Windows Vista Forum / Vista Technical / Drivers

Getting "igfx friver stops responding" problem, very annoying......please help

eurosport360 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:53:46 GMT

Hello to all,

So I have a HP IQ500 TouchSmart Desktop at the moment:
Here are the specs:
OS: Vista 64x
CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6400
Chipset/Video: Intel Mobile 4 Series, Intel GM45/GM47 (This is the problem)
RAM: 4 Gigs DDR2
System Number: NC701AAR
Serial Number: 3CU85012FN
BID: 91NAv6XrA2

So whenever I turn on the system, after I run a few light aplications, like Internet Explorer or PC Wizard for example, the screen turns dark for 2 seconds, and the error message: "igfx display driver has stopped responding and was successfully recovered" pops up. This may happen once every 30 minutes or even around 5 times in 20 Seconds, resulting in a blue screen of death. The latest driver which is currently installed for the Intel chipset is 15.13.6.64.1908 (7.15.10.1908) which seems to be causing the problems. This driver is also unsigned by microsoft, but is the most current driver to date (pcd5srvc_x64.pkms, igfxcoin_v1908.dll, and igdkmd64.sys comes up as unsigned in sigverif.exe). I uninstall this driver through Hardware Manager, but the current driver then goes down to (6.0.6001.18000). Even though this old driver is stable, my resolution is horrible and websites with picture intensive pages lag and flash like crazy.
I've been searching the internet all night with this problem, and this is my last resort for an answer. I don't know what else to do. I can't even find a lower driver version for this chipset on Intel's support page.

Thanks.

Drivers, are not working??????

reffer101 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:41:42 GMT

I got an AMD M2N ME Se (Plus) with window 7 but i kinda lost the CD and now when i downloaded it from internet, it's not working at all, Can you please tell me where to find good Drivers for my computer.

Monitor acting up

Tab28 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:41:18 GMT

I have a Acer AL2216W that all of a sudden keeps having the display menu (from the monitor) poping up every few minuites. This is the display menu settings that pops up when you push the front monitor botton for adjustments. Is this a Vista driver problem, it seems every time Vista auto updates another hardware acts up or stops working. This may not be a vista issue but I would like to know if others had this problem. I have had vista update conflicts with so many other hardware issues and had to get newer drivers.

If this is not a vista issue I can start looking at other avenues.

Vista drivers

Mikeli — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:37:30 GMT

this morning I successfully installed Vista Home Premium on MacBook Pro laptop. As I thought, the biggest problem are drivers (ethernet, network ). Need help, please!!!!

Missing system File

thabo ntime — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:19:59 GMT

Hi,

Could you please help with file DLACBHM.sys is missing and my DVD drive is not working anymore

Thanks

Thabo

Sapphire HD 3650 AGP drivers problem

kreso93 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:32:47 GMT

After uninstalling Windows 7 for having simillar problem as this one I decided to install Vista. After installing all the necessary drivers I installed ATI "hotfix" drivers for my AGP card. I rebooted and when I went to Device Manager to see if they're installed, everything was fine. That confused me cause the performance was bad and choppy. I went to dxdiag.exe and Vista says I have no graphic card at all. Also, when I try running CCC I get an error like "there is no device compatible for this driver..." something like that. Well, any help would be apriciated cause I can't run any applications that require gpu at the moment. Also, I can't play any games and I was looking forward for DX10.

This is a screenshot:

[IMG]http://i36.tinypic.com/14j2jxx.png[/IMG]

CCC Error:

[IMG]http://i33.tinypic.com/2vvq420.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks.

Help

soundarya — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:59:33 GMT

My vista is giving me a lot of problems lately. I cant seem to figure out why.
I have c,d,e,f,g drives on my hard disk. However, i cannot seem to located d,e,f,g drives all of a sudden. All my data stored in those drives also seem to be missing. I definitely did not delete the partitions. Can anyone tell me how i can find out what might've happened.
Thanks.

SoundMAX vista drivers.

