Second computer- need help setting up

[Jetsetlemming]

So I finally got my old computer in my bedroom working again (thanks to our good friend the internet- I won't go into details). It's now on these specs:
800 Mhz Pentium 3
448 MB RAM (3x 128 MB, 1x 64 MB The original ram was just a single 128 MB stick, but that wasn't good enough, no no. I'm running memtest on it now, as these sticks all came out of equally ancient machines)
Windows XP Home
13 GB HD (I want to stick an 80 GB slave I have in it, if I can get that working).
DVD, floppy, ZIP drives.
Nvidia Vanta 16 MB video card.
ESS sound card (of some sort)

Pretty l33t stuff, as you can see. I've got a couple problems though. I can't find drivers for the video for windows XP. Nvidia has a TNT2 driver set for XP (which as far as I know the vanta counts as), but when I ran it it said it couldn't find any drivers in it's set for my hardware, and exited. I'll take Nvidia or third party whatever, just anything that'll work. It's currently running on the basic XP drivers for it. It's enough for 32 bit color and 1024x768 resolution, but not enough to run those wonderful classic decade-old PC games I have.
Also, any recommendations on cheaply upgrading it's parts? I was thinking of maybe getting a cheap 64 MB $20 video card, but I realized looking at newegg I'm not sure what size AGP port the computer has. How do I check that? It matters a whole lot for what kind of video card I can get. Obviously with only a 800 Mhz P3 and 7 year old hardware all around it's not gonna handle anything recent, but games from the DX7 era I could manage quite nicely.
Also, any recommendations for transferring files from my main PC to it and vice versa easily (besides just CD-Rs)? I can't connect it to the internet either, there's no phone jack in my bedroom.

[SegNin]

Everest should tell you everything about your comp including the motherboard:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Drivers maybe?
http://www.download.com/MSI-nVidia-b...-10162298.html

[polobunny]

So I finally got my old computer in my bedroom working again (thanks to our good friend the internet- I won't go into details). It's now on these specs:
800 Mhz Pentium 3
448 MB RAM (3x 128 MB, 1x 64 MB The original ram was just a single 128 MB stick, but that wasn't good enough, no no. I'm running memtest on it now, as these sticks all came out of equally ancient machines)
Windows XP Home
13 GB HD (I want to stick an 80 GB slave I have in it, if I can get that working).
DVD, floppy, ZIP drives.
Nvidia Vanta 16 MB video card.
ESS sound card (of some sort)

Pretty l33t stuff, as you can see. I've got a couple problems though. I can't find drivers for the video for windows XP. Nvidia has a TNT2 driver set for XP (which as far as I know the vanta counts as), but when I ran it it said it couldn't find any drivers in it's set for my hardware, and exited. I'll take Nvidia or third party whatever, just anything that'll work. It's currently running on the basic XP drivers for it. It's enough for 32 bit color and 1024x768 resolution, but not enough to run those wonderful classic decade-old PC games I have.
Also, any recommendations on cheaply upgrading it's parts? I was thinking of maybe getting a cheap 64 MB $20 video card, but I realized looking at newegg I'm not sure what size AGP port the computer has. How do I check that? It matters a whole lot for what kind of video card I can get. Obviously with only a 800 Mhz P3 and 7 year old hardware all around it's not gonna handle anything recent, but games from the DX7 era I could manage quite nicely.
Also, any recommendations for transferring files from my main PC to it and vice versa easily (besides just CD-Rs)? I can't connect it to the internet either, there's no phone jack in my bedroom.

"The following products are not supported in the current ForceWare Release 90 driver.

Please continue to use the previous ForceWare Release 70 drivers available here.


TNT2
TNT2 Pro
TNT2 Ultra
TNT2 Model 64 (M64)
TNT2 Model 64 (M64) Pro
Vanta
Vanta LT
GeForce 256
GeForce DDR
GeForce2 GTS
GeForce2 Pro
GeForce2 Ti
GeForce2 Ultra
GeForce2 MX Integrated graphics
Quadro
Quadro2 Pro
Quadro2 EX"

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93.html

[SegNin]

Also, any recommendations for transferring files from my main PC to it and vice versa easily (besides just CD-Rs)? I can't connect it to the internet either, there's no phone jack in my bedroom.

Probably the best way, is to remove the hard drive from your old PC and install it in your PC, although I think this could be a problem if they're not using the same file system.

