Do I need to deinstall the internal Nvidia drivers for the built-in graphics before trying again?

Try not deinstalling them. Only deinstall if you can't get the system to recognize and install drivers for the new card.

I'm pretty much exactly where I was before now, no improvement whatsoever (it's even worse since I now get "Windows Host Process (rundll32) is not working anymore"). Man, this is frustrating. I'm ready to return the card and live with my old one or even the integrated one. Windows just doesn't recognize anything about it. It's still just a "VGA Standard" card with yellow warning triangle and Vista completely ignores it as a new hardware component, even after installing the latest driver for it. :(

is your board an SLI compatable board by any chance?

I have no idea. I'm not even sure I know what that means ... How can I find out?

Make and model of your computer. That will allow us to look up just about everything about it.

The error from "rundll32" means that one of the files you deleted manually or through the driver cleanup application was a file Windows expected to run at startup.

You mean this? Or anything else?

Must have been Driver Sweeper, as I restored the files I deleted manually to the exact same place they were before. Is there any way to find out more about it and repair it or do I have to live with it from now on?

That's right; sorry I didn't look back far enough.

Motherboard manual: http://www.hyrican.de/cms/upload/Download/Handb%C3%BCcher/Mainboard-Handbuch/ASUS/ASUS%20M2NS-NVM/e2805_m2ns-nvm_si_manual.pdf

In the BIOS, the only control setting for the graphics adapter is in the Advanced menu, under "PCIPnP".

Make sure that the "Init Display First" is set to "PCIE Slot". (Not "PCI Slot".)

"Resources Controlled By" should be "Auto", and "PCI/VGA Palette Snoop" should be "Disabled".

That's how it is set up already. Doesn't help though. What's this "Plug & Play O/S" setting? It's currently set to "No". Does that have any relevance?

Btw, I went back to using the integrated Geforce 6100 nForce 405 and for some reason I don't get any error messages anymore. Also, from what I learned today I think that my computer has been running on this integrated 6100 the whole time. The actual Geforce 7300 LE graphic card must have died at some point (maybe during the time when I had to exchange the power supply because the ventilation wasn't working anymore and the computer always got heated up fast), so that I tried connecting the monitor with the MB and from then on used the integrated graphics without noticing it. I wasn't aware that my old graphic card is dead, but it seems likely now, seeing that I can't connect the monitor to it anymore. With the new card I can do it, so it seems the PCIe slot is still working.

If I don't find out what's going wrong with the new card though, I think I'm going to switch back to integrated graphics. It's better to have a working computer with only limited modern gaming options than to have none at all or lose several work days and nerves just trying to figure out how to set up a gaming rig for my passtime. It's just not worth it and it's not as if I wouldn't have enough older games to catch up on (after all this is GOG). ;)

It should be set to "No". (It's a legacy setting that had to be used with Windows 95/98 in some cases. Now it's obsolete and should not be used.)

Does the video come on at boot, when you have the new card connected to the monitor?

When the BIOS is set to use the PCIe slot and the monitor is connected to the new video card, the booting works as always. I switch on the PC and get the booting screen, then Windows, nothing unusual (except for the low resolution in Vista).

Nothing's wrong at the BIOS level, anyway.

While it's working on the low resolution, go to AMD's site and get the latest driver bundle.

Then if you have the AMD drivers and CCC installed, uninstall them and reboot.

If Windows asks you to install drivers for your new hardware, do not do so.

Once Windows has finished barking at you about new hardware, install the driver bundle you got from AMD.

After that, you may need to reboot again.

If it comes up "Standard VGA" after you successfully installed the drivers from AMD, go into CCC (Advanced mode) and select your graphics card.

The problem is that Windows doesn't ask me to install drivers for my new hardware in the first place. There is no barking, it completely ignores there's new hardware to take care of. That's exactly where everything is inexplicably taking a wrong turn. And Vista doesn't give a damn if the AMD drivers are installed or not, same difference.


The second problem is that the CCC doesn't offer me any option to select my graphic card manually. It doesn't even display what graphic card is selected. As I wrote somewhere above, the options it gives me are just a fraction of what should be there, only the bare basics (see above for more details).

I'm really grateful for your and wodmarach's help, your patience and your time invested - you guys are truly awesome. But I fear at this point it's beyond hope. I spent nearly the whole day trying almost everything there is to try and there's obviously something unexpected and inexplicable going on with my rig. It should just be plug and play but for some reason it doesn't work that way. I'm going to phone the guys from Atelco one of these days and if they don't have any brilliant ideas on how to solve the issue I'm just going to return the card and get over it. Life goes on.