WoYA — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:59:47 GMT

Hi, i just installed vista, but here is my first problem. :(

its an onboard soundcard. on the cd of my motherboard are drivers of it, and if I install them, i have still no sound. the drivers are --> SoundMAX ADI1986A Audio Driver <-- so i was looking for vista drivers for this one.. but can't find them.. any1 how to get my sound working?

thx alrdy.

Accidental deleting of Coprocessor, Ethernet controller, network controller, SM Bus controller HP Pavillion dv 6527ea

Dollydaltai — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:49:08 GMT

I accidentally deleted these drivers so i downloaded a driver detective and downloaded some files e.g. nvidia_nforce_590a_sli_winvista32_15.00 from that. These were not recognised by the laptop as i checked Driver manager. I am using broadband at 54kbs as far as i am aware. Any ideas??? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TCPIP.SYS

vistaforums — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:22:36 GMT

HI All,

Lately I am facing a problem with TCPIP drivers( not sure) .

Problem :

Everytime i turn on my PC , I cannot connect to internet and i get this message " TCPIP.sys is corrupted and my Network Adapter in the DM shows a red cross ( disabled) " an after some time ( lets say 30 minutes) I get a BSOD. cannot recall the Hexcode.

Here`s what i did but with no result.

1)Update / RollBack Drivers but no use.

2) I could go in to safe mode but cannot connect ( not to forget that i booted the PC in safe mode with network)

3) Tried installing the drivers again in safe mode but to no luck. i have the same persistant problem.

4) so when i google about TCP/IP .sys , it directed me to this webpage

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/04/09/windows-vista-tcpipsys-connection-limit-patch-for-event-id-4226/

Ofcourse i did nt give it a try as i first wanted to check with the experts in the forum.

Thanks in advance for the help.

How do you open an SD card?

365_days_gone — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:09:00 GMT

I put an SD card into my SD card slot on my computer and nothing comes up. I cannot find it in My Computer or anywhere on the computer. What do I have to do?

WIDCOMM Bluetooth Drivers

bg8ball2 — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 03:05:04 GMT

Hello,

I didn't see any posts here on Bluetooth so here is my problem/resolution...

I have a Zonet Bluetooth V 2.0 dongle Supported with Broadcom WIDCOMM Drivers. My original install CD of course did not work with Vista.

I had it removed during my install of Vista RC1 and after getting up and running inserted it and Vista would recognize it as a USB Device but didn't have drivers for it.

When I would reboot my PC and load Vista it would lock up after the loading screen with the green bar... (XP still loaded fine)

There was even a time where if i inserted it while fulled booted in Vista it would lock my PC up solid and I would have to remove it and cold boot my PC.

To make a very, very long story short...after about 10 different versions of drivers, I finally found one that works...I don't remember where I found it but here is the filename...

Widcomm.32Bit.v5.0.1.2500.Incl.Lic.Patch.rar

I still have the file so if someone needs it send me an email or PM...

The site that I found it on also had the 64bit version...(don't have that one)

I also, after getting the drivers installed had problems with the license.dat file that WIDCOMM uses but that is what the patch is for ;) I now have approx. 2,000,000 days left in my evaluation copy of this software.

This was very frustrating, and took a few nights/mornings to fix so if anyone else is having problems let me know and maybe I can help...

Good luck!!!

Printer emulation

rdhughes — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:23:42 GMT

I have a Canon Multipass C555 and the drivers wont work on Vista 64. I know I can use a canon BJC driver with parallel cable. but I do not know what model will emulate the multipass. Anybody know what BJC model to use?:w00t:

Realtek Diagnostic Utility driver

Terence — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:25:18 GMT

When I power up, I get a message that I should install the correct driver for the Realtek Ethernet Diagnostic Utility. This only started happening after downloading the latest Vista updates. I've been to the realtek site, to my my PC manufacturer's site (Dell) and even run a 'get all your drivers up to date' software... all to no avail.

I have a Dell Costro 420, 4g Ram, 500g HD

Any ideas out there?

