Windows download errors.

Johnmcl7

Ron_Doran wrote: »

Johnmcl7 - Yes, it fails before, I guess, it completes the install.
I am sure that you can also guess that it reports 'Failed'.
I have just looked back in Control Panel/S & S/Win. Update/ Installed updates and to my amazement there are 13 updates for M/s.NET framework 4 all on 22/11/12. That I do not believe.

Is there anything in the application event logs regarding the graphics card install? What does the graphics card show as in device manager, is it running the Nvidia driver or a default Microsoft one?

John

Ron_Doran

Lum - Deleted Nvidea GeForce and Physx. There were no others.
Tried to install driver 'Failed'

Ron_Doran

What does Microsoft.NET Framework do? Is it critical?
I suspect that it is part of my current problem. Thanks.

Johnmcl7

Ron_Doran wrote: »

What does Microsoft.NET Framework do? Is it critical?
I suspect that it is part of my current problem. Thanks.

Dot net framework is a common interface which is required for any software written for it so it's not critical, any software that requires it normally will warn you the correct version is missing and give you a link to download it. The ATI control panel did use dot net at one point but I don't know about the Nvidia driver package, this is why I was asking you *exactly* what point it fails to try and narrow down whether it's a general install issue, an issue specific to the device driver or a problem with the Nvidia control panel.

John

Ron_Doran

Johnmcl7 - ''Is there anything in the application event logs regarding the graphics card install?'' Don't know where to locate this.
Device Manager is showing ''Unknown Device'' (As does PC issues-near the clock- when I switch on it tries to load an ''unknown device'' driver, but of course it fails and not even a mention of failing/report.)

Johnmcl7

To get to the event viewer you can either right click my computer and choose manage or go to control panel, administrative tools and open Computer Management. A couple of items down you should see Event Viewer with a little arrow, click this and it will expand then do the same on Windows Logs, you should now see Application, Security and System (plus possibly a couple of others).

These logs contain all the information about what is going on in your PC, they're date/time stamped as well as graded in terms of their severity. They can be a very useful tool as they can provide more information about an error than is shown normally but the tricky part is there's lots of entries so you need to find the right one. For example when you start up there are lots of information events to show the PC powered up, starting the event log, started services etc.

I'd start in the system log and scroll through the date/times until you find the last time you got an error trying to update the device driver for the graphics card which is likely marked with a red exclamation or possibly yellow. When you click it, you should see a message which may contain more detail as to why the driver didn't work. If you're getting nothing there it may be worth a look in the application log but it sounds more like an issue that would be record in the system log.

One important note is not to worry about other errors and warnings unless they appear to relate to what you're doing as it's entirely normal to have warnings and errors.

Are you seeing any display adapter in device manager? It's sounding increasingly like the graphics card is failing.

John

Ron_Doran

Johnmcl7 - I am sorry that I can't get passed your first paragraph. It is as tough I am in Euston Station and you are giving me instructions from Victoria Station.
I am on Windows 7 Ult. And you?
I don't really mind if I have to have a new device, it is just that I would like to know what the problem is. Thanks. It will be registered.

Johnmcl7

I am on Windows 7 as well, see if this video helps you at all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vUOyxmU1o

Like he does in the video you want to go into the system log, scroll through the events to the date/time your driver update failed and see if there's an error there matching that - something like 'Driver update failed for unknown device', if you can find it the error information should be more helpful in diagnosing the issue.

Don't clear the event log as he says though and don't be worried if you seem to have a lot of events in there, it's entirely normal even on a machine that's working fine.

John