fualty graphics card needs attention?

Question

i got a nvidia ge-force mx440 128mb agp card the other day for £7 froma computer shop,its a x4/x2 card and i put it on a x2 agp slot to try it
drivers installed no problem,but when testing it in dxdiag the direct x cube was cloudy and the image flickered,it alsohad spots on the cibe where the image wasnt rendering properly
on the whole the card didnt feel right,i did everything right,uninstalled old drivers,rebooted before i installed new drivers,i personally think the card is fualty but at £7 i cant take it back,is there any more diagnostics you can reccomend to try to find out whats wrong with it
finally,i am using a radeon 9250(128mb) at the moment,its a very reliable card,and this card is a g/force 4 mx(128mb),which is the better,of the two
also i have noticed on the ge-force box it says mx 440 se tv sdr 128mb agp,what drivers does this card use,as i am wondering if its a different driver as it says "tv"in the name
any ideas

Answer 1

Hey there - you got a nice card at a pretty good price; actually, your drivers are probably correct (not that hard to figure out which driver to install). I can imagine one of five things:

#1 - the card is defective

#2 - the motherboard doesn't completely support the card (some boards are not good with higher end cards).

#3 - the powersupply is not getting enough power through the board to your card.

#4 - the driver needs to be reinstalled

#5 - check the monitor settings

Too make it cheaper for yourself, I would double check the driver version first and the monitor settings. After that and you still have the problem, exchange the card for another one.

Answer 2

You can get the latest GeForce drivers from www.nvidia.com, just make sure that you choose GeForce and the proper operating system.

If your card was made by a third party it may have come with specific drivers, you will need to install these or get the latest from this vendor.

If this doesn't work then you may be out of luck since you can't return the card.