If you don't want to open up your main PC, then you could put your old hard drive (after removing it from your old PC) into an enclosure like this one:
http://www.download.com/MSI-nVidia-b...-10162298.html

Then hook it up to your new PC via USB.

I have the same problem you have: to try to move 100 GB's of files from my Win98SE (FAT32) with USB 1.0 and no working Ethernet card due to an IRQ conflict I can't fix (so no working Internet) without doing a full format & reinstall, which would then erase my files obviously, to my new PC which is WinXP Pro (NTFS) with USB 2.0 and also no working Ethernet card (still need to install the drivers for it)

[polobunny]

I have the same problem you have: to try to move 100 GB's of files from my Win98SE (FAT32) with USB 1.0 and no working Ethernet card due to an IRQ conflict I can't fix (so no working Internet) without doing a full format & reinstall, which would then erase my files obviously, to my new PC which is WinXP Pro (NTFS) with USB 2.0 and also no working Ethernet card (still need to install the drivers for it)

Not a problem, remove the HDD, be done with it already. =P

[Inferno.]

If both PC's have ethernet cards, and you have a router create a network. If not create an FTP to link the 2 PC's together with a cross over cable?
If I could sell things online I've got a lovely TNT2 Model 64 ~ AGP 4 or 2x 32MB card, and 3x128MB SD-RAM sticks..

[polobunny]

If both PC's have ethernet cards, and you have a router create a network. If not create an FTP to link the 2 PC's together with a cross over cable?
If I could sell things online I've got a lovely TNT2 Model 64 ~ AGP 4 or 2x 32MB card, and 3x128MB SD-RAM sticks..

TNT2 Model 64 ~ AGP 4 or 2x 32MB
$10 worth at best

3x128MB SD-RAM
I pay those $15 each brand new, kingston lifetime warranty. Good luck selling

[Inferno.]

lol, I'd probably give the parts away if I could...
That graphics card was what was ORIGINALLY in my old PC.
The RAM I paid quite a lot for for the old PC...
I can't sell crap online anyway, I was just saying.

(There's an old Duron lying about too)

[Jetsetlemming]

Neither the drivers segnin or polobunny linked me to worked, or two other versions I downloaded. God knows what the problem is. Either the installation ends with a "drivers for hardware not found" type message, or in the case of segnin's drivers, they just unpack to a directory without any actual driver installation to them. A readme amongst them says I'm supposed to manually go to the hardware page, click "update drivers", and direct windows to that directory, but windows didn't find anything. Is there a way I can manually install the driver files? Like cut the driver files unpacked from one of these driver packages and just paste them in windows/system or something?
I tried another game with the basic drivers the windows installation uses, Gabriel Knight 3. It ran pretty good, though that's not saying much, since it's one step above Alone in the Dark.
I don't have a router, just a single computer DSL modem. If I had cable internet I could connect the old computer to the internet, I have a cable line in my room, but with DSL I'd have to bring it down here, where I don't think I have the outlet space to set up two computers.
Both my computers have ethernet hardware, though.
segnin, you could try 100 trips via a 1 GB flash drive.

[polobunny]

My bad didn't link the good one man
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.77.html

These should work.

[Jetsetlemming]

Ok, looks like I'm on a third CD of drivers and crap to the old computer now. I'll download those, and lets see if Omega has TNT capable drivers...
It says it's nvidia drivers are for any nvidia card that uses detonator/forceware drivers. I have no idea if that includes the vanta. ; since your links are to forceware drivers, I guess I'll take that to mean it's supported...

[Ahkei]

TNT2 Model 64 ~ AGP 4 or 2x 32MB
$10 worth at best

3x128MB SD-RAM
I pay those $15 each brand new, kingston lifetime warranty. Good luck selling

SDRAM, even at wholesale is fucking expensive over here.

Like 2 or three times the cost of DDR2 at the moment.

[Inferno.]

I paid 25£ a stick for that 128MB SD. ><

[Jetsetlemming]

It's SD-RAM that's in the computer in question.

And I got the video drivers working thanks to Omega. =D Now video files play back much, much better. Oddly enough though, there's no nvidia config stuff or anything loading on the computer at boot, though. No unique nvidia stuff on the display settings menu, either. Shouldn't there be, I dunno, SOMETHING?

[polobunny]

Nope, omega drivers are pretty much stripped drivers that don't include the nVidia panel.

Yeah most people know you're searching hard for PC133 so they're selling it at a high price.