I have a slight technical hitch which I wondered if anyone could help me with :confused:

I have a Dell desktop (which I am folding on), I tried to attach my digital camera and 'pop' off went the monitor :( I telephoned Dell and it seems to be something to do with the video card (it's stuck in a loop) - I have removed all of the components via safe mode, re-started and have tried to download the new drivers via both Dell's website and also that of the video card (Nvidia) - each time I try to download the drivers I get a black screen covered with an 'icon' that is repeated on each line :thumbdwn: The screen then freezes and I have to re-start all over again :( After the second time it did this, I disabled the FAH file (didn't tell the bloke @ Dell ), but I haven't tried to download the drivers again.

My questions are 1. should I try to download the drivers again now I have disabled folding? 2. if the drivers cannot be downloaded, can I buy a new video card and drivers instead of messing about with this one? 3. would folding have had anything to do with this problem?

Dell has told me that if the downloading of the drivers does not work this time, then I will have to do a total reinstall of the system :eek:

This happened to me with an Nvidia card before, un install the drivers and the card in windows. Unplug the card from the board (assuming it is removable, probably not knowing Dell) Clean the fan (if it has one) then re-seat the card.

My questions are 1. should I try to download the drivers again now I have disabled folding? 2. if the drivers cannot be downloaded, can I buy a new video card and drivers instead of messing about with this one? 3. would folding have had anything to do with this problem?

1) No uninstall the old ones and make sure the directory has gone. Then reboot windows into a horrible VGA mode and install the new drivers. (I would get them from NV myself)

2) Don't waste your money doing this, if it is another NV it will almost certainly have the same issue as it will use the same drivers and if not then dell should replace yours FOC under the warrenty.

3) Folding could be causing the card to be getting hotter, so you could try leaving the side off the case. Depending on the case design and cooling this could make things better or worse. I wouldn't really think folding however, more a driver conflict between your camera driver and your NVidia driver.

If you press F5/F8 (I forget which at the moment) you will get the option to boot into safe mode. This will let you in and I would uninstall the camera driver first.

If this works in normal mode then get a new driver for the camera from the web and try again.

Good luck, and the complete reinstall is a techies person of saying something is broken in a driver so start from clean and wait for it to die again.

Thanks for all the advice

I have actually uninstalled the hardware and drivers via safe mode, which then restarts the pc in normal mode. I then downloaded the drivers from NVidia, but it still won't work - blue screen and stuck in an infinate loop :thumbdwn:

I spent over 2 hours on the telephone to Dell yesterday trying different things, which resulted in them advising me to run an extended test on the whole pc - bloke told me it would take about 30 mins.....8 hours later and it was still running, so I stopped it :( They haven't phoned me back today as they promised they would either :thumbdwn:

If it is just a video card issue, which I think it may be (it was replaced Nov 2005 as it went funny then too) - (and this is going to be such a stupid question for you IT people ) can I just buy another card, maybe not NVidia, and replace it in the hard drive and install the corresponding drivers? :confused: and if I can, what is the best make to go for?

Thank you, Tink's

NV drivers IMHO are a royal PITB - some require XP SP1 before they work. Annoyingly in order to download that you need a working network connection, which won't be available, you guessed it, until you've installed the drivers.

It was a complete nightmare with a server board I purchased last month. I was about to throw the thing out of the window at one point.

Erm never had any problems with the NV drivers, just make sure you pick the WHQL certified ones if you want stability. What serverboard were you running by the way as I have run loads and never seen any issues except with crap chipsets.

Tinks, I suggest buying a good brand of card regardless of the chipset, XFX, Gainward, BFG for the NVidia, Matrox if you dont care for games.

some ATI card vendors are good, but i only know about saphire and can say avoid like the plague.

I have a Sapphire ATI 9600, never had any problems with it...

Mind you, never had any problems with the Nvidia 4400 that was in there before it either...

Have seen 4 saphire cards blow (9600 Pro) and be returned inside of 1 year. Says something about the quality of their parts if you ask me.

