Unable to install graphics card driver :(

**blank** · May 06, 2010, 04:07 PM

Well, here's the problem. I (rather stupidly in hindsight) decided to switch back to an older driver for my card. However, the installer apparently messed something up, since after rebooting the pc it froze on restart. After resetting again (choosing "most recent setting that worked" from the boot menu), i got a nice message saying "found new hardware blah blah blah". Display settings are locked since the system no longer recognises the gpu.

And so far, nothing i have tried has helped.

I removed the old driver with driver cleaner, uninstalled the device from system manager (there it's referred to as a "VGA compatible display device" or something similar), then applied the newest driver. The setup ran fine, then it asks me to reboot the pc. While rebooting, the computer froze again, i restarted with the same option as above. Again, "found new hardware", it's as if i hadn't installed anything.

Then figured to try the CD that came with the card. Now, when i tried to install that, it gave me a black DOS screen and then froze. So i can run the drivers from nvidia site, which won't install properly, but can't install the default files at all.
Also, i can't start the pc in safe mode. It loads a little, then reboots automatically.

The card model is nvidia 8800gt 512 mb, OS WinXP SP2.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, since simply buying a new gpu isn't really an option for the time being...

**Freddie** · May 07, 2010, 11:58 AM

You could spend hours trying to fix this problem when in fact it's quicker just to reinstall the OS from scratch. It sounds like the combination of driver roll back and corrupted installations of newer drivers has caused a problem with the registry or windows files.

If I were you try fixing this via system restore or failing that reinstall Windows, it sounds drastic but relive you me from years of experience it's quicker then trying to fix micro issues like this.

**Marcus Publius** · May 07, 2010, 02:06 PM

I had similar problem a few months ago.I cleaned registry and that did worked for me.Now I usually uninstall old driver,before I install new one.

**blank** · May 09, 2010, 03:26 PM

Well, tried the OS thing (repair). Now i got the driver installed (sort of). The card name now shows up properly in device manager, and it shows the driver details under properties. However, the device still has the little yellow warning sign next to it, and under properties it gives me "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" error.

The worst part is, my display is now seriously

ed. When booting, at first it show a ton of little dots all over the mobo logo, then at the BIOS screen it's a bunch of colored squares. During the windows logo loading screen, there are horizontal white lines. Now, when logged in, the artifacts depend on the display settings. Lower resolutions give lots of thin horizontal lines, while higher ones give 4-5 thick vertical lines.

I have now tried a lot of different drivers, registry cleaners etc. Also tried physically detaching and reattaching the card. Adjusted clock settings and fan speeds.

I'd just want to know now whether there's still a possibility of the fault lying somehwere else or has the card simply bought it. Hell, since it's the dreaded 8-series card, i guess i'm lucky it lasted 2 years. Although weird thing is that it didn't show any signs of trouble before suddenly bucketing over the driver change...

**Savage_Swede** · May 10, 2010, 09:29 AM

Well since you have visible issues seemingly during the entire boot and post, my guess is that your video card has snuffed it. You could still try and do a complete REINSTALL of the OS, not a repair. It sounds wierd that this driver problem would murder the whole video card, but with computers, you never know. And i noticed in your first post that you couldn't start in safe mode, do you still have this problem?