Video driver problems

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AmpedNow
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Video driver problems

Post by AmpedNow »

I have a Gateway laptop running Vista. Ever since I've had it, the video driver will crash occasionally, and I'll get a popup balloon that says "video driver "x" has stopped responding, and has successfully recovered."

This usually happens when I plug it in while it's running on battery, when the screen changes brightness settings.

I didn't consider it that big a deal until one time it froze up and the screen kept blinking off and on. I had to do a hard reboot.

MIcrosoft has no fixes for it. Gateway says I already have the required driver. I have no idea how to fix this...

Any suggestions?
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Hoosier Daddy
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Welcome to Microsoft Vista, where it's more important to be first than it is to be correct.
I had similar issues. I'm just toughing it out.
Mac ought to be making some serious marketing hay out of this.

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Lester
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Lester »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:Mac ought to be making some serious marketing hay out of this.
Not if they haven't already... Win7 goes RTM within the next 2 weeks, and it ain't Vista.

What flavor of Vista are you running? (32-bit or 64-bit?) Also, have you installed Service Pack 1 and/or 2 yet? If not, I'd start there. (Right click on COMPUTER and select PROPERTIES from the drop down... it can answer both these questions.)

Who makes your video card? Is it an Intel integrated video card, or a discreet add-on (nVidia / ATI?) Regardless of answer, check the manufacturers website for the video chipset. You sometimes have to dig, as they don't like releasing drivers for OEM manufacturers products, but there should be something out worth trying. Just make sure your source is reputable, and that you grab the right driver package (see 32/64-bit question above).

Lastly, find a cheap Win7 upgrade deal and buy it when it is available. Win7 is infinitely more stable than Vista, and faster than XP. I contended from the beginning that if M$ had spent as much time getting VIsta right as the did Office 2007, we'd have never had this problem... 6 billion dollars later, they finally did it right.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

Lester wrote:....I contended from the beginning that if M$ had spent as much time getting VIsta right as the did Office 2007, we'd have never had this problem... 6 billion dollars later, they finally did it right.
I will give credit to Microsoft for getting seamless compatibility between Office 2007 and Office 2003. The big issue is that corporate IT won't bite on the new software because they fear endusers are going to balk at the Ribbon interface. :evil: I then have to remember that these are the same people who think that we all want to still be using IE6 instaed of a modern multi-tabbed browser because of the cost issue associated to making the jump to IE7.

I have been running the WIn 7 release candidate for a few months now on a 4 year old laptop and I love it. Brilliant work from Microsoft.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Tom Taggart »

Unless you tell it not to, the new version of Office will save documents in the .docx file form. Which, of course, is undecipherable to anyone else unless they either have the new version of Office, or download the reader from Microsoft. This becomes a nuisance if you share documents across the net a lot.

I find the new version of Word just plain confusing--way too much junk at the top of the screen. But then, I prefer Word Perfect, which is designed for people who can type. Word processing software matured ten years ago, most of the changes made recently don't add anything really useful for most users, and fall into the geek "gee, look at this neat" gadget category.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Lester »

The Ribbon has a definite learning curve... but once you figure it out, you realize everything lives exactly where it should have from the beginning. Very slick, and kids who grow up using that as the defacto will never understand how we got anything done under the old interface. :-)
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Tom Taggart »

Having typed for a living (as a clerk for a Court of Appeals), I prefer more screen, less toolbars. Most of the time all I need is a way to change fonts, type size, margins and centering. Occasionally special characters. The basic weakness of Word has always been the "template" model, and the awkward way you have to change margins. The automatic print feature is a nuisance as well as the tendency of the program to think too much (auto numbering of lists, etc., which you need to keep turning off). The only good feature they have is the simple method to change spacing (single/double). The rest of crap can live somewhere else.

Always found WordPerfect easier to learn, and to use. Still use it for most of my writing. If I need to, I can convert the finished document over to Word for distribution, although I am more likely to send it out as a PDF, since just about everyone has a PDF reader on their computers.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Jet Black »

I have to agree with Tom on the Word thing. The .docx file is prefectly useless because nobody else has it. I can't imagine why they did that at Microsoft except as a revenue generator, make everybody upgrade or die. Same as Tom, I find the new toolbars confusing, have to search around and change tabs for simple things like spell checking.

I've got 64 bit Vista on this Satellite I bought, and, although I am unsophisticated computer-wise, I can't say I've had any problems with it. I don't recall that it's crashed on me even once. Stable, but I don't push it too hard.