I'm obviously not overclocking mine enough then Seriously though, they aren't the best if you've seen four blow in 12 months! :shock:

Erm never had any problems with the NV drivers' date=' just make sure you pick the WHQL certified ones if you want stability. What serverboard were you running by the way as I have run loads and never seen any issues except with crap chipsets.

Tinks, I suggest buying a good brand of card regardless of the chipset, XFX, Gainward, BFG for the NVidia, Matrox if you dont care for games.

some ATI card vendors are good, but i only know about saphire and can say avoid like the plague.[/quote']

I have downloaded the WHQL ones :thumbdwn: but I was advised to download the 2000/XP version (I am actually running XP Professional) and there is a download for professional too :confused: and excuse my ignorance, but by serverboard are you meaning this? Pentium 4 2.53 ghz, single core :confused:

The strange thing about it (well, strange to me anyhow) is that having removed all of the NVidia items through hardware utilities and add/remove programs via safe mode, the pc then re-starts in normal mode and finds them all again, the pc seems to work fine until I shut it down completely and start it up again via normal mode :confused: tbh I don't tend to shut any of my pc's down, but I would prefer to sort the problem, just in case it's the tip of a rather large iceberg

Sorry to be a pain

Serverboard was related to my post - It's a TYAN board with dual CPU, dual core, 8GB ECC registered DDR400 and a few bits and pieces. I've had the same problem (SP1 needed) with several non-server boards from MSI, Shuttle, Abit and Asus. I've since slipstreamed SP1 onto a CDR using my original MS XP Pro (non SP1) and that's fixed the issue 100%. The server was W2K3 Server Std Ed.

Is that an AMD board there WW_VRs?

I had some serious issues with a dual Atlon MP board but nothing since with NVidia, and that was down to buggy chipset.

Without sounding like a git, i suggest putting it into safe mode and backing up all your data to some CD's. Then borrow a graphics card if you can and try that and to be honest I would go with the format and reinstall approach unless you have a handy tech that will come around and have a look.

Have you removed the camera drivers?

is the graphics card a "add in" card? if its a dell im pretty sure it will be, also pretty sure it will have some form of intergrated solution too?

what model desktop is it? (eg dimension 3000)

Do a search for nv*.* amd see if there's cab files or dlls left over after you've uninstalled the card. Try to find out exactly what the files are and ensuring they are Nvidia files before moving (not deleting) them to another location such as the desktop where Windows will ignore them.

Do this in safe mode (keep pressing f8 as the PC boots up and select safe mode) having first uninstalled the drivers. The 2000/XP drivers will work on home or pro as the two are pretty much the same as far as hardware is concerned. Now try to install the new drivers and it should be ok.

Might be worth seeing if there's onboard video as well as a PCI/AGP card and using that while you sort it out. If it's all integrated then never mind :thumbdwn:

is the graphics card a "add in" card? if its a dell im pretty sure it will be' date=' also pretty sure it will have some form of intergrated solution too?

what model desktop is it? (eg dimension 3000)[/quote']

By 'add in' I'm assuming you mean you can take it in and out? which is yes. It was replaced November last year in fact as it went funny then too :thumbdwn: I don't think it has an integrated solution though :confused: It's a dimension 4550

Dell actually returned my call on Friday (which should have been on Tuesday ) - I must have spent about 5 hours messing with the damn thing now - so I had a rant (as you do) - they asked if they could put me on hold - and then cut me off :mad:

I'm actually going to try all of the things that have been suggested on here (which I haven't already had a bash at) and see if that sorts it.....

Don't know if this may help, long time since I have used windows and this is from memory but instead of trying to install by double clicking the drivers try going to device manager, double click the display adaptor, then go to the drivers tab and then update driver option. Then use the install from a specific location , then use don't search, I will choose a driver from a specific location (or something similar) and click ok, it should then show a screen with 'have disk' on it, click or select this and then browse to where you have downloaded/unpackaged the latest NVidia drivers then look for the inf file, select it and hit ok.

aj