Kevin's Watch

Ok, I've had this problem for quite a while, and I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm hoping somebody can help me.

First off, I'm pretty sure I caused the problem, even if I'm not sure how. It all happened when I was trying to update my video and chipset drivers (was trying to use software that kept freezing, despite the fact that my system specs exceeded the minimum requirements). In my defense, my kid broke my CD burner, so I couldn't make a back-up.

The result is, except when I run in safe mode, anything more than a minimum usage of display (say, video clips) causes my comp to freeze up and sometimes forces a restart. That, and my computer won't run in SVGA.

Stats:
Windows XP Pro
1.47 gig AMD Athlon XP
512 Meg installed memory
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 card
Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 7DXR+ 1.x
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz

First step would normally be to uninstall & then re-install the graphics card. Do you know how to do that?

I think so, but I think it's thinking that I know what I'm doing that's caused the problem. Tell me, please.

right-click on 'my computer' - go to 'properties' - click on 'hardware' tab - then on 'device manager'.

Click the '+' next to 'sound, video and game controllers' - when you see your video card listed, click on it to highlight then hit the 'delete' button.

Click on 'ok' when the 'warning...' message pops up, close everything, then restart your PC.

When it starts up again, your graphics card should automatically be detected and installed.

Only problem is that the video card isn't listed under "sound, video and game controllers" but under "display adapters." When I try the same thing there, after the initial warning, another warning comes up which says "this will remove the NVIDIA display driver. all drivers and corresponding files will be removed from the registry" and asks me to continue. Same thing?

Yup, same thing.

If you're going to try reinstalling both chipset and videocard drivers, be sure to install the chipset drivers first, then the latest version of Direct X (if necessary), and then the videocard drivers. That's the proper sequence advocated by the PC gaming mags I've read.

And if you already know that, then just ignore this post, heh.

Syl, I thought any PC motherboard could revert to basic SVGA mode in the absence of a videocard. Hmm, where's our PC fixit guru aTOMiC?

Strangely enough, the whole thing works better without any video drivers installed. Goes screwy after I install it. I'm pretty sure that's the order I did it in, MM, but it was a while ago, so I can't say for certain. I couldn't even tell you for certain when the problems started happening. Wasn't right after the installs. *shrug* I'm open to any suggestions.