Why won't my Windows XP driver work?

[sp1214]

I have downloaded the latest driver from Nvidia for my graphics card but it refuses to work. The Mesh computer is only 3 years old and I had to do a recovery using the CD they supplied.. It worked before with an older driver but not now.

[bongoboy]

How do you mean it refuses to work?In what way?
After your restore did you disable the onboard graphics in the bios before installing your graphics card driver?
Have you got the latest version of direct x?

[sp1214]

When looking in the logs says that its in a continual loop. The driver is a nvidia geforce 5200, The screen display is a bluish mash. Have the latest direct X. Have to reboot up in either safe mode or vga mode. Checking on the BIOS. Many web sites seem to have similar problems to mine and with different nvidia cards.

[rojash]

The simple answer would seem to be "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
If your older driver caused no problems, then simply stick with it.

[ACtheTROLL]

agreed
however ... did you uninstall the old drivers before installing the new....
with the nvidia forceware its vital to follow the instructions ....

basically ... change the resolution to vga .... in advanced | adapter change to a generic vga

uninstall the drivers and utils ....
reboot ... refuse the new hardware .... install the new drivers .... reboot

[sp1214]

The system may have worked in the past but for a separate reason I had to do a recovery. This is when the problems started and even when using the supplied driver it did not work so the download of its newest driver which also did not work. To get my computer working I have to disable the nvidia driver and rely on the VGA fallback which does work and where I can download from elsewhere.
This results in an infinite loop.

[rojash]

When you say "I had to do a recovery", do you mean a repair install? If so, did you reinstall the motherboard drivers?

If the motherboard's AGP bridge driver is not installed, then the video drivers won't work because they can't see the AGP port into which the adaptor is plugged. This would explain why none of the drivers, old or new, will work.

[ACtheTROLL]

latest directx??

if the driver isn't loading ... how can you load DX?
is this what you're using?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql .html

the restore disc should do just that ... back to the factory default ...
if it doesn't work then ... something is faulty ... if the graphics aren't right ... my guess would be that's the answer

it's a bit like pulling teeth
a seperate reason .... which is when it started ... doesn't sound very seperate.

start at the beginning and tell us just what's happening ...

[sp1214]

When you do a recovery you are not expected to be a software expert with a computer science degree. Something is lacking!