
X1900 Series / Xpress Series / X1200 Series / X1250 Series / X2100 Series

AMD may periodically provide Windows XP and Windows Vista driver updates (for the products listed above) for critical fixes only.  No new features will be provided in future driver updates.  Any customers using a combination of a ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series, or ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series product with any of the legacy products listed above in a single PC system must use the ATI Catalyst 9.3 or earlier driver.   All future ATI Catalyst™ releases made available past the ATI Catalyst™ 9.3 release will not include support for the legacy products listed above or any of the features associated with those legacy products.
So you have to update it only when there are problems with your ATI driver.

Method 1:  Install the update with the official website

Step 1: Go to the official website and you will see Graphics Drivers & Software. 

Step 2: By clicking the download button, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and start downloading the update file.

Method 2:
Automatically install the ATI driver update with an update tool.

Step1. Scan all your devices instantly.
Step2. Select the ATI product and click Next to update

Update your video card drivers.

Step 1. Find out what video card you have.

Step 2. Find and download a newer driver.

             How to do it please see How to Update Your Video Card

Step 3. Install the new driver.

1. Find the existing video card driver in the Device Manager, as before. Then Right-click it and click Uninstall.



2. Click OK to uninstall your card.


 

3. Double-click on the icon for the downloaded installation file.

4. Complete the installation ans restart your computer.

Update display adapter BIOS.

One way is to update the original BIOS to the latest version, just like upgrading the mainboard BIOS, which can fix the bugs in the BIOS and get more new features (details see Video card BIOS flashing); the other way is to replace your display card BIOS with a better one, but pay attention that the chips of these two cards should be identical.

Keep efficient cooling of the graphics card.

Preparation

NVIDIA and ATI cards are two common graphics adapters in use. Before BIOS flash, the following preparation is necessary.

1. Find the video card model.
2. Find the version of the original BIOS; search the manufacturers’ website for BIOS details, download a compatible and newer BIOS file for the video adapter.
3. Check if any drivers required.
4. A copy of the NVFLASH utility (used in NVIDIA BIOS flash, you can download it from websites and use it to restore the current graphics BIOS), or a copy of the FLASHROM utility (used in ATI BIOS flash).
5. Make a boot disk. And then copy the downloaded BIOS file and the NVFLASH.exe file (for NVIDIA BIOS flash)/FLASHROM.exe file (for ATI BIOS flash) onto the disk. In order to let the operation go smoothly, try to keep the power supply working in gear in the whole procedure.

NVIDIA graphic adapter BIOS update

1. Make a backup of the current NVIDIA graphic card BIOS.

Utilize the BIOS flash disk to boot the computer and enter DOS, at the “A:\” prompt, type “nvflash.exe -b backup.rom” and press Enter. The NVFLASH utility will restore the current NVIDIA graphics BIOS onto the flash disk (called backup.rom).

2. BIOS update
From the “A:\” prompt, type “nvflash -p -u -f (name of the new BIOS file including the file extension)” and press Enter. NVFLASH will overwrite your old BIOS information with the new values. If you see any error messages or odd results, do not restart the system. Consult the troubleshooting below for further instructions. If everything seemed to work properly, restart the system. Depending on the BIOS version you used and the video card, you may need to install new drivers.

ATI graphic adapter BIOS update

Most people use this way:

1. Make a backup of the current ATI graphic card BIOS.

Boot the computer with the flash disk, at the “A:\” prompt, type “flashrom.exe –s 0 backup.rom” press Enter. Now the FLASHROM utility will restore the current video’s BIOS onto the disk (called backup.rom).

2. BIOS update.

At the “A:\” prompt input “Flashrom –p 0 ***.rom” (*** means created name for the BIOS update file) hit Enter then the new BIOS will be written into the current BIOS chip. Wait for a few seconds, if there is no error massage popping up then restart the computer. Updating succeeds.

Special situation, add flashing command parameter:

1. Add parameter "-f "

Some graphic cards would encounter ID error during the operation, try to add a mandatory updating parameter “-f”to force the BIOS flash; When the new BIOS file is confirmed supporting the video adapter ID, input “atiflash –p –f 0 ***.rom”, and finally press Enter.

2. Add parameter "-atmel" or "-sst"

For some video adapters with the mBGA packaging its memory, and adding parameter “-f” is unable to update BIOS. If the BIOS chip is from ATM Company, then input “Flashrom –p –f atmel 0 ***.rom”; if from SST Company, then input “Flashrom –p –f –sst 0 ***.rom”. Depending on the BIOS version you used and the video card, you may need to install new drivers too.

In respect that reprogramming BIOS is not an easy job for all PC users, before flashing your video card with the new BIOS version, keep in mind to restore the current BIOS in case you run into trouble later on.

What Should We Do When BIOS Upgrading Fails?

Well, then, if screen dazzling and instability occurs after reprogram, is there any remediation? We can figure out this issue by upgrading the backup BIOS file over again into the video card just like updating the new BIOS, only to change the command line “newbios.rom” to “backup.rom”. If flash fails, we have several fixes as below:

Solution 1.

If Windows is accessible, but can not recognize the graphics card, use the DOS boot disk to start up the system, and rewrite the exact BIOS into EPROM. BIOS features can be resumed after start-up.

Unplug the AGP video card firstly, and boot up the computer after plugging in a PCI card, after that enter the BIOS setting program in the motherboard, choose “Integrated Peripherals” option, change the option “Init Display First” value to “PCI Slot”, save this setting and shut down. Then reinsert the AGP card at the same time keep the PCI card still connected with monitor, and restart. Finally, upgrade the correct BIOS as we update the new BIOS.

First, find another computer, create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the DOS boot disk, and in this text file write “nvflash” (a filename of the backup BIOS in NVIDIA graphics card) or “Flashrom –p 0 Backup.rom ( in ATI graphics card).

After the batch file finishes editing, boot up the former computer with the disk, when reading is over, wait for more than 10 seconds, and restart the computer. Then everything returns to be normal.

Generally, there are four elements together decide a good performance of the video adapter overclocking.