Not all operating systems are created equally. Microsoft’s testing lab has an extensive amount of resources pertaining to today’s top leading manufacturers to ensure compatibility with Microsoft operating systems and other software. As such with the wide assortment of graphics cards or adapters ensure optimal performance and usability. However, there are instances where a display issue may be caused by and fixed by Microsoft or the manufacturer by way of the graphics adapter’s drivers. Troubleshooting a video problem is a straightforward process with a limited number of issues. First off, the graphics adapter’s driver is either corrupt or improperly installed under a different version. For example, downloading and installing a driver for an x64- based system when the actual architecture is an x86-based version of Windows 7 and vice versa. Secondly, the issue may be caused by the user improperly installing the graphics adapter. And thirdly, the adapter may not be compatible with Windows 7 either. Your video card must have a display driver installed in order to do anything but the most basic drawing to the screen. If you're having any problems with your video card, one of the first things you should do is download the latest display driver, uninstall the current display driver, and then install the new driver you downloaded. This can make lots of problems disappear. There is no point in spending time trying to trace down the cause of video card problems until you've completed this initial step. Removing your old driver and installing a new one gets you all the latest bug fixes. It can also solve problems with damaged display driver installations. Even if you are already running the latest driver then you should uninstall it and then reinstall it. That assures that your display driver is installed properly and that none of it has been damaged. On occasion, you may find that your problem is solved by running an older driver rather than the latest one. Rolling back to a previous driver is more likely to help if you have an older video card, but if you want to be thorough you can also try this for newer video cards. Always remember to uninstall your current display driver before installing one. If you don't uninstall first then you can sometimes cause some pretty obscure problems. Another potential problem solver is to try another monitor that can handle the screen resolution. If the problem still persists, then boot Windows 7 into safe mode, (F8 after POST completes) and remove the driver from Add/Remove Programs. If granted permission, then try using CCleaner and run that for removal/general Windows 7 cleaning assistance. An alternative is to check and verify the graphics adapter is properly seated. This means removing and reseating the adapter. Installing the latest chipset drivers also helps to confirm compatibility issues and helps to maintain stability for the system as a whole.
