Sudden display driver problems

charlieheard

While we were away last week, we had a powercut. When I started the PC and logged into my account, the PC rebooted and came up with an error with the display driver, advising me to upgrade it or disable the hardware acceleration features. The PC had been fine before our holiday. From the device manager, I selected the update driver button, which seemed to successfully use a Microsoft driver. Upon rebooting, the display was blank after the initial BIOS and WinXP screens. I reboooted using the F8 key to return to the previous setup. I disabled all the acceleration and "enable write combining", but the PC continued to freeze, then display an error and drop down to 640x480x16 colours.

I found the ATI/AMD website, and downloaded the latest driver and control center software for my Radeon 7000 card. When I installed the software, it displayed a message box, title "Sever", text "Zero Display Service Error". When I pressed OK, it continued to install the Control Center software. The PC continued to freeze the display at random moments, with activity in the background from the disk. It did not display video until I disabled some of the hardware acceleration and the "write combine" - I am now 3 steps down, and it appears stable.

Also, on booting, just before the accounts screen, the monitor displays a blank screen with random colour blocks in the top left corner, and appears to be changing the display mode a few times.

I guess I might have a faulty card or motherboard connection, though I have removed the card and cleaned the connections. Any ideas how I can restore the graphics card to full functionality?

BillScarab

Do you have a driver disk that came with the card? That would allow you to put on the original driver that came with it, which ought to be stable and work OK.

You could try uninstalling card in device manager and then rebooting, it should then detect it as new hardware and install a basic Microsoft driver.

Do you have, or know anyone who has, an old card you could use to test the slot?

charlieheard

BillScarab wrote:

Do you have a driver disk that came with the card? That would allow you to put on the original driver that came with it, which ought to be stable and work OK.

You could try uninstalling card in device manager and then rebooting, it should then detect it as new hardware and install a basic Microsoft driver.

Do you have, or know anyone who has, an old card you could use to test the slot?

Thanks for this.

The card (and the PC) are over 3 years old, and I don't think I have the disk. The driver which failed was dated 2003, which makes me wonder if it might be hardware-related.

I did disable the card in DM, and the PC did work, albeit basically. When the machine tried to find the latest driver, it found a Microsoft one, but that didn't work - the PC booted through the BIOS and WinXP initial screens, but then the monitor went blank and into power-saving mode.

I might try to borrow an old card from the bloke who built the PC, and see if that helps. I'm afraid that the card or motherboard (or both) may have suffered from the power-cut despite the surge-protector - I may have to replace one or both

I'm still intrigued by the error message installing the driver "Zero Display Service Error"

GreenNotM

charlieheard wrote:

While we were away last week, we had a powercut. When I started the PC and logged into my account

Was the pc left on for a week ? Just curious .. as pc may have done an auto - update etc..

If you are using XP, have you tried a system restore to before you went away ?

BillScarab

I got quite a few hits on google for this.

This thread has a couple of suggestions on it

http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t54121.html.

charlieheard

GreenNotM wrote:

Was the pc left on for a week ? Just curious .. as pc may have done an auto - update etc..

If you are using XP, have you tried a system restore to before you went away ?

Good thought, but I have it set to ask me before updating anything - I like to know what I'm getting...

GreenNotM

but was it connected to the internet for a week ? And using power for week ?

You should still be able to restore back .... maybe a java update etc etc ..

charlieheard

BillScarab wrote:

I got quite a few hits on google for this.

This thread has a couple of suggestions on it

http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t54121.html.

Thanks. I used the search on the support.amd.com site and came up with nothing :rolleyes:

Edit: Hmmm! Looking at the forum posts around the web re this error, no one seems to have a definitive answer except reformating and reinstalling! Still, there are a few things to try which have worked for some but not all... Ho hum :rolleyes:

charlieheard

Just a quick update.

I couldn't get the card to work, despite trying a variety of drivers, even the 3rd party Omega ones. My friendly local computer builder agreed that he thought the card was broken, possibly the memory.

So went to a variety of suppliers, but couldn't find a really cheap AGP card. In the end spent £90 at PC World for a PNY nVidia card which should cope for the next few years...