	AllExperts > PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM
	Search

Ask a question about PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM
Volunteer
Experts of the Month
Expert Login

Awards

About Us
Tell friends
Link to Us
Disclaimer

About Mike
Expertise
Areas of expertise: PC Hardware, Peripherals, Barcode Scanners, Printers, and Applications, Networking, Microsoft Applications. I am good at researching issues and have a lot of contacts in the IT industry. So, if I can't directly answer a question I can likely find the answer. Areas I won't be much help in: Apple Computers, Linux, older Networking technologies like Token Ring, or Thick/Thinnet.

Experience
I'm currently a Network Administrator for a contract circuit board manufacturer in Oregon, USA. I've been working on PCs from a hobby standpoint for better than 25 years. I've been doing it professionally for 4 years.

Education/Credentials
A+ Certification, Network + Certification, MCP, MCDST, MCSA (in process)

You are here: Experts > Computing/Technology > Focus on PC Support > PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM > hardware acceleration

PC hardware--CPU & Motherboard & RAM - hardware acceleration

Expert: Mike - 10/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a nvidea 7900 pci-e video card and on a xp install it freezes at the video driver part of the install. i have to switch to a cheap pci card to finish install and even then i need to use the vga boot or windows freezes. ive worked it down to hardware acceleration. even after ive installed the correct drivers i cant have acceleration on. i currently have a pci ati 7500 and still needed to boot as vga.

this is a probem if i want to upgrade my os as i may not get it installed. are hardware acceleration issues communication issues between motherboard and video card?

thanks
larry

ANSWER: Hardware Acceleration is all between the motherboard and the video card so it won't hurt your ability to upgrade the operating system.
However, I seriously doubt your problems are related to hardware acceleration as I've rarely ever seen it actually be the problem since the 1990s era games.

I would at least try a couple things before you disable hardware acceleration to see if they help.

Reboot your pc and press whichever key gets you into BIOS, often DEL. Once in BIOS, select the menu option at the bottom that resets all the settings to Default. I'm wondering if one of the BIOS level video settings somehow managed to get set to the wrong speed, causing your issue.

Also, if you can get logged in and online go to the following site and download/install the most recent version of DirectX.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/aboutGFW/pages/directx.aspx

DirectX is the software side of video processing that handles a lot of the hardware acceleration communication and it is possible that the version on your computer is either out of date or has gotten corrupted.

Hopefully you are able to sort out this problem. Feel free to contact me again if you need any help with anything else.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank Mike, that sort of worked. I can now boot and start windows but it now freezes on the startup of Outlook. my pst file is 600mb. this was my original problem alnost 2 years ago and i had found something saying i need to turn off my hardware acceleration, is there another solution?
i haven't really tried other apps but i also believe video's work freeze it as well.

larry

Answer
I'm thinking your Outlook issue is unrelated.

A 600MB .pst file is enormous and Outlook has a frustrating history of corrupting archive files that large, which would definitely cause your Outlook to go bonkers on start up.

If we're talking Outlook, not Outlook Express, then there is a slightly hidden utility called SCANPST that will scan, and repair, corrupted .pst files. It is located here:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMapi\1033

It is an executable file that when you run it, it will ask for the location of your .pst file.
The default location for that archive.pst file is:

C:\Documents and Settings\Your username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

It takes a really long time to scan and fix a .pst so I'd do it some night and just let it run until it's done.

This is really just a temporary fix because that archive file is big enough that it will just get corrupted again. As such, I'd recommend burning some of your archive off to a cd or something for storage.

Add to this Answer Ask a Question