[Mindy3333]

I keep getting the message that the NVIDIA display driver is not working. The system reboots and I have to go to safe mode. Sometimes it changes the display to 16 bit and safe mode automatically without rebooting. When it does reboot, even when I ask it to restore the last known good configuration, it doesn't help. Either way, the display becomes plaid-like with multiple areas missing. When I try to read text, it becomes grainy and garbled.
I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S901 with Windows XP Pro that uses NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go.
I have gone to many sites to update the driver including Driverguide.com,
guru3d.com, and Toshiba itself. I also went to NVIDIA's site for a unified driver.
This all seemed to work, but only temporarily. Just a few minutes ago I had to reboot my computer because it started out fine, then went to that plaid, grainy pattern, then everything got wiped off the screen. It left the screen looking like what I've seen in those old reel to reel movies where the final screen is bright white and unevenly burned black around the edges if this makes any sense. At the moment it looks again like everything is fine.
But I know it's just a matter of time. I have Norton Antivirus which is up to date and it finds no virus. SpySweeper also came up clean. I keep ZoneAlarm running at all times. Just now while I am typing, I'm seeing little red and black dots getting on the screen where my cursor should be. Can anyone help with this problem? Please hurry or I may not be able to read your response. Thanks in advance.

Edited by Mindy3333, 29 July 2005 - 08:15 PM.

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try rolling back the driver in device manager.

[humorsavesmysoul]

try rolling back the driver in device manager.

[\\'arrior]

try this.

reinstall everything, and right before your computer needs to be restarted go to

start - run - type in "msconfig" (no hypothesis)

click on the BOOT.INI tab

the box that reads, "Safeboot" should be checked.

Uncheck the box and click ok.

see if that helps!

[Coyote]

In safe mode, go to Device Manager, remove the display card in that, reboot, let windows find the device again, it will reinstall the correct drivers

[tzr250]

I'm currently experiencing the same problem with my laptop. I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501 with Windows XP Pro that uses NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go. I too try re-installing the drivers but, no cigar...

Mindy3333, did you try Coyote's method?? If you did, did it work.

[Mindy3333]

I'm currently experiencing the same problem with my laptop.  I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501 with Windows XP Pro that uses NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go.  I too try re-installing the drivers but, no cigar...

Mindy3333, did you try Coyote's method??  If you did, did it work.

Yes, I have tried uninstalling in safe mode and letting the system reinstall the drivers upon restarting, but no luck there either. It works for a little while, then starts acting up again. I even let the Toshiba Pinger evaluate my system. Nvidia was the only thing listed, but it said my software was up to date. I don't know what happened suddenly for me to have all these problems. I haven't recently installed any new software. Even so, I did do a system restore, but that didn't help for long either. I have tried rolling back drivers etc. No luck. I'm still trying different stuff. I'll let you all know what happens good or bad if I'm still able to get online.

[Mindy3333]

try this.

reinstall everything, and right before your computer needs to be restarted go to

start - run - type in "msconfig" (no hypothesis)

click on the BOOT.INI tab

the box that reads, "Safeboot" should be checked.

Uncheck the box and click ok.

see if that helps!

I'm a little curious before I try this suggestion. If I uncheck the safeboot box, does that mean that if it can't boot to windows with the correct display, that it will no longer take me to safe mode where I can at least access the desktop? In other words, would I be telling it not to let me have the option of working in safe mode? Thanks in advance.

[Mindy3333]

I apologize if the typing is not correct. The screen is flashing off and on as I am typing this. I resigned myself to losing all my files. I then attempted to do a system recovery with the recovery CDs that came with the laptop, but when I put the 1st cd in, it said that my machine was not recognized, so it would not proceed. That may be because I upgraded long ago from XP Home Edition to XP Pro. So to the recovery cd, it looks like I'm trying to use it on a different computer. Help! I just want the display to be back to normal. If it tells anything of use, I tend to get error messages saying nv4_disp is not working. Thanks in advance.

[widewell]

I am having the same problem. I have a toshiba 5105-s701 with XP pro SP2 as well. Its strange that the timing of this problem is similar for us. Do you think it has to do with updates from the microsoft site which are interacting with the driver?

BTW, I tried upgrading to the unofficial 7.77 driver but it still crashes identically. So I am not really sure it is the actual driver that is causing this maybe something else is affecting it.

Are other people experiencing this right now?

It looks related to this:
http://members.home....inite Loop.html

Edited by widewell, 10 August 2005 - 02:07 AM.

[rainbowpants]

Hi! I am also currently having this problem! It began around a week ago. I believe that the funky fading of the screen is caused by the power to the laptop monitor being cut, because for a while I managed to circumvent the problem by using an external monitor (which would simply blank out). I also have the GeForce4 440 Go video card. Could either of you point me towards the correct drivers please? Because those that I have found and believed to be correct simply inform mew that i do not have a card on my laptop that the installer recognises.

Thanks,

Nic.

