NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 issues

Question

When I try to play video games the screen flickers and quivers. The color looks fine but the screen jumps around. Every once in a while, when not playing any games, the screen turns black for about 2 seconds then goes back to normal. I know the problem isn't the game because I tried returning it for a new one and it did the same thing. We tried downloading DirectX 9.0c. When I tried the Windows START > RUN > dxdiag > Display > Test Direct3D, it gave me 3 tests to run and the first test did the flicker/quiver that happens when I try to play a game. The other 2 test didn't work at all. We've been trying to fix this problem for over 2 weeks and had no luck. Can someone please help us?

I have:

Dell Dimension 4550 Series, Pentium4 @ 2.0GHz w/ 512K L2 Cache, 256MB DDR SDRAM @ 266MHz, Flat CRT Monitor, 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 w/ TV-Out, 120GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, Microsoft Windows XP, 48x Max CD-ROM Drive

DELL-Chris M · Answer

BlueCasper, The Geforce 4 MX 420 doesn't support anything higher than directx 8.1.

BlueCasper · Answer

Thank you very much for getting back to me promptly. Can you please recommend a new top notch video card that I should purchase? The Sims 2 says that it requires DirectX 9.0 or higher so I guess I need to purchase a new video card. Thanks again.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

BlueCasper,

Any of these will work in your system. Just make sure that the video card specifications state that the card is 4X AGP compatible.
GeForce FX 6800
Radeon X800 SE
Radeon 9800 XT
GeForce FX 5950
Radeon 9800 Pro
GeForce FX 5900
Radeon 9700
Radeon 9600 XT
Radeon 9600 Pro
GeForce FX 5750
GeForce FX 5700
Radeon 9600 SE

* Go here
* Click Cards - Video
* Click any of the above to start figuring what is the best deal for you.

BlueCasper · Answer

I guess I just don't understand. The Sims 2 says for requirement:

800 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, Windows(R) XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Operating System, At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space, A T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM, Supported video cards:

ATI Radeon(TM) series (7000 or better)

VE series (see note below)

7000, 7200, 7500

8500, All-In-Wonder 8500

9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800

X300, X600, X800

NVIDIA(R) Quadro(TM) series

Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4

NVIDIA GeForce series (GeForce2 and better)

GeForce 2

GeForce 3, 3 Ti

GeForce 4, 4 Ti, MX 420, 440

GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950

GeForce 6600, 6800

Intel(R) Extreme Graphics (see note below)

82845, 82865, 82915

NOTE: If you have a non-T&L capable video card, such as Intel Extreme Graphics or Radeon VE series, then you need at least a 2.0 GHz processor.

I have a video card that EA.com says The Sims 2 should work with. Is it possible there is something wrong with my computer or the video card itself?

tigerwolf7 · Answer

Have you updated your drivers?  That's my first guess.  There are 9 billion sets of instructions on here for how to do that, but basically you grab the newest ones from www.nvidia.com and fully uninstall your old drivers first.

BlueCasper · Answer

Thanks for the help but, I've tried all that stuff. Maybe I didn't do it right. Who knows. Computers are evil!

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NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 issues

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