Terence

Load Lan Ethernet before Wireless??

rlkellenbenz — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:12:44 GMT

· I have a unique problem. I need to Vista to load my ethernet card before my wireless. A program I use loads the mac address of my wireless card first, then uses this mac address as the hardware id that the product key is controlled by. I've tried spoofing the mac address on the wireless card, but no matter what i do it doesn't register in my program. I am very familiar with spoofing and have done this numerous times in XP. I have done it through the registry and through the advanced settings on the adapter itself. Nothing works.

I have given up on the spoofing, my lan card has the correct mac address. I just need to change the order in which Vista loads this device so that my wired ethernet loads first.

Here's what I have tried so far.

I first tried by turning off the wireless in the front of the laptop. Rebooted the computer and my program still pulled the mac address from the wireless. Next disabled the wireless in the network manager and rebooted, now it works perfectly. The mac address from the wired ethernet shows up and the program works.

Now i re-enabled the wireless and within minutes the mac adress changed back to the wireless in the program and the program wont work.

The only way I can see this working is if I can get the priority of the wired ethernet to be before the wireless. It seems like the priority is dynamic not static. Is there a way to do this? I've been all over the internet searching but cannot find anything about this.

I even went into the registry and added a value of the IRQXXPriority, but that didn't work either.

Help......

Bluescreen

mayblgraham — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:57:13 GMT

I have a fairly new Dell Inspiron that is shutting down every time it goes into sleep mode and then I get the following message:

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: 1000007e

BCP1: FFFFFFFFC0000005

BCP2: FFFFF80001FC7B81

BCP3: FFFFFA60017D2798

BCP4: FFFFFA60017D2170

OS Version: 6_0_6001

Service Pack: 1_0

Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:

C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini082709-03.dmp

C:\Users\Jenny\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-33707666-0.sysdata.xml

C:\Users\Jenny\AppData\Local\Temp\WER7D63.tmp.version.txt

I do not know my KB number to know which Windows download to choose.

Thank you!

ATI HD 3650 Issue

Smack3k — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:53:33 GMT

Howdy, folks.

Specs:
ATI HD 3650 1GB
Vista 32-bit SP2

My issue is odd. A game I play which was released in 1998 works with the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" that Windows Vista installs automatically. But when I install any supported version of ATI drivers for my card, the game/vista errors "This program has stopped working [...]". I've tried several different versions of drivers but none seem to work and the error still occurs. I've also tried disabling Catalyst AI to no avail.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

D-Link Internet Adapter

Sir Bob — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 00:52:50 GMT

This is my connection to the internet. I have a driver, but when I installed it, it got an error and my internet didnt work. Is there a Vista Driver for a D-Link Wireless G USB Adapter (DWL-G122).

Thank you,

Graham

WIA and Twain drivers not installing

adiecidue — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:00:54 GMT

I am running Vista Ultimate 32-bit with 2.5 GB ram and 3.0 GHz processor. I am trying to install a scanner but the driver does not install. I don't get any error messages during the installation, but after it is complete, there are no scanners listed in Control Panel/Scanners & Cameras.

Someone suggested that there is an old scanner driver that may be preventing this one from installing or that WIA is not allowing this Twain driver to install. I know virtually nothing about this, can anyone help so I don't have to re-install Vista?

Driver for HP PSC 1315 All-in-One

harry07 — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:47:12 GMT

Luckily, I found a driver for my printer at the official site of HP. But then, whenever I connect the printer to my computer (or even just turn it on), the driver would install. How can I solve this?

Intel GMA 950 (945GC Chipset) Graphics Drivers - BSoD / Extended Desktop

muzicman82 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:53:56 GMT

I have a brand new Shuttle X27D based system which features an Intel 945GC Chipset with an Intel GMA 950 Graphics Chip. I have just clean installed Windows Vista 32-bit SP1, and the first thing I did afterward was install the drivers provided by Shuttle.

