I have a nvidia GeForce fx 5200, pci version (don't laugh) and recently its been real glitchy in windows xp and crashing games. So i updated the driver, didn't work. Then i attempted to flash the bios. I didn't just go out and pick a random bios image. The expertool program selected one just for my card. One problem though: NOW MY CARD WON'T WORK AFTER FLASHING THE BIOS. I have no idea what went wrong. I just booted a dos disk, inserted the image disk, and ran flash.bat. But no picture anymore after the reboot.

Has anyone ever damaged their nvidia bios like this before, and if so is it fixable?? I can only stand my integrated 8 Mb sis chip for a few more days

Did you enter your BIOS and check the settings after flashing?
You may have AGP rather than PCI set in your BIOS for the vid card. Check that first.

All manner of things can go wrong when you flash a BIOS via Windoze.
It's quite doubtful that your BIOS needed flashing, from the information
that you've presented. Updating the driver may not have helped - I
have that card and sometimes the newer drivers don't even work for
it. Flashing a BIOS should not be done if you don't really know what you're
doing.

After checking your BIOS, try removing downloading an earlier Nvidia driver,
then removing the one you have, and installing the older one. Without being
able to look at your box there's just more questions than you'd imagine.

How does your Nvidia card work in Slackware? RedHat? Might be your comp
telling you it's time to format c:>\ Windoze outta there!

If you can't get any video at all, it will be tough to fix without a second video card in the system. You could try flashing it again with the original bios, or at least an older version.

Hey thanks for the replys.

Chinaman: i wasn't in windows when i flashed it. I just booted a dos floppy and then inserted the disk with the flash utility and the image. Nope, it won't work in slackware, and the card isn't supported in the computer that red hat is on. Heh, i wish it was that simple. But there are other people in my house, parents for instance, that use windows and nothing else.

Pcghost: Thats exactly what I tried to do but the problem is if I hook my monitor up to my integrated chip and then put the PCI card in, it defaults to the PCI card for the graphics so i get no picture. I have tried blindly typing in the command to flash again (using an older bios). It lit up the keyboard lights and everything but still no picture on reboot. I think the correct word for the situation is "screwed".

btw, i tried looking in the motherboard bios to somehow turn off pci graphics default thing, but I don't see anything.

Edit: This might be a good opportunity for me to get a new card if there is no solution to this. After googling an hour or so before posting this last night (and finding no solutions), I read some really negative things about my card, like "worst card of its generation" and stuff like that.

I have a way to fix it.

Step one: Remove card (use grounded wrist band)

Step two: Go to home depot and rent and large wood chipper*

Step three: Start wood chipper

Step four: Toss card into wood chipper.

Step five: take card back to where you got it and try to return it.

*Lawn mower can be used

-Joey

The funny thing is that if i brought it back to where I bought it (Fry's), the customer service people wouldn't notice anything wrong with it, even after destroying it. Sounds like a plan!

Wow, I actually got a reply from the tech support:I'd rather just buy a new card than deal with gainward. Oh well, 10 months with this card. Next card I'm shooting for a year and a half.