[Mindy3333]

try this.

reinstall everything, and right before your computer needs to be restarted go to

start - run - type in "msconfig" (no hypothesis)

click on the BOOT.INI tab

the box that reads, "Safeboot" should be checked.

Uncheck the box and click ok.

see if that helps!

Hi \\'arrior! If you saw one of my previous messages, you know I was a little concerned about checking the Safeboot box, thinking that it would close off my option of being able to work in safe mode. Guess what? I went there and the Safeboot box was not even checked to begin with. What does that mean? Should I check it and see if that makes any difference? Thanks.

[widewell]

I've been messing around with drivers and think that I found one that works. I have tried the old toshiba drivers, tried the newest nvidia 77.77 drivers, tried regeting the ones on the microsoft site. Each had its own set of problems, in particular the one on the microsoft site crashes and does flakey stuff. The one I am using right now which seems to be ok is the 72.14 version. You can get the driver from:

http://station-drive...a forceware.htm

You will need to replace the nv4_disp.inf file in the isntall directory for it to allow you to install it.

This is the file you want to replace it with:

http://laptopvideo2g...nf/nv4_disp.inf


You can find out more info on this general discussion:
http://www.laptopvid...hp?showforum=35

Good luck, and let me know if it fixes the problem. I'll post if my problems reappear.

[alfaman]

This is certainly a weird problem but clearly not an isolated one. I've just updated a Toshiba Satellite housing the NVIDIA GeForce4 420 adapter to XP Pro with SP2. After what appeared to be a fine installation, rebooting caused the screen to lose about 60 horizontal pixels resulting in a 969 x 768 display instead of 1024 x 768 ! In fact, 969 x 768 was now the highest available resolution.

Uninstalling the driver using the Display properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter/Properties/Driver/Uninstall required a warm reboot and temporarily fixed the problem - until I switched the power off and did a cold reboot, upon which the 60 pixels were missing again.

Curiously, the driver was reported to be still there - even though it had been uninstalled -and I was just expecting XP to have replaced it with its default VGA driver.

The solution was to select and Disable the driver using Device Manager (the Disable option is not available using Display properties). This results in a red cross against the driver in Device Manager but there are now no missing pixels and all predicted screen modes are available.

I can't explain fully what lies behind this but it seems to have worked.

Good luck.

alfa.

[Mindy3333]

I've been messing around with drivers and think that I found one that works. I have tried the old toshiba drivers, tried the newest nvidia 77.77 drivers, tried regeting the ones on the microsoft site. Each had its own set of problems, in particular the one on the microsoft site crashes and does flakey stuff. The one I am using right now which seems to be ok is the 72.14 version. You can get the driver from:

http://station-drive...a forceware.htm

You will need to replace the nv4_disp.inf file in the isntall directory for it to allow you to install it.

This is the file you want to replace it with:

http://laptopvideo2g...nf/nv4_disp.inf
You can find out more info on this general discussion:
http://www.laptopvid...hp?showforum=35

Good luck, and let me know if it fixes the  problem. I'll post if my problems reappear.

I followed the above steps, but after I replaced the file and installed the driver, it kept giving an error that it wasn't properly configured. No "Display Adapter" category shows in Device Manager. In "Other Devices" the VGA Compatible Controller is listed with a yellow question mark and says it's not configured correctly and asks that I reinstall drivers. The screen still has the choppy, grainy pattern off and on. Also, an interesting thing I noticed is that with this driver, "Display Properties" has no tabs like "Settings" etc. With my luck it's probably the video card that's bad. I always hated opening up my desktop, and I've never opened up a laptop in my life. Oh well, I'll keep searching. There has to be a solution somewhere. Thanks.

[Mindy3333]

This is certainly a weird problem but clearly not an isolated one.  I've just updated a Toshiba Satellite housing the NVIDIA GeForce4 420 adapter to XP Pro with SP2.  After what appeared to be a fine installation, rebooting caused the screen to lose about 60 horizontal pixels resulting in a 969 x 768 display instead of 1024 x 768 !  In fact, 969 x 768 was now the highest available resolution.

Uninstalling the driver using the Display properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter/Properties/Driver/Uninstall required a warm reboot and temporarily fixed the problem - until I switched the power off and did a cold reboot, upon which the 60 pixels were missing again.

Curiously, the driver was reported to be still there - even though it had been uninstalled -and I was just expecting XP to have replaced it with its default VGA driver.

The solution was to select and Disable the driver using Device Manager (the Disable option is not available using Display properties).  This results in a red cross against the driver in Device Manager but there are now no missing pixels and all predicted screen modes are available.

I can't explain fully what lies behind this but it seems to have worked.

Good luck.

alfa.

For some reason, when I uninstall drivers and let it install the default VGA driver, it never stays. As soon as the balloon pops up to say that the VGA is installed, the other Nvidia drivers start installing themselves to replace the VGA ones. It's really weird.