Help with coming up with a new computer plan

[SD Nihil]

No appologies necessary. It doesn't bother me. I'm not sensitive in the least. Infact I had a nickname back in school which people would joke with me about. I was called 1 eyed wilie. lol. You know the guy from Goonies. lol. Na it doesn't bother me at all.

 

Anyway, do those LCDs also apply to flat panels. That's what this computer uses. It's great in filtering out any glare. Now that I've used flat panels I would hate to go back to regular monitors or flat screens. Flat panels just rock.

 

Thanks for the info on the gateways, dells, and such. Yeah I heard stuff like that. And that HP was the athority on printers and length of wires when speaking of signal strength. Meaning they know how long a wire can be before you lose bandwidth.

 

Ah so even though it wants to restart after I remove the ATI Driver software say no and then run the DriverSweeper, and then restart. And after that I insert the disc the card came with and install the out of the box drivers, and then upgrade to November 20, 2007 drivers correct? I remember when I did this before I installed the disc and it came up with the installation and said there was a couple times it couldn't install this component or that component. I guess that's because I didn't us at the time something like a driver sweeper.

 

Sure wish there was an easier way of just somehow uninstalling it back to the out of the box drivers. Of course if I were to go to the rool back option in the properties menu when you right click on the desktop and go to advanced and go to the video driver thing, even rolling back would just roll back to the prevous driver which would be last months. Kinda a pain to have to do, but it's the only way to get things back to November 20, 2007 I guess that's what I have to do correct?

 

So when I uninstall this stuff to do this, there are two ATI items in the Add/Remove programs list. ATI Uninstall Utility and ATI Display Driver. Do I do which one? Or do I uninstall both?

[Q]

Ah so even though it wants to restart after I remove the ATI Driver software say no and then run the DriverSweeper, and then restart.

Oops, I worded it wrong. What I always do is Add/Remove, restart in SAFE MODE by tapping F8 repeatedly as soon as you see the POST screen right after you turn on the computer and selecting SAFE MODE, run DriverSweeper and restart again, this time in normal mode, then install the driver.

And after that I insert the disc the card came with and install the out of the box drivers, and then upgrade to November 20, 2007 drivers correct?

No. You only need to install the 2007 driver and nothing else.

So when I uninstall this stuff to do this, there are two ATI items in the Add/Remove programs list. ATI Uninstall Utility and ATI Display Driver. Do I do which one? Or do I uninstall both?

It's been so long since I've messed with ATI drivers that I forgot that they have an uninstall utility. Try running that instead of using Add/Remove, then when prompted to restart, restart in SAFE MODE like I told you above, run DriverSweeper, restart into normal mode, and install the Nov 2007 driver. Then you'll probably have to restart again after that. That's all you'll have to do.

[urluckyday]

just stick with xp until windows 7 comes out and hopefully addresses the issues vista has.

 

I'd like to further understand these "issues" because as of Service Pack 1, I'm uncertain of any major issues...every OS has backward compatibility problems with something or another, so to say Vista is the culprit isn't fair...there were several programs I couldn't get working on XP that I had run just fine on 2000/98...

 

Do you use Vista, or do you simply read about others that do?

[SD Nihil]

Why is restarting in safe mode important? So your saying uninstall the ATI Uninstall Utility, or ATI Display Driver? Because before I uninstalled the ATI Uninstall Utility and it then also asked if I wished to uninstlal the Display driver too.

 

So let me make sure I got it straight. I know I just want to be sure because steps matter. First, I uninstall either the Uninstall Utility or Display driver(Depending on the question above). Next, it will ask me to restart. I agree. I repeatidly press F8 when it restats. Then I see the menu where it says safe mode. I enter on it. In safe mod I then run DriverSweeper. After that I restart to Normal mode.

 

Following this, I take the disc that installs the ATI card software and install that. Then restart. Once Windows comes back up I then install the November 20, 2007 drivers. Then I restart one last time. And taht is all correct?

[Q]

1) Run the ATI uninstall utility. You will be prompted to restart. Do so.

 

2) As soon as the PC powers up, tap F8 repeatedly and choose to boot into SAFE MODE as an Administrator. Yes, this is important as it will give DriverSweeper full access to Windows.

 

3) Run DriverSweeper. This will probably ask which drivers were installed on your computer previously (ATI or Nvidia). If you have used Nvidia drivers at any time in the past, I would suggest using DriverSweeper to clean both ATI and Nvidia.

 

4) Reboot again, this time in normal mode and install the Nov 2007 drivers ONLY. DO NOT USE THE DISK THAT CAME WITH YOUR CARD FOR ANYTHING.

 

5) Reboot again in normal mode, configure your settings, and you're done.

[Astrotoy7]

didnt get a PM on my end either. Feel free to re-send if required, but it looks like Q's got your back on this one super work Q !

 

mtfbwya

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

I'd like to further understand these "issues" because as of Service Pack 1, I'm uncertain of any major issues...every OS has backward compatibility problems with something or another, so to say Vista is the culprit isn't fair...there were several programs I couldn't get working on XP that I had run just fine on 2000/98...

actually, it is fair to say vista is the culprit. just because every os has backwards compatibility issues (i don't think i've run into any on linux or bsd though...) doesn't mean i should just excuse them.

 

Do you use Vista, or do you simply read about others that do?

i have a copy of home premium. i won't be mojave'd by you sir.

