graphics card not installed properly?

[Garnier]

I installed new display drivers (version 7.2) for the X850 XT, and when I start the computer, a balloon pops up in the taskbar by the clock saying "A problem occurred during hardware installation. Your new hardware might not work properly"

I can still run games and stuff and they run smooth as usual but sometimes for example in Medieval 2 Total war an error message pops up saying "Fatal graphics error" and the game crashes. Also in rome total war the game crashes in the same situations (when I start a loading screen usually, either loading a game or going into a battle, or coming back to the campaign after a battle.) I then disabled the graphics card in display settings, completely uninstalled the driver and ati traytools and then installed the driver again as usual, but the balloon still pops up when I start the computer. Should I take the card out of the computer entirely and reinstall from there?

Or does anyone have any other advice?

[Erik]

You can leave the card in.
But I do recommend uninstalling the drivers, reboot, and re-installing the drivers.

If you still have problems you can also try installing an older driver version.
Sometimes the newest one contains bugs.

[Garnier]

Hm. Well I did what you suggested, but it didnt seem to fix it, but now I've just done a system restore back to January 24 and all seems OK, at least I've not had any crashes.

[Hadrian]

Hey Garnier, I play alot of the same mods you do and I used to have an X850XT in my main rig. Whenever I experienced crashes like your describing, with that particular card, my game setting were to demanding for the video card, and when I attempted a huge battle, sometimes I had those kind of crashes you described, especially coming out of a big bridge battle for example.

Is your power supply strong enough? An X850XT requires atleast a 350W PSU and what your describing sounds like it could be a power related issue. Also, the drivers for that card have been mature for quite some time now so going back to earlier drivers as suggested by Erik is a good idea. Look for drivers that were released about the fall/winter of 05 for the best results....

Do check and see if the card is seated properly in the PCI-E slot as well as checking to see if all the power molex connectors are tight....your system diagnostics appears to be detecting a problem some where and thats why your getting the balloon warning.

[Garnier]

I took the card out and put it back in and I think there have been no problems so far. I've played 10 years (40 turns) of SPQR and fought about six 8000 man battles.

Is 4x AA and 8x AF too much for this card do you think?

Also where do I look to see what power supply I have.