New Driver Weirdness

MrObjectional · Oct 31, 2006, 02:25 AM

So I've got an HP zv5405 with an Athlon64 3200+, 1.25 GB RAM, but most relevantly, a GeForce4 440 Go. I know it's old but it still handles near everything I want to throw at it.

I was having trouble with Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs, and the support people reccomended I upgrade my drivers. Seeing as the official HP ones are dated 2005, I figured it was a good idea anyway. Of course, I would have to go third party, and so I downloaded the latest DHZer0point release (9291). I think it fixed the problem, but now I have some irregular symptoms. When I first installed the driver, it changed my resolution. I changed it back, but two other problems are still unsolved.

1. Whenever I boot up there is a 3 second black screen at the desktop (as if it were changing resolutions). The resolution remains the same, but that blackness is worrisome.

2. My games now detect my resolution (widescreen 1280x800) incorrectly. My old games remain at full res but any new ones install at a resolution of 1280x720 and cannot be moved any higher.

So far I have tried disabling the nVidia tray service, thinking that it may be causing that black screen by changing my resolution when it loads. No such luck, it's still problem. If anyone knows what the cause might be or how I would go about fixing this stuff I would appreciate any help you could offer.

MrObjectional · Nov 4, 2006, 01:32 PM

I found this answer on Nvidia's site, but I gotta say it's not what I was hoping for.

"Question
Why does the display blink off and then on when I click on the NVIDIA settings or go into display properties? How do I fix this?

Answer
This is not a problem and is expected behavior when clicking the NVIDIA settings icon or entering advanced display properties. The screen will also blink during startup, when right clicking on video files, and when clicking on the NVIDIA task bar icon."

I've never had this happen to me on any of my machines, but is this true? Does anyone else get a blank screen under these conditions?

fobis · Nov 4, 2006, 09:38 PM

Yes, that is true. nvidia's newer set of drivers have been doing this for quite a while, so it's not really a problem.
As for your resolution problem, I think you can add a custom resolution of your chocie in the nVidia control panel so games will detect it.

MrObjectional · Nov 18, 2006, 07:56 AM

I decided to reinstall my old drivers, so after uninstalling the DH ones, running driver cleaner, and reinstalling my old ones, I am getting BIOS post codes at boot telling me my video adaptor isn't working. CRAP. Whenever I boot or come back from hibernation, 3/4 times I get an error code, and I occasionally have problems with coming back from standby.

A friend was saying how a bad driver could possibly cause an unfinished cycle to hang in memory on the video card and cause a problem when booting. His solution was to remove all power from the laptop (including the battery) and letting the video RAM lose its charge. It hasn't solved the problem. So, I came for a second opinion.

Any ideas whatsoever?

Oct 31, 2006, 02:25 AM	#1
MrObjectional DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	New Driver Weirdness So I've got an HP zv5405 with an Athlon64 3200+, 1.25 GB RAM, but most relevantly, a GeForce4 440 Go. I know it's old but it still handles near everything I want to throw at it. I was having trouble with Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs, and the support people reccomended I upgrade my drivers. Seeing as the official HP ones are dated 2005, I figured it was a good idea anyway. Of course, I would have to go third party, and so I downloaded the latest DHZer0point release (9291). I think it fixed the problem, but now I have some irregular symptoms. When I first installed the driver, it changed my resolution. I changed it back, but two other problems are still unsolved. 1. Whenever I boot up there is a 3 second black screen at the desktop (as if it were changing resolutions). The resolution remains the same, but that blackness is worrisome. 2. My games now detect my resolution (widescreen 1280x800) incorrectly. My old games remain at full res but any new ones install at a resolution of 1280x720 and cannot be moved any higher. So far I have tried disabling the nVidia tray service, thinking that it may be causing that black screen by changing my resolution when it loads. No such luck, it's still problem. If anyone knows what the cause might be or how I would go about fixing this stuff I would appreciate any help you could offer.

Nov 4, 2006, 09:38 PM	#3
fobis DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 716 Rep Power: 51	Yes, that is true. nvidia's newer set of drivers have been doing this for quite a while, so it's not really a problem. As for your resolution problem, I think you can add a custom resolution of your chocie in the nVidia control panel so games will detect it. __________________ MacBook Pro Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz 2GB DDR2-677 ATi Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB 120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD

Nov 18, 2006, 07:56 AM	Thread Starter #4
MrObjectional DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	The plot thickens I decided to reinstall my old drivers, so after uninstalling the DH ones, running driver cleaner, and reinstalling my old ones, I am getting BIOS post codes at boot telling me my video adaptor isn't working. CRAP. Whenever I boot or come back from hibernation, 3/4 times I get an error code, and I occasionally have problems with coming back from standby. A friend was saying how a bad driver could possibly cause an unfinished cycle to hang in memory on the video card and cause a problem when booting. His solution was to remove all power from the laptop (including the battery) and letting the video RAM lose its charge. It hasn't solved the problem. So, I came for a second opinion. Any ideas whatsoever?

Nov 4, 2006, 01:32 PM	Thread Starter #2
MrObjectional DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	I found this answer on Nvidia's site, but I gotta say it's not what I was hoping for. "Question Why does the display blink off and then on when I click on the NVIDIA settings or go into display properties? How do I fix this? Answer This is not a problem and is expected behavior when clicking the NVIDIA settings icon or entering advanced display properties. The screen will also blink during startup, when right clicking on video files, and when clicking on the NVIDIA task bar icon." I've never had this happen to me on any of my machines, but is this true? Does anyone else get a blank screen under these conditions?