Totally borked graphics

from Stardock Forums

Short version -

1) Installed windowblinds shareware version yesterday 2) Playing WoW last night and graphics totally went nuts 3) Rebooted and attempted to uninstall windowblinds; uninstall hung system, had to unplug the computer 4) after reboot, couldn't uninstall, so reinstalled wb from safe mode, then uninstalled 5) graphics remained screwy, tried newer and older drivers for ATI Radeon 9800, Dell OEM drivers, same problem with all drivers

Screenshots:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/johnemiller/jemdesk.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/johnemiller/jemdeskwow.jpg

Graphics are also screwy when turning on the computer, i.e., prior to any drivers or software being loaded. Sure looks to me like something got hosed in the hardware, and while it could be coincidental, windowblinds is the only thing different on my system.
2,252 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
open WB configuration, click system information and copy/paste the info here
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Recommend you reinstall WB and use system restore to attempt sorting.

Failing that, try uninstalling all graphics drivers listed in "Add or Remove Programs" > open Device Manager > right-click the video adapter listing > uninstall > reboot > wait for Windows to install the default "vanilla" drivers and see if your system is still displaying corrupt graphics.

If graphics are not corrupted, proceed to installing the proper drivers for your system/graphics adapter.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

System info:


WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:


STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+


WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.


Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.


You have one monitor in total.


(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to RADEON 9800 SERIES


Wblind.dll      2006/03/21 13:35:00
Wbsrv.dll      2006/03/19 12:37:20
Wbconfig.exe      2006/03/19 14:32:58
Wbload.exe      2005/12/21 00:04:40
Wbhelp.dll      2004/09/18 15:37:00
Wbui.dll      2005/11/26 18:09:46
Tray.dll      2005/11/02 13:28:26


Not sure it helps much. Graphics are not corrupt with just vanilla vga drivers. Could be a driver problem, but given that I have not had the problem until installing WB, seems more likely to me that something was set/reset by wb in the card.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Given the mouse cursor is also corrupt, I would say its one of the following :

Video driver corruption.  In which case download the ATI tool which uninstalls everything & reinstall

or more likely, video ram failure on the graphics card (though it could be the chip itself) as you say its corrupt before Windows loads any drivers too.

Its very unlikely WB had anything to do with corrupt drivers and its 100% certain it has nothing to do with hardware failures.  The lockup in WOW was either something failing in the card, or recovering from the lockup resulted in corrupt driver files on the disk.  Installing WB the day before is just an unrelated event.

You might want to reset your bios settings in case something got corrupted there when you had the lockup, but only do this if you know what you are doing.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I ought to point out that WB does not alter any video driver settings and has no way to directly interface with the hardware other than via the standard GDI painting calls.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks, Neil. I assumed that WB was interacting directly with the hardware and had caused the problem; looks like it was just an unfortunate coiincidence, and I apologize to the Stardock folks for any inference to the contrary. I can install new drivers that fix the corruption but it isn't recognized by directx as a 3d card. I have to believe the card is bad.


Thanks to all for the comments and assistance. Looks like I'll be shopping.