i just bought an ATI radeon, 9550, graphics card, i used to have a nvidia tnt 2. i installed the new ATI without uninstalling the nvidia drivers, now windows wont load, not in safe mode or anything, i even put the old nvidia back in, and its still doing the same thing, my pc just restarts itself and goes back to the select safe mode or normal screen. help what do i do, im not very computer litterate, well not enough to use command prompt, so can sum1 plz post step by step instructions on how to fix my prob!?

Try entering in Safe Mode, uninstall BOTH sets of drivers, and reboot. Make sure that you delete the individual files completely from off your harddrive. As I remember, Nvidia will have several files in a row all starting with the letter N on your hardddrive. The reason that you want to also delete your ATI drivers also is that with the crashing they may have corrupted.

While in Safe Mode, you can enter Control Panel/System/Device Manager/Display Adapters. Click on the "+" sign next to Display Adapters, and all your installed video card drivers will be listed. RIGHT click on each, then click "uninstall".

Check your Nvidia and ATI driver CD; sometimes these companies thoughtfully provide an uninstaller utility on the CD which will save you some time. Don't worry about not being able to have a monitor with no card drivers: XP provides a generic driver that will kick-in when proprietary drivers are not detected.

When done with deleting your old drivers, reboot to make sure that you can get into XP.

If all is good, then use your ATI CD to install the ATI drivers.

For HELP on how to boot to Safe Mode.

ok, well theres only one problem with this... WINDOWS WONT LOAD, i tried safe mode, it looks like its about to load, then it just restarts. i cant use any options in that menu. other wise i wouldnt even have to post here. is there any way to uninstall nvidia drivers other then logging in to windows? help!!!

Okay, in that case triple-check that you didn't bump something loose while installing the new card. Check that your memory is snapped solidly into the slots and all cables are tight.

Key question: do you have a separate Windows XP system disk that came with your computer, or do you only have a recovery disk that is commonly supplied with brand-name computers now? OR do you have the notorious "hidden partition" that contains your recovery image on the harddrive?

Welcome to SAF mynard.

I have to agree with ranchhand. Safemode uses a standard set of windows video drivers. If safemode wont load, the ati/nvidia drivers are not at issue here.

It is most likely some hardware that safemode still needs: cpu, harddrive, ram, video card (which you know is installed right because you can see windows start to load.

Check all connections. Make sure the heatsink fan is still attached properly and working.

ok, thanks, i did remove my heatsink fan at some point to clean it, ill double check all wires and stuff. i doubt it will work the fan screws right into the cooling fins right?

Yes, the fans usually "scrunch" down into the fins. But what about my questions about your operating system disk?

ok, well the only disk i have is for windows xp home, thats the os i use as well. i think i still have a prob
i dont know what to do!!!!

If you are sure all of the hardware is connected / working properly....

GO into the bios and make sure the cd/dvd is the first boot drive. Start the pc with the XP cd in the drive. If you installed repair console, you can run it. That may fix the issue, assuming it is a windows problem.

If you cant get into the repair console, as is often the case, you can choose the repair option from the installation menu. This will do an over the top install that will hopefully replace any damaged / deleted files.

ok i did that repair thingy and i got the repair console, umm im kinda stupid so i dont know how to use it, any tips? oh and i hooked up my hard drive to my other pc, i used my harddrive as the master and still had the same prob, so i dont thinks its a connection kind of problem. oh and if i set up my hard drive as a slave on another pc, can i delete the nvidia drivers from there? omg this is getting so difficult!!! i thank you guys for helping me.

As Efabes said:

QUOTE

you can choose the repair option from the installation menu. This will do an over the top install that will hopefully replace any damaged / deleted files.

Power down. Insert your XP disk. Power up. The XP install screen will appear. [NOTE: sometimes you will still get the same problem and the CD will not read the XP disk; in that case, enter your BIOS and set your FIRST BOOT DEVICE to the CDrom drive]. Do NOT choose Repair Consol. Continue with normal installation option. Next screen (or the one after) will offer a REPAIR INSTALLATION of XP. Choose that one, and follow the prompts. XP will install over itself, replacing only the critical system files that may be corrupted and preventing you from booting. Do NOT choose New Install, or you will lose all your programs and data because XP will overwrite everything.

Post back and let us know how it goes.

ok i just decided to use a dif hard drive on my pc i got the new ati card working, my main harddrive is going to a professional, oh and my new graphics card is an ATI 9550, 256mb ddr, i used to have an nvidia tnt 2
now wich one is better? cause this ati kinda sux, its worse then my nvidia! i tried loads of options and they dont seem to help, i expected to play flight sim with super fast stunning 3d graphics, and all i got was a laggy blocky piece of crap, what should i do?

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this ati kinda sux, its worse then my nvidia! i tried loads of options and they dont seem to help, i expected to play flight sim with super fast stunning 3d graphics, and all i got was a laggy blocky piece of crap

QUOTE

ATI 9550, 256mb ddr, i used to have an nvidia tnt 2

Well a ati 9550 is definitely better then your old tnt2, what is the rest of your specifications of the system? If the rest of your system is up to scratch then it’s time to make sure you have the driver installed and other games work.

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i expected to play flight sim with super fast stunning 3d graphics

Well the 9550 is not the fastest card around maybe your expection of how well it will run is to much.

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and all i got was a laggy blocky piece of crap

Well this sounds like you haven't installed the video card driver.

Download the latest drivers cat5.4 just d/ the 25MG one.
ATI

i have a via something mobo, a amd athlon proccesor, and a bunch of other assorted crap :| do you think i should get a better proccesor, can i put a new proccesor in without getting a new mobo? and i think i did install the driver, cataylist something or other, my cd that came with the card broke so i just got drivers from the site.....
and what the hell is this!?

and a sort of off topic question, on the outlook express thing what do i set the incoming and outgoing servers to? nothing seems to wrk, plz help, i need suggestions

Can you just change the cpu no its unlikely a very good upgrade path and it might be a bit harder to get a better athlonXP then what ever you have as they have been phased out. Well it could be the rest of your system holding you back, not sure of your full system specs though.
When you installed windows did you then install the via driver and then the catalyst drivers or haven’t you installed the via drivers ?
VIA Drivers

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on the outlook express thing what do i set the incoming and outgoing servers to? nothing seems to wrk, plz help, i need suggestions

Well on your ISPs web site it should say something like this mail.bigblue.com.uk

My teacher always told me the best and easiest way to upgrade a computer is to increase the RAM. If you plan on using games, you might want to make sure that you have between 512 and a Gig of RAM. I use a Gig and I play Halo, Warcraft, starcraft, and unreal 2004 fine. You may be overloading your system. Some video cards require input directly fromt he power source. Is your system capable of handling a higher-end video card? Just my 2 cent.
Also, if you reset your bios settings, you may have to disable any on-board video cards or drivers, usually done in the bios. If you try to run your video card in an agp slot and have on-board turned on, it can cause a system crash.