Video Card or Driver Problem?

If a display problem still exists after booting in safe mode - does that rule out the video card's drivers as the problem or should I reinstall them anyway? (already reseated the card).

The display (17 inch flat panel - Dell) developed horizontal smears genereated from text on the screen. NVIDIA GeForce 256 AGP Plus.

Tips on reinstalling video drivers? Do I have to delete the old one first/ I've never done this before - read horror stories.

(Just what I wanted to do on a holiday weekend

Thanks

 

I use the following method everytime I need to install new video drivers. I have a nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 and they pass out new drivers every few months. This method works great for me...

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/vidinst1.html

I have used this method on all OS's from Win98 to WinXP.

OR...you can used nVIDIA's (as you have an nVIDIA card) method...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_20011116_3824.html

Laters,

 

dobhar -

thanks for the links - the nVidia site driver update link worked fine - unfortunately the updated drivers did not solve the problem. Think my graphics card is going south.

Also thanks for the PC911 resource - new to me and I'm sure I'l be back there again.

 

While you are in safe Mode check the Display properites and make sure they are set to a standard 640x480 16 color VGA setup.

MANY driver will not release properly or re-install properly unless this had been done.

And regardless of what he manfacture says. it is Always best to set the display bacl to the standard VGA before attempting to install the new drivers. This is more certain to release all of the pre-existing drivers so the new ones will install properly.

BillyBob

 

Hi,

Try this one....

http://home.att.net/~wymette/hardware/VideoUpg.htm

jongru

 

Billy Bob & jongru -

Thanks for the info. In fact the drivers had not completely installed until I switched to standard VGA and reinstalled. However - no joy - I now think the problem is card hardware related.

My challenge: I got a AGP type 1 slot and the current crop of AGP boards all seem to be AGP type 2. The good quality PCI cards (eg GeForce FX5200) spec a 250 watt power supply - mine is 200 watts - ya can't win - my Dell Dimension XPS 750 is only 3 1/2 yrs old!!!!