Hi,
I've got a computer running Windows 2000 and an MX440-SE. I just installed the latest drivers from the Nvidia website and DirectX 9.0c (so that I could play a new game). When I boot up to Windows, the picture is very badly distorted, sometimes the images disappears completly and comes back after a second, still very badly distorted. If I remove the Nvidia drivers and boot normally using the default Windows graphics drivers, it works fine. Or if I boot in VGA mode, it works fine (the same thing probably).
Unfortunately, I installed them at the same time and rebooted, I didn't install one and the reboot and then install the other, so I have no idea if it is the drivers or DirectX causing the problems. I've heard the MX440 is only compatible with DirectX 8.1, is this true? Could this be causing the problems? If it is true, how can you revert to DirectX version 8.1?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, the computer isn't mine so I need to get it fixed ASAP.

Are the appropriate motherboard chipset drivers installed? They need to be installed before the display drivers are installed, or else the AGP bus will not operate correctly.

The old graphics drivers worked fine and I don't have the CD that had them on so I can't revert. I never uninstalled the old chipset drivers so would I need to update the chipset drivers to make the new graphics drivers work properly?

DirectX 9 will be fine. Download drivers from the nVidia website, but instead of downloading the latest drivers check the 'Driver archives' link at left of page and select the most recent 4x.xx series driver for your Windows version. It should work best for your display card.

I had the same problem with the same card ... I just uninstalled the graphics driver and rebooted .... when the windows started again it found a hardware ( vga ) and I installed the same driver again ... it worked.

The card is rather old and has not had updates in the Drivers for a few versions now. There really is no point in updating them for that card so rollback to the older version as suggested.