Can't run SL! Please help!

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Rosey. I am surprised that you can even run SL with a geforce FX 5500 which is ancient (released 2005 or 2006 if i am right). Definitely you need a better graphics card to run the application. Maybe give a try to run the old viewer 1.23 I can't suggest something else.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Rosey. I am surprised that you can even run SL with a geforce FX 5500 which is ancient (released 2005 or 2006 if i am right). Definitely you need a better graphics card to run the application. Maybe give a try to run the old viewer 1.23 I can't suggest something else.

[Irene Muni]

What about uninstall SpeedUpMyPC and revert your PC to a previous restore point?

BTW, are you running Windows XP without Service Pack 3?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Use Window's system restore.  Restore back to sometime before you did the speed up my computer.  After you've done that go to here:

http://www.nviobject/winxp_175.19_whql.htmldia.com/

Download and save to your hard drive the driver..........it's the latest driver for your video card and has a release date mid 2009.  That means that nVidia no longer writes drivers specifically for the card but gives you the last driver they did write.  More recent drivers may work but that's going to be hit or miss (maybe, maybe not).

 

Next go here:

 

http://download.cnet.com/Driver-Sweeper/3000-2094_4-75219868.html?tag=mncol;2

 

This is one case where I believe it's necessary to use a third party driver removal tool (normally a simply uninstall works fine) since you allowed a program to set up your computer for what that program defined as a setup for performance......software does not think, it only does anything by what the programmer told it to do under some set of circumstances and that programmer only has generic choices to make (those choices are very often less than optimal and sometimes quite wrong).  Registry changes were probably made during that "speed up" processes and those must be removed.  A system restore might not remove those changes.  Driver Sweeper has a pretty good reputation and it's the best free one I could find for you.  Follow the instructions precisely.  You'll need to know what driver Windows has installed for your video to uninstall it.......if you don't know then find it in the Device Manager.  That's the first step in using Driver Sweeper.

 

Once you've done the driver removal start your computer (you'll probably be prompted to do so anyway but in case you aren't go ahead and restart anyway).  When your system comes back up Windows will see your GPU without a driver and ask you to allow it to search for and install one..........just close the dialog (don't let Windows do a thing).  Go the driver you saved to your hard drive and install it.  You'll be required to restart to finish the installation and when you come back up you should be on the driver you just installed.

 

The fact that Windows only sees your monitor as a generic monitor is not really a big thing.  Windows not knowing what the monitor is could be  because of the GPU not having a driver that recognizes your monitor or that drivers came with your monitor and without them installed Windows can't determine what type or brand it is.  You'll probably have to set the resolution manually instead of the GPU setting the native resolution (that's most important if you have an LCD or LED monitor.........for CRT's, probably 1280 by 1024 is good).

 

 

 

[Lindal Kidd]

It sounds as though your "speed up" program disabled your graphics card in favor of the motherboard's on-board graphics.

Reboot your PC.  When the BIOS starts up, before Windows starts, hit DEL to enter the BIOS setup screen.  Browse through the screens there...there should be an option in there to disable the onboard graphics.

When you save your changes and the computer starts up, Windows will (most likely) detect your graphics card and present you with a series of screens to install the driver for it.  Once those complete, you may want to go to the NVIDIA website and make sure you have the latest drivers for it installed.