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Re: Video driver problems

Post by genlock »

Anybody know what an upgrade to winders 7 will cost?
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

For those using Office 2003, this MS built add-in will be a life saver if you work with inconsiderate people who use the Office 2007 xml based format.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

It was installed in January on my freshly rebuilt laptop at the office and it has been a lifesaver. Many of the companies that we lease software services from have already moved to Office 2007 and send documents to us in that format. That meant that I had to convert these documents into 2003 formats at home then carry them back to the office. What a PITA. Now, .docx and .xlsx files open with no problems. Great tool from Microsoft.

How often do you hear that last line from anyone?

.
.
.
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Is it me, or has MS changed as a company since Gates left?

*Making old tools forward compatible.
*Fixing Vista in 2.5 years with Windows 7. (How many years did it take them to get XP right?)
*Extending support for XP
*Moving Office 2010 to the Cloud.
*Creating monthly subscription based collaborative web sites for small businesses that do not want to purchase large infrastructure.
*Making "Home Server" a product that works.

Now if they would abandon Windows Mobile/CE and make a real mobile OS and not something that is a bastardized form of Outlook on a phone then we might have a chance to say that MS is a new company.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

genlock wrote:Anybody know what an upgrade to winders 7 will cost?
I purchased my Home Premium upgrade for $49.00 about a month ago and will pick up the software on Oct. 22. Professional was available for $79.00 Enterprise Upgrades appear to be priced from around $77.00 (prox) per computer, but that is subject to additional markup based on services provided by you Microsoft Reseller through the Microsoft Software Assurance Program.

Here is the retail pricing as of October 22nd.

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99


I have a couple of friends from back home in the Delaware Valley that want Windows 7 for use at their church/business, but they are not large enough to need the Enterprise package and software assurance. I was hoping to purchase a 5 pack of Professional Upgrade packages for resale but it does not appear that option is not available to me at this time which is a huge bummer because MS is losing out a bit not offering that for upgrading stand alone PCs at very small enterprises or business coupled with the personal touch of partner service.

Now because I subscribe to MAPS and I am a Microsoft Partner, I can download the RTM version of Windows 7 on August 23. (MSDN developers download on Aug 6, Gold Certified on Aug 16th). So I have to finish a project in the next three weeks to update "Monster" to 64 bit Ultimate, "Spareparts" to 64 bit Professional, and "Lappy2" to 32 bit Business. ("Lappy1" will continue to be my Ubuntu box) I guess my Home Premium License will go on this new computer I am building out of the $299.00 WalMart Special Laptop that I acquired this morning at 8:00am that will be a gift when finished and tested to be error free by the end of the year. This also means that I will be adding lots of new hard drive space to my desktop PCs and setting them up for testing in a couple of environments. Lots of fun in months to come.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

Tom Taggart wrote:Always found WordPerfect easier to learn, and to use. Still use it for most of my writing. If I need to, I can convert the finished document over to Word for distribution, although I am more likely to send it out as a PDF, since just about everyone has a PDF reader on their computers.
I did not learn how to write without using WordPerfect 5.1 until 2005. I was forced by Oracle to use their Word templates which was a huge drag but now I can write in a non text based format. Adobe rocks as the best was to distribute documents. It is the best way to take information from multiple sources and aggregate it into a formal document for both digital and physical distribution.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by AmpedNow »

I have 32 bit Vista. SP2 and all the updates. Intel integrated video graphics card.

I also went to Intel's website and they don't have a fix, either.

It's not that big a deal, really. I just don't want it to fry my computer or anything.

I am considering upgrading to 7 when it comes out...but will it be backwards compatible with older programs?
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

AmpedNow wrote:I am considering upgrading to 7 when it comes out...but will it be backwards compatible with older programs?
With XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional, it will be backwards compatible with most applications.

I am not sure if XP Mode requires a licensed copy of XP to run in a virtualized PC or if it is like running an application in a DOS window in Win95-XP. I have heard conflicting stories as to how this is going to work and have not tested it myself.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Lester »

And standard "compatibility mode" works as well.

In short, if what you're running works with Vista, it's going to work with Windows 7.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by The-Hammer »

Image

Nothing relevant here. You can go about your business. :)
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by AmpedNow »

cgarison wrote:With XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional, it will be backwards compatible with most applications.


Good to know that old, pirated XP software will continue to work with 7.

It's supposed to use less RAM than Vista as well, so maybe I'll get a speed boost.


Image

:mrgreen:
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by AmpedNow »

Intel finally released a 42 MB fix for it. Guess I wasn't the only one...

So far, no problems.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by Ace Purple »

I found the .docx and Word 07 approach from Microsoft to be most unsatisfying. I went out of my way to get Word 03 for my computer, which works quite well.
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Re: Video driver problems

Post by cgarison »

Ace Purple wrote:I found the .docx and Word 07 approach from Microsoft to be most unsatisfying. I went out of my way to get Word 03 for my computer, which works quite well.
Psst..... Wanna Buy Word 2007...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12 ... laws_word/
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