Samsung t260 and windows 7

[lynx50]

What does RMA the machine mean? I have a sneaking suspension that it means return it in some fashion

 

[seekermeister]

Yes, RMA is a return auhority, that you would probably need to contact the retailer for. It may be for a refund or an exchange, depending on their policy. If the budget would permit, I would want to exchange it for a machine with more features built in...like having a real video card,instead of onboard video, more than only 2 PCIe slots of which only one is 16x and no PCI slots at all. You did get what you paid for, except that it apparently is insufficient in terms of video output.

 

[seekermeister]

Because VGA is the only option available, I have an Acer Desktop and an HP desktop that have all multiple video input options, that this machine lacks. It was a lot of computer for the money but evidently they scrimped on the video inputs. I ran the program but not in safe mode and the long and short of it was that when all was said and done I whacked out all of the existing Nvidia graphics drivers were removed. I then proceeded to have Microsoft install the appropriate drivers. There are a lot more drivers on the computer now than there were before. However I still get occasional monitor blinks. I went to the Nvidia site to compare their driver with what Microsoft installed and noticed that the Nvidia drivers available were dated 01/19/2010. I am not much of a tech oriented guy and apologize for being so slow, your help is very much appreciated. Would I be right in guessing that instead of upgrading my drivers from Microsoft I should have done so directly from Nvidia to get the more modern drivers?

Yes, apparently you didn't read what I posted earlier...not to use Windows Update, but to download and install the drivers directly from Nvidia.

EDIT: Why didn't you use Safe Mode?

EDIT: Something that I didn't say before, is that it would be a good thing to uninstall the Display Adapter in the Device Manager, before using Driver Sweeper. I don't know that it would make a real difference, but it is SOP.

 

[lynx50]

I have put alot of time and effort into this but thats what it looks like I gotta do. The darn thing works fine on my 4 year old 22' Samsung monitor but wont work on my 1.5 year old 26 inch Samsung monitor. It could be that I have tried hard and just not found the magic bullet yet or it could be that in between the blinking and random resizing of stuff that this desktop has something wrong with it and I just need to cut my losses and take it back and start over. I suspect that the latter is the case. Again, thanks for your help. Do you have any guesses/impressions of the Gateway DX4831 that Best Buy sells for $560? Cnet gave them a good review and the Best Buy reviews seem mostly positive. Thanks again, David.

 

[seekermeister]

I'm not really the person to advise you on a Gateway, because my only experience with them, some years ago was not good. But then I have not cared much for any of the over the counter machines that I have owned. I now only buy components and build it myself. It does cost more, but then I know exactly what I have in the machine, and it is of a higher quality than most over the counter units.

I said that it is more expensive, but then I remembered a neighbor that spent over $6000 for a Dell, and it was not as good as what I built, and though I have never totaled my costs, I know that I didn't spend that much.

 

[lynx50]

I am worn out at this point with regards to dealing with this machine. In the morning I will use the Sweeper program to remove the existing Nvidia video drivers and then reload them directly from Nvidia. If this doesnt work then its back to Best Buy for this machine. Again thanks for all of your time and help, it is appreciated.

 

[lynx50]

Well i put the computer into safe mode and one thing that I noticed is my monitor has quit blinking/blacking out. Have been operating it like this for 30 minutes and it hasnt done it once. Still get the occasional random browser/pane resizing deal. The other thing that I have seen is that The Driver Sweeper program will not work at all. If I click on the analyze button it starts to go but never does anything, the there is no action in the above bar to indicate activity, it just sits there. Same thing when pressing the clean bar, i.e. nothing happens. Using the Driver Sweeper program but not in Safe Mode appears to the only way for me to use the program. I got away with it last time but dont want to mess anything up further.

 

[seekermeister]

That verifies that the problem is the driver, because Safe Mode doesn't use the regular driver, it uses the native VGA driver. Why Driver Sweeper wouldn't work for you in Safe Mode is beyond me, because I have used it there a number of times without any problem. How you are going to resolve this without getting a clean installation of the Nvidia driver...I don't know.

 

[lynx50]

If I use the Driver Sweeper in regular mode, what can go wrong? Can I cause serious harm to the computer? It worked out ok the first time.

 

[seekermeister]

No, I don't think that it will do any harm, but I think that it may not be as thorough. I think that the idea is that to do it from desktop, that it may not be able to clean all files that it would be able to do from Safe Mode. However, you will do what you have to do.