Critical error - No suitable graphics devices found

First of all, this problem is Vista related however VistaForums is being spam bombed by generic drugs and my posting is now way down on the list so I'm going to post it here too.

Trying to solve friends problem using TeamViewer as they are 1000 miles away.

He gets this message "Critical Error - No suitable graphics devices found" on some of the games in Vista. I'm talking about Solitaire and Mahjong. Inkball works.

Happened only recently so I suspected the Windows Updates of the past week and uninstalled them. No change.

I've uninstalled the graphics driver and had Windows download and reinstall it. Same thing. I've tried downloading the latest drivers from Nvidia but that fails on attempt(see http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/802...llerfailed.jpg).

Only seen couple references to the problem on the interweb. Some have solved it using System Restore but that is out as each one i try I get a "system restore did not complete successfully" , "transcient error" , 0x800423f3.

Someone suggested to remove and reinstall .NET 1.1 that is a no go.

Malwarebytes, Superantispyare and MSE all come up good.

Thoughts from the roundtable?

I have no great knowledge on this subject but I did find this from Microsoft that might help.

Backup Error: 0x800423F3 - Microsoft Community