Graphics card driver issues...

**mark99** · #1 30th Jul 2007, 04:16

I successfully installed a new 550w psu and my x1900gt card. It was a great day.

I installed the latest, 7.7, 32bit Windows Vista drivers for x1900 series cards from the ATI website as the cd I got with the card only had drivers for Windows 98/xp, I have Vista basic. All my games would only work for a minute or two and then crashed. The screen went black, sometimes there was a looping sound effect from the game. I couldn’t escape out of this or press ‘control alt delete’, I had to just switch off at the mains. When I turned my pc back on there wasn’t an error message or anything else.

I tried lowering all the graphics settings but this still happened.

I thought I should try and install different drivers (don’t ask why; I suddenly thought I knew things about pcs) so using the cd I got with the card I chose to remove any ATI drivers. I’m not sure if this worked properly. I then installed a diff version of drivers from the website.

None of the games would start with these 7.1 drivers so again using the cd I chose to remove all the drivers and then reinstalled the 7.7 ones…which didn’t work properly: a part of the driver failed to install…’display drivers’ I think.

Now none of my games will start, I’m not sure which drivers I now have and my computer isn’t recognising that I even have the new x1900gt card and says there is a problem with the ‘on board card’.

Is anyone out there willing to help, please (violins playing in background)

Thanks

**Krlll** · #2 30th Jul 2007, 09:51

Sounds like a big mess and confusion of drivers at this stage.
I would uninstall the drivers(again if you can) then run Driver Cleaner Pro.
This program used to be free but now costs $9.99 however it is legally available for download form this site(see link in first post).
Driver Cleaner Pro
After using DCPro make sure you install the correct drivers.Make sure you dont go installing 64bit versions instead of 32bit(I am assuming you have 32bit Vista).
I dont know if this will solve your problem but its a place to start at least.

Edited to add:make sure you only use DCPro to uninstall the ATI stuff,dont mess around deleting anything else.Dont know if you would but I dont wanna get blamed if you do;)

**mark99** · #3 31st Jul 2007, 11:33

Thanks for the advice and reading my post.

I have used the program you recommended and chose to remove all ATI related drivers fropm the cd. I then installed the latest drivers from the ATI website again...the ones that are compatible with my version of Windows.

During this installation an error msg comes up saying 'the INF file was not found' and in the report you can read it says the ATI Display Driver failed to install.

In my device manager thing it says I just have a standard VGA adapter, its not recognising that I have a x1900gt card as it first did and it says 'Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)'

Any ideas? Would be much appreciated as I havent got a clue and now have steam coming out of my ears. Can you play HL2 and Fear on a SNES? lol

Thanks

**Krlll** · #4 31st Jul 2007, 12:51

Are you sure you went to the add remove progams and uninstalled the driver properly first before running DCPro?

**mark99** · #5 1st Aug 2007, 01:32

…yeah sure it had gone. Anyway I found out about a system restore tool and used that to restore my pc to a time before I started all this…when I had no driver stuff kickn about. I have installed the latest drivers again and the games still crash…but I think I have found the problem. My graphics card gets red hot and I turned it on with the case open and the fan on the card doesn’t spin…I think the card keeps over heating and cutting off…so does that mean my card is broken, i.e. there isn’t a solution?

Cheers mate

**SocialWarfare** · #6 1st Aug 2007, 02:38

It may just be dirty, you should clean it out if it is with a cotton bud, toothbrush and vacuum it(be gentle though)

But if the fan is dead you should replace it with above
Click pic:)

**mark99** · #7 1st Aug 2007, 04:37

...the card is brand new though, no dirt or anything. Do you think if I change the speed of it (I think you can with ATI thing) it might wake up...

**Krlll** · #8 1st Aug 2007, 05:53

If its brand new and the fan isnt working,bring it back and get a replacement!
You shouldnt have to start fiddling about with brand new stuff. ;)

**mark99** · #9 4th Aug 2007, 04:21

...im back. Yeah the problem is I bought it from ebay and the guy says the fan worked when he had it (mmmm?) and that its too late to return it.

The other prob is its not covered by ATI warranty as it was made by connect 3D.

It looks like im screwed.

Could a problem with drivers stop the fan from working?? The fan wire is connected properly, ive checked that.

I was thinking of getting another 'cooler', 'fan' but if its a problem with a connection then it might not work either....I give up.

If you have any other ideas I would be grateful.

**Krlll** · #10 4th Aug 2007, 04:29

What is Connect 3Ds RMA policy?
Its a shame you dont have another fan to try on the card.You could do a "ghetto" mod and strap a regular 80mm fan onto it(something I did some time ago overclocking a 6600GT)using one of the motherboard or even a molex connection to power that.
I dont think this is a driver issue.