Nvidia Geforce 8400 Gs - Driver Installation Breaks Xp

Hi,​

I am currently in the process of trying to install Win xp onto a Packard Bell J2414. The PC came with Vista pre-installed but the owner has no recovery media and if there was originally a recovery partition it has been deleted. ​

I have installed windows xp on the PC and everything works fine except that when I install the graphics card driver the PC stops booting up and freezes on the win xp splash screen. ​

The PC has been fully updated to service pack 3 + all updates, all hardware except the graphics card has been installed and works correctly. ​

Windows update sees the graphics card as a GeForce 8400 GS, AIDA64 agrees with this. Belarc advisor did not recognise the card and when I try to use the nvidia software to automatically find the drivers it does not recognise the card either. ​

I have physically looked at the card and all I can see is a nvidia logo. ​

When GeForce 8400 GS drivers are installed it seems to install ok but windows will no longer boot. Safe Mode works and I have a system restore point before driver installation that seems to work ok. ​

Anyone got any ideas? ​

Thanks ​

 

Hi,

Boot up ( in Safe Mode if necessary )
Start > Run ....type in .....devmgmt.msc ........ENTER
Click the + next to Display Adapters

What is listed ?

Are there any yellow exclamation marks or red Xs ?

 

Hi,

Thanks for the help.
Device Manager shows NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS. No exclamation points or crosses. The drivers are currently installed but the PC only boots in safe mode.

 

Hi,

Right click on the driver > Update Driver Software
Let Windows use the internet to search for updated drivers.

Do you have 2 PCIe x 16 slots on the motherboard?
If so - try the card in the second slot.

 

Hi,

Windows installing the drivers causes exactly the same issue. There is not a 2nd PCI-e slot but I can test it in my PC. Might not be able to do this for a couple of days but thank you for the ideas!

One more thing I noticed earlier, I was playing around with the PC and in the BIOS I turned on the manufacturer splash screen over the POST (now displays Packard Bell instead of POST info). When I did this I realised the Packard Bell logo is showing graphics artifacts. Is this an indication that the graphics card is faulty?

 

I am by no means the hardware expert that KenB is but since you appear to be here right now I will give you the short answer.
When you start getting graphics artifacts on what you know to be something as clean as a splash screen it is normally a hardware issue and not a driver issue. While it could be the card itself it still may be caused by the PCI slot so you really need to continue and follow up as Ken suggested. If it does work well in another PC you may have to start looking at the motherboard as a possible cause.

 

I agree with BeeCeeBee.

Test the card in another machine.
This will, at least, let us know if the card is OK.
If it is then the problem lies elsewhere.

Ideally - if you have a spare card - put that in your machine and try that.

 

n00bster,

Have you used nVidia's Driver Update page before?

Used [Automatically find drivers for my NVIDIA products] with sucess?

Also, what version of nVidia driver works?


If this is the first time you did the above, the problem MAY be that your Packard Bell is NOT communicating card identifier correctly.