Graphics card has stopped working or is not being recognised.

[amanda_rami]

Ok, so first off - my computer used to overheat alot, until the fan was cleaned of all the dust and stuff blocking it up, and that fixed that. However, after this my graphics card would not allow me to play the Sims 2. Since I was unable to play that, I went and dug up my old 'Age of Mythology' game, which worked perfectly for about a week until now. At the beginning of the game it says that my graphics card is not supported by Age of Mythology, whereas it had been earlier that day. It's as if my graphics card is slowly deteriorating or something.
I read up on this sort of problem on the internet, and tried the main solution that was suggested, which was to run dxdiag and click display and see what it says about my card. All of the information about the device is n/a, and all the directX features are unavaliable. In the notes it says:

'The system is using the generic video driver. Please install video driver provided by the hardware manufacturer.
To test DirectDraw functionality, click the "Test DirectDraw" button above.
Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.'

I may be wrong on this, but the generic video driver is the one windows comes with, right? Well I know for sure that the graphics card in my computer is good enough to run the Sims 2, because it was bought because my previous one couldn't. I just don't understand why this would be happening, could it be a virus?
If possible, I would like suggestions on what I may do to be fix it solutions rather than buy a new one solutions as I am only fourteen and as you may gather from that, not very wealthy (or computer smart as to how to install a new card/chip).
Please help, this is my last resort as the only other person in my household who may even have an inkling as to what this is all about refuses to help.
I look forward to your answers.

Oh, and the system I have is Windows Xp, just incase you needed to know that.

 

[Rik]

Sounds like the driver for your graphics card has become corrupted. try installing a new one from the makers website.

If you dont know what graphics acrd you have, google and get everest home edition, that will help.


Here's a picture that should help. I have circled the buttons you need to click and the information you will need.

 

[amanda_rami]

Thankyou very much, I'm searching for the site now.
Found out my card is a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE.

 

[Rik]

No problem, post here again if you need any further help.

 

[amanda_rami]

I downloaded and installed the right driver from this website: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp, but it still has the same issues.
Tried it twice with the same result.

 

[Cinders]

OK either your video card is going to video card heaven or Windows XP is really messed up. The fix in the first case requires that you purchase a new video card. sorry about that. This may be the case if your getting pastel colored lines or blocks across your screen and random crashing. Has your computer recently found and installed new hardware without you actually adding new hardware?

The fix for the second case requires that you reinstall DirectX 9C and your video card driver again. Now to be 100% honest when faced with the problem you have, I save the stuff I want to save to a an external backup like an extra computer, USB hard drive, DVD disk etc etc, then I repartition, reformat and reinstall with my Windows XP disk IF i can't get things to work within two or three days. I usually end up doing this about every six to eight months just for mantenance. Of course I have game machines which means that I can easily lose almost everything and not sweat the cost. All my games are on disk or are just a download away on Steam. The music I have purchase is backed up on both DVD and another computer. The few files I do generate are small enough to save to a flash drive. When I wipe my computer I get the warm, clean feeling of a fresh install with the knowledge that everything is up to date and viri free. Of course I do have broadband and downloading all eighty or so XP updates is easy for me and may not be the case for you.

 

[amanda_rami]

Well no pastel coloured lines or blocks, and random crashing has stopped since the fan was fixed, so that's good. For the reinstalling and reformatting - a backup as in a portable hardrive would work? Then it would just be a matter of waiting until one is bought, as we were going to get one to be safe anyway, and I do have broadband so the updates shouldn't be much of a problem.
Thankyou for your help.

 

[Rik]

There is one thing you could try.
Boot into safe mode by pressing F8 before windows begins to load then select safe mode from the menu that appears.
Let the pc boot fully, it will take a while.
Click start, control panel, then switch to classic view in the top of the column on the left if it isn't already set to that view. The click on system, then hardware tab, then device manager, then display adapters. Uninstall everything in display adapters then reboot in normal mode.

Windows will then install its driver, you then run the installer you downloaded.

With a little luck that will fix your problem.

If not there are a few things left to try so let me know how you get on.

 

[amanda_rami]

It was fixed!... Kind of...
Ok, so the videocard starts working again - but my wireless network is nowhere to be seen... I restarted the computer and the wireless network is there, along with the working video card - but there is no sound. One more restart, and the video card has stopped working again.
Could it be messing with all these things?
It seems I have to uninstall and reinstall the driver everytime I start my computer... which doesn't take very long but it's very frustrating.

 

[Rik]

Hmmm, it sounds like windows is in a bit of a bad way.

Run scandisk and see if that helps, otherwise your pc my be infected with malware.

Let me know if you need help with that and how you get on.