Startup woes, Part 4

OMG, you’re going to laugh at me, but that recent nVidia driver (see this post) has screwed up my system. So I ate humble pie, completely uninstalled it and let the OS choose an earlier driver to install. I also had to use jv16 Power Tools to clean out the remnants of all that nVidia crap. This is particularly important, otherwise the driver that Vista chooses won’t install and operate properly.

So Vista reports that the nVidia version I’m using now is 7.15.11.6369 (September 11, 2007). If you want this driver, don’t bother to look for it at the nVidia website, it’s not listed there anymore. Go to this website which I found in a Google search.

Startup woes, Part 3

Well, I need to apologize to Vista. It wasn’t her fault. The rogue was the latest nVidia driver, GeForce Release version 175.16 (May 16, 2008). Checked out the nVidia Forums and it seems like there have been complaints about this version being buggy (which it is!)

So I downloaded an earlier driver, version 169.25 (December 20, 2007) installed it, and rebooted. Perfect! Hope this will help someone out there having similar problems.

Startup woes, Part 2

Well, I suppose I was looking for trouble, or taking a big risk. I uninstalled the nVidia graphics drivers that Vista had installed (see my post Startup woes), went to nVidia’s website and downloaded the newest drivers for my GeForce 7200GS graphics card.

Installation went pretty well. I was told to reboot, so I did, and…plain vanilla blue screen. Took me another hour to get Vista to install its own nVidia drivers…damn.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. How true. I’m strolling off, with my tail in between my legs.

Startup woes

This morning, I powered on my computer, and…nothing. Vista refused to start. There was just a plain blue screen (not the BSOD aka Blue Screen of Death) with no icons, no wallpaper, no taskbar…NOTHING. I figured it was a video driver problem, so I uninstalled the present nVidia drivers, downloaded fresh ones from the Net (I could do all this because I booted up using Safe Mode with Networking).

Installed the new drivers in Safe Mode, rebooted, and…same problem. Made me wonder, so I uninstalled the nVidia drivers, rebooted and asked Vista to look for new video drivers. Did this in Device Manager. It did so, and after one more reboot, voila! Vista started up with all the familiar icons, wallpapers, etc.

Man, this OS can be picky about video drivers. So a good thing to try would be to let Vista connect to the web and download the drivers it deems “suitable” for your system. This was what I did with my oldish Creative SB card, and I’ve had no problems with that.

How to keep your computer (and yourself) happy

Well first, here’s the stuff that I have in my PC. I built it myself (ta-dah!)

• Intel Pentium 4 3GHz processor with Hyper-Threading
• Intel D915GUX Motherboard
• Western Digital 80GB SATA Hard Disk
• 2 GB of Kingston RAM
• Lite-On DVD Writer
• nVidia GeForce 7200GS graphics card with 256MB RAM
• Windows Vista Ultimate

And this is what I have to keep my computer (and myself) happy:

• Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.22.349. This firewall is free and doesn’t consume a lot of system resources. During the first week or two after installation, it will bug you about allowing or denying events, but once it’s learnt what goes in and out of your computer, it just keeps a silent watch in the background. If you’re connected to the Internet (and who isn’t nowadays) you need a firewall.
• AVG 8 Free. Again, if you’re connected to the net, you need antivirus protection, period. I’ve used AVG 7.5 in the past, and it does a pretty good job, so does the new version 8. Just remember to keep it updated and scan through your system at least once a week. The new AVG 8 comes with built-in spyware protection as well.
• CCleaner v2.07.575. Everyone needs a program to clean through the junk files that get deposited on our hard disks every time we visit the Internet and do stuff in Windows. CCleaner is free, and does an excellent job in the housekeeping area. You can even set it to run automatically every time Windows starts.
• O & O Defrag 10. Again a defragmenting program is necessary due to the fact that Windows throws and scatters files willy-nilly throughout a hard disk. Defragmentation re-sorts and consolidates files so it’s easier for Windows to find them. Think of Windows as a very untidy teenager throwing stuff around the house; a defragmenting program is the housekeeper that tidies up after him. O & O is not free, but there are plenty of free defragmenting programs around. Defraggler is a good one to use. Defrag your hard disks at least once a week and you’ll be ok. HOT NEWS O & O Defrag 4 is now available for free! Register here to get your free copy, with no limitations.

Now where’s my coffee?