Computer help please
 

Rebooted my computer today and noticed right away the colors looked a bit off. Tried playing some movies and it's laggy and grainy.

Took a closer and went to my device manager and saw an explanation mark for my video card. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling twice now and to no avail.

After I reboot Windows tries to install the device software but says it failed and was not successfully installed.

The drivers are all up to date but in the Video Card Properties it still states "Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Code 37)"

and under the Resources Tab it states "The device isn't using any resources because it has a problem"

I've googled around and basically all sources just say uninstall, reboot, reinstall and it will go away but it hasn't.

Any PC pros got any advice? Is it time to get a new video card or?

1. turn off Windows setting that enables automatically reinstall of drivers. (google it)
2. if you have any overclocking software make sure it's running stock settings and close them (also ensure they do not start on startup)
3. download the driver and save it to desktop. reboot
4. Start driver on desktop and if it's nvidia drivers make sure you check 'clean installation' and install in the default path.
5. once installed reboot.

If it's still not working try window restore. Sounds odd to have it happen completely outta the blue though so a graphics card replacement may be a long term solution if it does come back.

Thanks! Will try later I'm just in the process of backing up my pc for a restore which was my 2nd option but will try your method first. Thanks
Posted via RS Mobile

I would try reseating the video card in the slot.

It's actually rather rare for video cards to fail.

When a video card driver fails to install you usually have a very low resolution like 640x480. It doesn't sound like you are seeing this.

Resolution is at 1600 x 1200

Artifacts? What card and how old is it?

If you have a spare card test it

Geforce GT 320. It's one of those prebuilt HP Computers and is about 3 years old.

So I tried the manual install of the driver and it still isn't working. Still says "Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Code 37)" and "The device isn't using any resources because it has a problem".

Will try reseating the card after work today and if that fails, restore.

So I've tried it all except I didn't technically try to restore because the oldest restore point was from after the problem started. Did it anyway and it didn't work of course nor did I expect it to.

Google is not helping at all, over 90% of the results all state to uninstall, reboot, reinstall and it should work. I actually had a similar problem last year and this solution did work.

So what are my options now realistically? Bring it to a repair store? New video card? Perhaps this is a good excuse to get a new PC because I hate these prebuilt Acer pieces of junk. If it wasn't free I wouldn't have used it period. argh

if you are literate enough to check Device Manager then a repair shop is not worth it IMO...hell a new low-end card costs $50

last resort is fresh windows install...then again I'm convinced it's hardware related because it happened outta nowhere. But worth a shot it only takes 20 minutes if your data is properly backed up.

If you play games/professional edit it's not a bad time to get a new computer (new Intel and Nvidia processors just came out)

I've considered doing a fresh reformat but have never done it myself before although it can't be that hard I'm sure. Noob question though, if the windows was preloaded into this machine then how does that work? I don't have a windows disc or anything. I also just backed up everything onto a external hard drive via system backup so is that sufficient? Thanks!
Posted via RS Mobile

Ok fixed! Thank fucking god.

WAs going to do a complete reformat and my Burner is broken, can't burn anything so couldn't make any recovery discs.

Luckily Acer had eRecovery on the PC so I did a complete system restore and wiped my drive and it's fixed now. Oh well It's kind of nice to start fresh again.

Thanks for the help guys.

Weird.. I would've thought it was a hardware issue too.

Likewise, I'm no expert by any means but was pretty convinced at that point it was hardware related too. Well, as long as it's fixed I'm a happy man for now until it fucks up again or something else goes wrong.