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New Build - Nvidia Driver Problem: No Start Menu or Icons in W7

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  • 17-09-2011 11:31pm
    #1
    Rael
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭


    Hi folks,

    Built a new PC about 4 weeks ago and all was going well until tonight. I checked my email about 4 pm and all was well, switched on the PC about 9pm and the machine booted, started win7 and then just sat there showing my wallpaper and nothing else, no start menu bar, no icons. What was strange was if I pressed the usual combinations of keys, then I could shut the machine down but it displayed nothing except the wallpaper. Incidentally if I pressed ctrl, alt, del, the screen would go black.

    I tried repair, restore etc but to no avail. I decided to do a full reinstall and the inital install worked, however after installing Nvidia driver 280.26 the problem returned. When I removed the drivers in safe mode, the problem went away but I'm looking at the resolution consistent with an inital install (600*800). I performed a win7 update online and it installed Nvidia driver 275.33 and the same problem occured. Desktop wallpaper, no start menu, task bar or icons.

    Can anyone think of anthing to help? My system spec is as follows:

    Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz with Noctua NH-D14
    Asus P8P67 PRO (B3 REVISION)
    Corsair XMS3 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
    Asus GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II 1536MB GDDR5
    2 X WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache in Raid0 config
    Corsair HX 850W PSU

    Incidentally, I got a Dell U2410 on Tuesday to replace my old monitor which failed, if the info is pertinent.

    Please help!


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    #2
    Rael
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭Rael


    Just as an update, removed the 580gtx and installed an 8800gtx I had from my old machine. Card appears to worked properly and Win7 is displaying properly.

    Have now removed the 8800gtx, reinstalled the 580, made sure all connections etc are 100% secure etc and am trying 280.26 drivers.

    The system starts properly, recognises the card and the desktop is appearing normally.

    Anyone got any ideas why this happened or what the cause is?


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    #3
    Rael
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭Rael


    The reinstallation didn't solve it unfortunately :( I restarted the machine to see if everything was okay and I'm back to square one. Desktop wallpaper and nothing else.

    Anyone got any suggestions?


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    #4
    Trevor451
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,463 ✭✭✭Trevor451


    Sorry I can't be of any assistance but I don't have a clue what could be causing the problem :o

    Any chance you can test the card on another system?

    EDIT: can you right click on the desktop and go into screen resolution?


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    #5
    aligator_am
    Registered Users Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭aligator_am


    Trevor451 wrote: »
    Sorry I can't be of any assistance but I don't have a clue what could be causing the problem :o

    Any chance you can test the card on another system?

    EDIT: can you right click on the desktop and go into screen resolution?
    Sounds like the desktop is being extended across 2 screens.

    Happens with mine sometimes.

    See if you can hit the identify button.


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    #6
    Rael
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭Rael


    aligator_am wrote: »
    Sounds like the desktop is being extended across 2 screens.

    Happens with mine sometimes.

    See if you can hit the identify button.

    Strange, I got into that screen and made sure it was selected to my monitor and it seems to have worked. Strangly though, I only have one monitor . . . .

    :confused:

    Thanks for the help


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    #7
    aligator_am
    Registered Users Posts: 1,598 ✭✭✭aligator_am


    Rael wrote: »
    aligator_am wrote: »
    Sounds like the desktop is being extended across 2 screens.

    Happens with mine sometimes.

    See if you can hit the identify button.

    Strange, I got into that screen and made sure it was selected to my monitor and it seems to have worked. Strangly though, I only have one monitor . . . .

    :confused:

    Thanks for the help
    Ive my lcd hooked up through dvi to hdmi adaptor and a dell monitor through vga, if the machine boots with both screens powered on my lcd tv does what happened to you.

    Not sure what causes it but startd happening after i installed w7.


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    #8
    kfish2oo2
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭kfish2oo2


    Rael wrote: »
    Strange, I got into that screen and made sure it was selected to my monitor and it seems to have worked. Strangly though, I only have one monitor . . . .

    :confused:

    Thanks for the help

    Sometimes drivers will assign an output port as the primary port and assume that any other occupied ports are non-primary monitors. Its rare but it happens - for the most part, I tend to use the right most port with only one monitor and it seems to work.

    EDIT: Could be a Windows 7 driver issue, now that I think about it. I'm fairly sure Windows 7 has built in multi-monitor controllers.


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