Member Avatar for fallopiano

Hey everyone. Just recently I have been messing around with some files on my pc, trying to find a specific driver updater-program that was giving me some trouble. I went into add or remove programs, selected "NVIDIA Drivers" (I'm using a basic Nvidia graphics card), and removed it, thinking that it was this driver updater program. A minute or so later, my whole graphics went into something like a 16 bit mode. Really weird and glitchy looking. I rebooted, and all of my graphics looked fine and normal. (Although when I moved my windows around, they chopped around as if I was running in safe-mode) I opened up 'system properties' and speccy (http://www.piriform.com/speccy). System properties told me I had no graphics card, and speccy told me my graphics card was my monitor(?). The specs from Speccy are below:

Graphics
Monitor
Name on
Current Resolution 1024x768 pixels
Work Resolution 1024x734 pixels
State enabled, primary
Monitor Width 1024
Monitor Height 768
Monitor Bpp 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Frequency 1 Hz
Device \\.\DISPLAY1


(Also, just to test to see if my computer was using my graphics card or not, I opened up counter strike and ran it. It told me that 'The specified video mode is not supported') So, I went back to add/remove programs, clicked on 'NVIDIA drivers', and attempted to open the driver program. When I did, the program flashed for half a second and then vanished... So right now I'm kinda stumped as how to re-enable my graphics card and
fit it with its drivers :( any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

Short diagnosis: removing the NVIDIA package removed the vendor display driver and Windows fell back to its generic VGA driver. That produces low resolution, choppy window movement and odd readings from tools like Speccy (they report whatever Windows currently exposes, so the monitor may appear as the active device). Games fail because the generic driver doesn't support the card's accelerated modes.

Quick checks (do these first):

  • Open Device Manager: devmgmt.msc and expand Display adapters — if you see "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" or "Unknown device" the vendor driver is missing.
  • Run dxdiag and check the Display tab for device name and driver.
  • Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) and look for setup/installer errors if the driver installer quits unexpectedly.
  • If a restore point exists, consider System Restore before further changes.

If reinstalling the driver fails or the installer just flashes and closes:

  • Confirm you downloaded the driver that exactly matches the GPU model and the OS (Windows version and 32/64-bit). Use Device Manager -> Properties -> Details -> Hardware Ids to get the device ID if unsure.
  • Try running the vendor installer as Administrator, or extract the package and run setup.exe from the extracted folder. Disable antivirus during install.
  • Do a clean uninstall: in Device Manager uninstall the display adapter and check "Delete the driver software for this device", reboot, then reinstall. If problems persist, boot Safe Mode and use a clean-uninstall tool to remove remnants before reinstalling.
  • If all else fails, check the motherboard/chipset drivers (they can affect PCIe devices) or use the OEM driver package for laptops/brand PCs.

Good points were made earlier by , and about using vendor/OEM drivers and motherboard support; confirmed reinstalling drivers fixed the immediate problem. For future changes, create a system restore point or backup your current driver package before uninstalling.

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for jerry9839

If you're able to go to the Cards Maker, download the Driver from there. You may have to use another PC to do this. If so burn the drivers to a disc and install into your PC.

Member Avatar for fallopiano

Your right; all I had to do was let nvidida's site scan my pc for the motherboard drivers and then let me download them. Thanks!

Member Avatar for jerry9839

Glad to help, jerry9839

Member Avatar for Member #334542

I think your motherboard CD will install drivers for you.

Member Avatar for davidjhon

hope your motherboard most likely has many build in components. make sure that you have installed the motherboard driver first!

then do most of your update manually download the newest driver (191.07)take it from http://download.cnet.com/169-21-forceware-winxp-32bit-english-whql-exe/3000-2108_4-178602.html and install afterwords

or if you get the legacy driver to install, run the latest diver from the device manager. you will need to try running it once from device manager before it will extract the setup.exe. assuming the drivers overwrite each other, the setup.exe file will be from the last driver that you tries to install (same name=overwrite). then try it again from device manager but point it at the setup.exe in the cabs folder. if it installs and doesnt work properly 'roll back' the driver to the legacy driver from device manager window.

Member Avatar for caperjack

Your right; all I had to do was let nvidida's site scan my pc for the motherboard drivers and then let me download them. Thanks!

please mark thread as solved ,thanks and ,good luck

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