To start:
XP Pro 32 bit w/ up to date service pack
1.7 AMD processor
Nvidia 7600 AGP 256 meg w/ latest drivers
512 mb DDR
HP W2207 22" w/ latest drivers running DVI


I will list my circumstances leading up to the issue in chronological order.

1.-Was running ATI 9800 Pro 128 meg video card.
2.- Was running a CRT monitor
3.- system worked great, everything functioned perfect
4.- Purchased HP w2207, installed drivers, used DVI cable
5.- Any and all games ran terrible in any resolution. The lower the resolution the worse off.
6.- Reinstalled Catalyst over 10 times.
7.- Physicially removed and reseated vid card
8.- Reinstalled HP drivers over 10 times
9.- Purchased Nvidia 7600
10.- Completely wiped all traces of ATI drivers with several cleaner programs
11.- Installed latest Nvidia drviers
12.- Installed card, firmly seated, etc etc
13.- Games responded better in native and lower resolution.
14.- Noticed games looked very pixelated and blurry in any reso lower then native (1650x1080)
15.- Games altogether stopped working on my system.
16.- Any time I launch any game new or old it will launch into a black screen, sometimes start to play an opening cutscene, then I am given the standard xp error message with the "send" or "don't send" option.

I have reinstalled drivers more times then I care to count, I am running all the games in the native resolution as long as they support it. I honestly don't know what to do short of buying a new box and throwing this one out the window, I just don't have the money.

Someone please help, this is driving me mad, what used to be a nice working gaming computer is now only good for internet and text documents.

All that and you never tried reinstalling windows?

No. Would it help any? I wasn't thinking it wouldn't but hell I'm desperate.

Huh. You know, there was someone else who spelled Athlon 'Anathalon'.

imsoshort? warlockmish? One of them, I think?

You've been reinstalling drivers like crazy, windows is probably all ****ed up. It happens. A few months ago Vista decided I didn't have a cd drive, and nothing but a reinstall would fix it.

Backup, reinstall, see if that works. If that doesn't do it at least you know its some sort of hardware problem.

Wasn't me, I didn't even know what an Athlon was untill late '06.

512mb of RAM? What games are you trying to run?

Its ****ing 4 in the morning, I havent slept in 2 days, who cares.



Anything from dark forces to UT2K4. It all worked fine before I swapped hardwares.



I'll give this a shot.

I actually sorta cracked up / thought you were joking because I remember in a previous thread Joncy had tried to make fun of you by suggesting you upgrade to an "Anathalon" and I thought you were poking fun at him. Hahahah.

Anyways this

14.- Noticed games looked very pixelated and blurry in any reso lower then native (1650x1080)

Is just a shortcoming of LCDs (if you run lower than native you get bluriness/ugliness)


Also how much money don't you have? You could build a decent mid-range "gaming" computer for like $300-400. A "performance" gaming computer for 500-600.

I really don't have any to spare unfortunately.

Thanks for pointing that out, I am relatively new to LCD's, I only recently got my first one around january.

I usually settle for different things computer wise, this time around I'd like to try to get everything I am aiming for. The rig I would -like- to build, would probably cost me around $800-900. I'm trying to save for that.

Try installing a newer/older version of your video drivers. Latest WHQL version if you're using something newer, or else the latest bleeding edge version. Also try updating DirectX 9 (Windows Update won't do it) as well as trying OpenGL-based games to see if you have any better luck with them (Quake 3, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy. Half-Life can use OpenGL but it might launch in DX mode by default so you might need a special command line switch for it. You can also try Google Earth which has shortcuts for both DX mode and OpenGL mdoe.).



Sounds like a driver filter problem. I made a quick and dirty program to help me diagnose those: http://junk.mzzt.net/DriverFilters.exe It won't show invalid filters directly but you can double click an entry to jump to it in regedit.

Basically, it happens when a device such as a CD drive has a driver filter attached to it by a third-party program, but then the driver is uninstalled or otherwise cannot start (IE if you delete the program without properly uninstalling it). If the filter driver cannot start, neither can the main device driver. You'd have to remove the filter before the device driver can start.

One time I fixed a CD drive like this, apparently iTunes had been installed and it installed a filter, but then someone deleted the iTunes folder to "uninstall" it.

Of course you already bulldozed and rebuilt the house to fix the lousy plumbing, but whatever. >_>

I would look at your chipset drivers for your motherboard, specifically the AGP drivers.

The only time I ever saw an LCD looking worse in a non-native resolution was on old laptops. All the modern LCD's I have used have no problem operating at standard resolutions.

The LCD thing might be monitor settings. My OSD settings has options to display 1:1 with lower resolutions, and various ways of stretching to fit. Check for similar options.

sell me your 7600 and throw the rest away

no no no, I remember now

He called it an Anthalon then too, so I told him to upgrade to an Anathema.

Thenewkid is warlockmish.

Onimusha is some new kid.

It might just be the nvidia drivers to be honest. I've had a lot of problems recently with the latest releases of the nvidia drivers in conjunction to playing games.

All really started when I installed fallout 3 though so I'm guessing it did some naughty things.

Reverted to older drivers, quite stable but still get the occasional random crash (not necessarily in games unfortunately).

It happens on like all of my computers =_= I guess it's more noticeable on the desktop than in games though for me since the icons etc are all obviousy blurred. I dunno. Maybe it's Windows's fault.

If only.... -sigh-



Thanks everyone for the input, I've got a new method of attack on this ***** now.