Basically, after installing the Shuttle provided graphics drivers, I had setup my display configuration which included the VGA output as a standard monitor, and the DVI output is routed to a Kramer (pro-video brand) HDMI/DVI switcher. This worked fine. I require this DVI output to be in Extended Desktop mode where the 2nd display is different than the primary, and NOT clone mode. These drivers appear to be dated 10/31/2007 and version 7.14.10.1364 according to the igdlh.inf file.

Regardless of whether my display is set to single or Extended Desktop mode, I frequently get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), caused by file igdkmd32.sys.

So, this is unacceptable to say the least... so my next step was to check for the latest Intel provided drivers for this chipset.

Intel's site provided drivers dated version 06/18/2008 and version 7.14.10.1504, according to the same INF file (not the date on Intel's site).

These set of drivers appear to work 100% fine, but the problem I have here is that this version does not give me an Extended Desktop mode for dual monitors. It only has clone mode. I can't figure out how to get the Extended Desktop option back. My only guess is that this is because the driver now starts recognizing the DVI device as an HDTV instead of a monitor... but that shouldn't matter, right?

So far, my fix has been to continue to use the older, Shuttle provided drivers, but replace that igdkmd32.sys file found in the Windows\system32 folder with the newer file of the same name in the x.1504 driverset. This seems to be a bit more stable, but can anyone tell me why the newer driver drops the Extended Desktop mode?

Help! This is a must for my use!

BTW - I know that most of you want to tell me to get a different system with dedicated graphics and whatnot. The point is that this system SHOULD be able to handle dual outputs just fine, and I can't figure out why one driver would have the option and a later not have it.

nvlddmkm.sys error code w/ BSOD on 8800 GTX!

nes — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:34:42 GMT

Hello, everybody! This is my problem.... I'm not able to play games on my newly built machine! After about 5 min. I get a crash dump with an error in nvlddmkm.sys. It never fails. I'm getting very frustrated with this problem. I can't figure this one out. I'm using the 401.bin BIOS in my motherboard and I'm running 100.65 Forceware on the XFX 8800 GTX but I'm getting this BSOD during every game. Well, not every game. Dungeon Siege seems to just run forever but all my other games crash.

Can anybody help me out?

My Midi keyboard isn't working on Vista. HELP!

Brakezz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:45:56 GMT

(I'm from the Netherlands so my english isn't very good.)
I have bought a new computer, with Windows Vista Home Premium.
I make music with my computer and have a Midi-keyboard, i connect it with a usb kabel.
But Vista can't get it working. I have search for Drivers but i can't find it for my keyboard,
It is a (M-audio) Evolution MK-149.
Is there something what i can do, so it wil work?!
I hope so.
Should it work on Windows 7?

Greetz B.

AUDIO WIZARD COULD NOT START

HollywoodJohn — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:23:43 GMT

IF WAM shut u down from asking and getting the the answer that worked for u I would like to know

The most posts don't make an Expert

All I want Like You:w00t:

IS to get my mic and speeech recognition working

Being handicapped makes this 4 week ordeal very furstrating

I have problem in vista 32 bit during connecting hard disk to my computer via IED -USB cable..I want help plzzz.

tito_66 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:30:44 GMT

when I connect hard disk to my laptop via IDE-USB cable this error message appear (usb device is not recognized) ..although I tried to connect this cable to another USB openings in my laptop but this silly message still appear so how can I make vista recognize this hard disk via IDE-USB cable and you should know that I have windows vista home premium 32 bit and also when I connect any another usb device as my nokia mobile or usb mouse to my laptop they work well without any problem as this silly message :( does not appear except when I connect hard disk to laptop via IDE-USB cable.

thank you for help.

Turn an internal hard drive into an external hard drive

westerndigi — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:58:29 GMT

Ok. Now I really need help. I replaced my PS3 HDD and changed the 40 GB one to a 500 GB! Now my PS3 is awesome! (But that doesn't really matter...) I didn't want do waste the 40 GB HDD so I bought a case to make that internal hard drive into an external hard drive. I put the 40 GB HDD in the case and plug the power supply and then plug the eSata cables (my laptop has an eSata interface). It installs the drivers but I still can't see the HDD on My Computer. Under device management it is shown but not on My Computer. I think there's something wrong with the drivers so that why I posted this here

HDD: Fujitsu - 40 GB - 2,5"
Case: ICY BOX 2,5" SATA - USB2.0/ESATA (IB-266STUS)
Laptop: Toshiba Qosmio F50-11X running Windows Vista

Thanks in advance!

