Driver problems or what?

[piniongear]

I have a RealFlight Simulator program that I cannot keep running.
When I got the program I also bought an Nvidia 9400GT card.
Installed the card and the Simulator worked perfect....... for 1 day.

Next day I reboot and the program will not open. I get a message that 'the card does not support 3D.' I go to device manager and see the 9400GT under Video Adapters has a yellow mark beside it. Is not working.

I uninstall the drivers, reboot, insert the disk for the Simulator, load the video drivers and reboot. Result..... Still have yellow mark beside the 9400GT. It does not work.

About the third try at this, it suddenly works. Next day it will not start up. Yellow mark again!

Finally I uninstall the drivers, pull out the new 9400GT card and install the old 8400GS card back in and reboot. The Simulator now opens! However, the text and icons on the desktop are huge. I conclude that is because I have put in the 8400 card.

So I reboot and then the text and icons are back to normal, but the yellow mark is beside the 8400GS, which is now shown under Video Adapters. The Simulator will not work.
I attempt to uninstall the drivers again but now the message is....'Cannot uninstall, Device needed for start up.'

Sorry for the long post. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

My computer is an old Dell Dimension 8400 (2004) running 2GB RAM and XP.
The power supply is 350W and the card states it requires minimum of 300W PS.
Some people have told me the power supply is too weak for this use. Right now I cannot believe that.
Any help is sure appreciated......... pg

[glc]

Reinstall the motherboard chipset drivers. They may be called Intel Chipset Identification Utility.

[piniongear]

Thanks GLC.
I went to Intel and found that the express chipset for my machine is 925X.
Intel told me this:
product detected: INVIDA GeForce 8400 GS
current driver installed: 6.14.11.7813
Non-Intel device detected. Please contact the device manufacturer for possible updates.
( Well, I have d/l 182.08 several times from Nvidia now, and that has not worked.)

At this point I am in deep water and way over my head.
I almost d/l the INFINST_AUTOL.EXE because I am certainly not experienced in this kind of thing.
But, I chickened out and only printed the read me file.
Thanks again. I wish I could go forward with it, but I am just lost........ pg

[glc]

The chipset driver is separate from the video driver. Download it from Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/downloads/en/downloads_splash?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~mode=popup&file=119730

The Dell power supply can handle either one of your video cards fine.

[piniongear]

Thank you GLC. You certainly made that easy.

However, the message I got at the beginning was 'C:\dell\drivers\r91894\data1.cab already exists. Do you want to overwrite it?
I choose yes to all and it then downloaded.

Reboot and everything is the same as it was.
Yellow mark by the 8400 GS card and 'the device is not working.'

I tried to update the video drivers but the Wizard told me that no better drivers could be found.
I do not know what the problem is, but it must have something to do with the the card(s).

I have been able to use the Simulator several different times since I bought it a month ago when both the 8400 GS or the 9400 GT cards are installed.
Then after a day it quits and the yellow mark is back beside the card with a CODE 10. :confused:
I may have to write this one off.
Thanks again....... pg

[glc]

All that did was extract the drivers into that folder. Did you then INSTALL them?

[piniongear]

Yes I did, yesterday using the Intel Chip Set Install Utility.( R91894.exe)
I did it again awhile ago and it said the drivers were there (Asked if I wanted to overwrite them)

Then I (tried) to check the install of R91822.exe. The Nvidia installer opened and quickly gave me this message......
'Nvidia Set Up Program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your hardware.'

The yellow exclamation mark beside the 8400 GS under Video Adapter/Device Manager remains there and the device is not working.

I sure appreciate your help with this one GLC.......... pg

[glc]

Whoa - you should not be using Dell drivers for your Nvidia cards - because a Dimension 8400 did not come with either one of those cards. You need to use generic drivers from Nvidia.com.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_182.08_whql.html

[piniongear]

GLC.......
The Dell Chip Set is installed.
Tonight I clicked on the link you provided to Nvidia, and it led me to tne now ever familiar 182.08 D/L site.

I opened up Device Manager and saw the yellow mark beside the 8400 GS card.
Back to Nvidia and D/L the 182.08 driver (for about the sixth time now) and when the D/L was complete, I clicked 'restart my computer later'.

Going to the device manager I see the yellow mark is now gone. (I did not try the Simulator at this point)

Rebooted and went straight to the device manager. Now the yellow mark has returned next to the 8400 GS card. :confused:

I may do it all over again but not reboot, and instead see if the Simulator when/if the yellow mark is gone.
Even if it does, I do not believe it will last long as this is the way I have got it to work in the past, but within a day the programs fails to open again. pg

[piniongear]

GLC......
Just a follow up to my last reply......

I D/L'd the Nvidia driver 182.08 again, did not reboot, but went straight to device manager.
The yellow mark is gone at the 8400 GS.
But, the icons on the desk top and text is now about 4 times normal size.
I open the FlightSimulator and it opens.
But the text is huge and the images overlap each other.
Close Simulator and reboot computer.

Icons and text are now normal size again.
Go straight to Device Manager and yellow mark is back beside 8400 GS card.
Simulator will not open.
pg

[glc]

Bizarre.

Have you tried doing a system restore back to a date before you bought the 9400?

[piniongear]

GLC.......
I did a system restore (twice) when this first started, but that did not do a thing related to this problem.

I think my only hope is to have this program work on the new build I am almost ready to undertake.

The Dell works fine except for this (?video-driver-card?) problem I am having.
I do plan on using the 9400 GT card in the new build though, so we will see if that has any affect on the new one.

Thanks so much for your help. I could not have done the checks without the guidence you provided........... pg

[piniongear]

GLC.....
A final reply to this withering thread, and then it can be closed out.

I uninstalled the drivers (again) for the 8400 GS card.
Reboot and New Hardware Found Wizard opens up.
Insert the Evga disk and the Wizard searches for VGA controllers.
After it has finished the job, no marks are beside the 8400 GS card, and the Simulator now works.
Too strange!
Thanks again for your help......... pg

[glc]

You used the drivers on the CD that came with the 8400GS? Interesting - those are probably quite a few generations old. Whatever works!

[piniongear]

GLC......
Yes, after finding it among the collection of CDs, I used the original CD that came with the 8400.
Before, I had always used the CD that came with the 9400, knowing that they were later drivers and thinking they would work.
But right now the driver for the 8400 is 6.14.11.7813 (dated 9/17/2008) and it works, so far anyway.
I am really curious why the later driver does not work.
Oh well, I get to try this again on the new build. Thanks again........ pg