[SD Nihil]

Thanks. And after Step 5, I then put in the disc(there is two) that came with the card? The first one is: Display Installation CD and a Bonus Disc). I know the Bonus is probably not necessary, but this Display Installation CD do I insert that after Step 5?

 

As you can see I am detail oriented. I took a personality test recently and my primary personality is Intellectual and secondary personality amiable. We all have have a primary and secondary personality.

[Q]

You only need to install the 2007 driver and nothing else.

DO NOT USE THE DISK(S) THAT CAME WITH YOUR CARD FOR ANYTHING.

I'm sorry if that seemed a bit smartassed, but this is the third time that you've either asked this question, or continued to assume incorrectly. The correct answer is still NO. DO NOT USE THE DISKS THAT CAME WITH YOUR CARD, PERIOD. I can not be any clearer on this. This has now been asked and answered three times.

Do not ask me again, young one.

 

Driver Sweeper page

Driver download page

Instructions for removing old ATI software

Instructions for installing the new drivers

[SD Nihil]

lol. Okay okay. Sorry. I just was trying to make it clear since one time I asked about the disc's drivers and this time asked about its install software. Which it has a driver and software on it. And I was just trying to make it clear that you didn't mean simply put in the software, but not the driver.

 

And the first time I might have missed. Sorry about that. Now I have it clear. Thank you.

 

I'll attempt this tomarrow when I have more time. As for th PM to the both of you to componsate you for your efforts, I'll do that tomarrow too. Thanks again. I'll post again here if I encounter any problems. And yes good pic. lol.

[Q]

That's quite alright. Thanks for not getting upset. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything. Good luck to you.

 

I'll be on the lookout for a good deal on a Dell for you. I've seen some pretty nice systems going for around $500 without a monitor that would fit your needs nicely. With a decent monitor and video card it would come to between $800 and $900, and should serve you well for the next few years. It will most definitely be leaps and bounds ahead of what you have now.

[SD Nihil]

Well I've done it all. Phew kinda scary in some of the things I saw. AfWhen I selected ATI Uninstall uninstall Utility it asked if I also wanted to uninstall just the ATI card driver or also the chipset. The option to just uninstall ATI Display Drivers in parenthasese said recommended. So I did the recommended.

 

After I restarted after pressing F8 I saw the option to go into safe mode. After this of selecting Safe mode there was safe mode for network, safe mode in extended mode, and one that just said Safe Mode. So I did that one. Then there was a bunch of text that appeared all over the screen saying different system information. Kinda scary because I've had dreams in the past where I'd be on a computer and I would se a screen like this that would list words with error messages and stuff.

 

Anyway back to reality. After this it restarted into safe mode. It asked me if I wished to proceed to safe mode or go to system restore. I selected safe mode. After this yes the plug and play screen came up twice. I cancelled twice.

 

Oh forogt to mention before it came up with that message asking me if I wanted to do safe mode or system restore, it had the screen to log into a profile. One was my profile Jeff Franks and the scond was Administrator(which either you or Astor said for me to go into). So I tried Admin. It came up with a password blank space to fill in. I never did any password. If I did it must have been the independent tech who set up my computer

 

So I could only get in by selecting Jeff Franks. Anyway, after I got in and cancelled the plug and play thing for the newly deteced hardware like either you or Astro recommended, I was on the desktop.

 

At that point I went into Driver Sweeper. I selected ATI Driver and the two NVIDA items which were NVIDA Display Driver and NVIDIA chipset. I then selecte clean. Almost immediatly it was done.

I then restarted to normal mode. I then saw the plug and play screen and cancelled it twice again. The screen was huge. 480 something resolution. Too big even for me. lol.

 

So I set it to a better resolution I liked. I then tried to put on my zoomtext to see. Remember I'm half blind.

 

But it said the default display card drivers or something were not installed and that I needed to do that before I could use Zoomtext. So I thought since I was told I would not need a disc that I decided to restart to get the plug and play screen to come back up since I didn't know what to do. So I do it and it wanted me to select the driver. But it didn't work. It said I'd have to have put in the disc for the detected hardware device. So the only thing I could do was that. After doing that I was able to select the card option. There was a list of items. ATI Radeon 9550/1050, under that was a second instance of it, then a ATI Radeon, and then a final option ATI 9550. So I selected the first one. Then it asked me to restart.

 

After restarting I tried my Zoomtext again. Again some problem. So I thought just take out and put the disc back in. I do that. It asked me if I wished to install the ATI display driver or cancel. Since I couldn't really funcion without Zoomtext I did the install of the driver. I restart.

 

Now something different. When I did the starting of Zoomtext it said secondary display options are active and Zoomtext can only oporate with primary display options and if I wished to access primary display options by disabling secondary display options. I said yes. It then said Zoomtext has corrected an error in the dc chain and to get the primary display options I'd need to reboot my system. I do so. Same message. I restart and finally Zoomtext works.

 

A sigh of releif for me. But you see all these things I just didn't expect. I tried to do what you guys said, but at the same time all these un expected things came up. And just now I looked through the driverSweeper to see if the NVIDA stuff is no longer there, and the 2 NVIDA items are still there. This was tough. But I guess at this point I can just put in the ATI November, 20, 2007 update to get KOTOR to work again, unless you think I should put in the Omega drivers I told you about in the link.

 

Thanks again. That was pretty stressing and unexpected with all the stuff I encountered. I do appreciate your help I just at those times had no way of asking you during those times due to the fact safe mode does not allow devices to work it said and the same for internet until I get back into safe mode. And in normal mode I couldn't see well until I got my Zoomtext to work again.