PS: I know my English isn't the best, but I'm from Portugal...

directx 10 vista 64

starcraft1980 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:38:41 GMT

hi, i have been searching high and low and its driving me round the bend. I am sure it exists as i remember finding a page on the MS site talking about an issue with directx 10 and multipile gfx cards but how can there be that issue if they dont provide the damn doiwnload for it in the first place grrr.. thats my rant for the day lol, anyway does anyone know where i can get the vista 64 version .

thanks star

DVD drive won't work. It will read, but not write. help?

grooveypenguinx — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:44:13 GMT

I have an ATAPI DVD A DH16A6S SCSI CdRom Device, and it will not burn anything. it will read discs fine, but when i go to burn using any program, the program wont even detect the drive itself, although the drive detects the disk. its weird. ive tried dozens of different programs, and all had the same problem. I dont know what to do.

Vista Patch for Diamond Xtreme Sound 5.1?

greaterthings — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:41:36 GMT

I purchased this Sound card for a great price, thinking I would be able to find a Vista Patch for it. I am inexperienced with things of this sort and am hoping someone can guide me to AN EXACT LINK.

THANX!

drivers dont work at all.

trapidz — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:23:31 GMT

on my laptop, the drivers dont work, non of them.. i have tried everything,

and i cant connect to the internet as my (LAN) Wireless dont work :(

what can i do please help.

thanks Jon

Asus Sound driver

elgrari — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:24:30 GMT

Hi all
Finally I have to say all the effort to get a driver for my built in sound card has been failed I did the updates tried many other drivers XP, sound drivers, other motherboard drivers with no hope,
the name of the driver as been written down from windows driver location ( SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio (TCSUS_CH5) F5410AMR.)
Motherboard: ASUS
Model: P5PE-VM
Driver needed: Multimedia audio controller

Please if any one has got clue how to sort this will be much appreciated with my best regards

Installing Drivers Access denied

bullstreetboy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:52:55 GMT

I'm getting access denied when trying to install drivers on Vista Home.

This is happening when I plug in a Buffalo USB2.0 Flash Drive and a windows mobile 5 device. It finds the driver needed and downloads it but seems to fail right at the end of the install process. I'm in the admin account and have full permissions.

This seems to be a common problem but the web has not provided a solution.

Any guidence would be much appreciated.

USB keyboard DRIVER ISSUES-- Please help!

Guinelle1 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:32:35 GMT

So i am going to lay this out as best i can. i have a Saitek Cyborg Gaming keyboard. it has 12 extra programable keys which i use for gaming. i needed to unplug it to clean it out and when i plugged it back in it is asking for drivers. so i hit ok and it attempts to install drivers but then it installs the drivers then another driver for a "unknown device" pops up and it fails. i got the drivers from the site and they fail. and Saitek's customer support is horrible so i need help.

I can plug it into any other computer/xbox and it works perfectly fine. just my pc is having driver issues. so it is not a hardware issue

thanks in advanced

NVDIA 7950 GX2 BLACK SCREEN

dragon2009 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:01:30 GMT

After right installation and system re-boot the login screen seems normal, but after login a black screen on my display with Mouse-pointer active shows

Windows Couldn't load Wireless Network Adapter Driver

Tai — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:14:58 GMT

I'm running Vista home premium on a hp pavillion dv6000 laptop.

For some reason, the wireless network adapter on my laptop doesn't work. I've tried everything that I can imagine to do, including uninstalling / reinstalling drivers, updating drivers (Vista says they're up to date, but they aern't) and downloading updated drivers. It just doesn't work!

When I uninstall / reinstall the driver, it says "Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device [Code 31]"

Someone please gimme some help with this? I've been trying to fix it for weeks!

