Installing a New Graphics Card

[Siena1383]

Now what? I installed the graphics card and its software. It didn't resolve the 3D graphics problem. So if it's not the drivers and it's not the graphics card, what's left? Anything besides the motherboard? And even if the problem is in the motherboard, is there anything I can do?

I also tried Driver Sweeper and knocked out my Internet (ethernet) driver in the process, which is why I didn't post sooner. That is now fixed, at least.

(I'd post this as a new thread in Hardware Troubleshooting, but I'm afraid I'd incite the wrath of Mak.)

 

[Trotter]

I take it you had Driver Sweeper get rid of all Nvidia drivers? Your motherboard uses a Nvidia chipset, so make sure your reinstall all the drivers for it and not just the ethernet/LAN drivers. I did the same thing once because I didn't specify for it to only clean the graphics drivers, so don't feel bad about it.

Have you tried reinstalling DirectX? Here's a link to it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3

 

[Siena1383]

I take it you had Driver Sweeper get rid of all Nvidia drivers? Your motherboard uses a Nvidia chipset, so make sure your reinstall all the drivers for it and not just the ethernet/LAN drivers. I did the same thing once because I didn't specify for it to only clean the graphics drivers, so don't feel bad about it.

Have you tried reinstalling DirectX?

Yes, that's exactly what I did - had Driver Sweeper get rid of all NVIDIA drivers. I've reinstalled the chipset as well as the display and ethernet/LAN drivers. Also updated and reupdated DirectX a few times.

So.... still have that problem that the 3D driver is there, but none of my apps seem able to access it. Since the new graphics card didn't fix it, it's not the graphics card. So back to the question: What else might it be? Anything fixable? Any diagnostics I can try?

And by the way, what is the difference between NVIDIA and BFG? I thought NVIDIA was the brand name, but inside the graphics card box, it said BFG and people here referred to it as BFG.

 

[Trotter]

Nvidia is the manufacturer of the chip in the card, BFG is the maker and distributor of the card itself.

It sounds more like a Windows issue now. You have done everything hardware and software wise that I can think of.

Start up a new thread in the Windows forum outlining what's been done and tried so far.

 

[Siena1383]

Re: Installing a New Graphics Card - Happy Ending!!!!

Trotter, thanks for clearing that up about BFG & NVIDIA.

After a solid week of trying different things, the 3D graphics problem is now fixed! I'm posting here to let everyone know what the answer was.

Wayyyy back when this started, in another thread (maybe even on another board), someone told me to run dxdiag. I did, and it told me my 3D graphics weren't available. That was all it said, and no one said there was a way - right there in dxdiag - to make them available again. And I didn't know...

I'd noticed I couldn't play computer games requiring the 3D graphics, and I couldn't watch episodes of Lost on ABC.com. So I thought my video was affected, too.

Today, I was online and clicked on a news link. Instead of taking me to a written article, it started up a video. Right as I reacted, thinking, oh, I won't be able to watch this any more, the video was playing! So I tried other videos, and some I could watch and some wouldn't run.

That gave me the idea to try an online game, specifically America's Army. (I mention this to give the creators credit for accurate error handling.) Their error message told me exactly what to do in dxdiag. On the Display tab, all I had to do was enable 3D graphics. Now, the enable box was grayed out, but there was an Enable box for Direct Draw. I clicked on that, and it enabled the 3D Graphics.

Now all the things that weren't working are back again!!!

So all the time, all I ever had to do was click that button on the Display tab of dxdiag. What ****es me off is that when I ran dxdiag, all it did was tell me the 3D graphics weren't available, not what to do, and the solution was right there in that app.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to try to help me.