[SOLVED]Device Driver Preventing Machine From Hibernating

rainwaterlily — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:32:08 GMT

Every time I try to put my computer in sleep mode, or leave it long enough for it to try to do it on its own I get a message saying "The device driver for the 'IDE Channel' device is preventing the machine from entering hibernation. Please close all applications and try again. If the problem persists, you may need to update the driver." I went into Control Panel and tried to update drivers for all four IDE Channel devices listed, but they all said there were up to date. Don't know what to do now.

Vista x64 + Dell 2407 WFP

xeffexts989 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:04:43 GMT

I don't know when this started happening, but recently I noticed that my monitor just listed as just a "Generic Monitor" in "Other Devices" instead of the actual model. I reformatted within the past couple of months, so it could be that it was that way afterwards.

In any case, going into device manager and trying to update the driver from the internet gives this error:

[quote]Windows found a driver for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it:

Dell 2407WFP (Digital)

Access is denied.[/quote]

I have SP1 with the latest updates and have UAC off (running as Administrators group account) I have tried giving full control to Windows/inf and Windows/System32/drivers to {my Computer Name}\Administrators, but that didn't solve the problem.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Side Note: Similar issue I have with latest Daemon-Tools. The virtual drives show up as XXXXXX scsi CD-ROM drive under "Other Devices", but trying to install drivers for them by manually pointing to Windows/Inf gives the same "access denied" error. My guess is it's the same cause (whatever it is).

Keyboard not working

Siddhesh222 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:59:19 GMT

My keyboard fell ill on 7/2/09 (Lol) and its quite sick.It feels healthy when I run Ubuntu and it runs flawlessly but on Vista it doesn't work (Its Vista supported as it used to work earlier and the Logitech site and the hologram on it's box confirms it).And it's not a hardware problem either because, like I said, It works flawlessly in Ubuntu.

Nor does my keyboard require any extra drivers.Its a PS/2 keyboard which directly runs off.The Logit
ech site mentioned it runs on Vista's usb drivers (USB driver's for a keyboard? Didn't know that.)

So guys can please someone take out your time and please help me .Its become a nuisance because I just can't do anything on Vista .Help would be appreciated.(I'm typing this off Ubuntu).

error: driver being installed id not validated for this computer

JaronDaWiz — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:02:31 GMT

hey. i'm trying to update my intel(r) graphics media accelerator driver for mobile and i keep getting the following error message: the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer's manufacturer. setup will now exit. the current version i have installed is 15.12.1.1510 and i'm trying to update to 15.12.1.1608. i got the driver update from intel's website. but the error's telling me to get that same driver from the computer manufacturer's website. but when i checked the website(TOSHIBA), they didn't have the driver i got from intel's website. i have a toshiba satellite L305-S5915 laptop with a windows vista home basic 32bit os. if there's some way i can bypass the error, or if there's some way i can get hold of toshiba's website to see if they can add the driver upgrade to their website as a supported upgrade, please let me know as to what i can do. thanks.

Catastrophic system crash and steam running strangely

metalhead — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:12:49 GMT

Heya!
I run into a rather baffling problem where by when I install the latest Nvidia drivers, my system either completely freezes immediately or shortly after the install is completed. I'm currently running a XFX 9800GTX+. I notice graphical glitches upon installing newer drivers, these range from colour distortions (accompanied by a system freeze) to white streaks on the screen. I'm using a driver version that is months old, because this is the newest one that lets my use my computer without it dying. I've also noticed that the screen saver function no longer works, whether this is related is beyond me. I considered whether this may in fact be a hardware problem, but given the fact that it works fine under these older drivers leads me to think otherwise. I suspect a reinstall of windows will sort it out, but because of the hassle that this will entail, I will make this a last resort.
Also of note, all my steam games run with a particuarly disrupted framerate (I know old drivers), but it does not affect other, more graphically intensive games, far cry 2. crysis, dead space. I've repaired steam, reinstalled it, run it from a different harddisk.

Suggestions would be most appreciated! :)