Alright, This is interesting... So about a month ago I bought my PCI graphics card (Geforce fx 5700le) Stepsiding the shlack about the card, something wierd is now happening. The card functions properly, the pc functions properly (its and Emachine t3882, again mind the shlack about the pc, I know now how to build a pc from scratch so thats my next project so I'm not investing anymore in this, dont worry) and the card functions graphically right. Alright so basically the issue I'm having is that when I start the pc it loads the backround image I've choosen for xp but no taskbar, no icons, esentially just the backround (no mouse, no icons or anything else just the backround) Alittle history on this is, when I first bought the card I had the same issue (after installing all the drivers and disabling the onboards graphics). so I would boot up the pc and the backround image loaded, I switched back to the motherboard connection for my display and it showed everything the right way (minding there was just the 8bit windows defaults and stuff). So I figured out my biggest problem there was I needed to set the primary display from agp to pci in the BIOS (since its a pci card and the motherboard doesn't even have an agp slot so I'm not sure why the BIOS even have that option). After that probem solved (great!). for about 2 weeks I would turn on my pc and everything is spot on the way it was and is suppost to be. Then about once in a great while (like once in a week) this issue happened, I thought nothing of it and just shut off my pc rebooted and it worked. Basically since time has gone on I leave the pc off all night (or for extended periods of time) and the problems happens again. however I turn it off for about 5-10 min (or more maybe I haven't pinpointed the amount of time) everything works just peachy). So as of late everytime I start up my pc, Windows loads and gets to the Welcome screen (after the emachines modified backround/ login screen) it takes about a minute (alot longer than normal) and the backround image displays but nothing more, I power down, power up and everthing is back to normal. So basically I have to atart up my pc 2 times before It will work.

1. My first attempt fix was to restart (it did work for the short perods)

2. I had the beta drivers (77.30) so I reverted back to the approved nvidia driver version (71.89) ----- Didn't fix anything

3. I moved the card a pci slot up and undusted everything in my pc, along side of fans and such (the pc is only about 4 months old so its not too dirty) ------didn't fix

So basically now I have no idea what to do, my thinking is maybe the card needs to warm up or be recognised so after the first attempt it goes right through maybe? although I cant see why now its being so terrible my pc functions properly when it starts properly, the start up problem has never caused and defrag or damage problems, ad as stated everything works 100% (I tend to keep and eye on my pc as far as matainance goes).

So my only ideas for the problem is (because I don't belive its a hardware issue) its a windows issue (not all too likely) its a BIOS issue (I'm still abit novice on them) or I'm suppost to not only disable the onboard graphics with hardware manager but uninstall it? Last idea of mine is to uninstall/reinstall my graphics drivers? I'm not sure if this qualifies as gaming or Win xp so I'll post it in both to see if anyone can shed some light on this too me. Thanks in advance.

My motherboard is an intel 82865gvhz
and power supply is a 300watts

Doug

Windows Xp Home
Celeron 2.8 Ghz
768mb Ram
Geforce 5700LE PCI Card 128MB 128 bit

Sounds like your BIOS is resetting to factory defaults after being off for a long while. Is your clock not on time after you have it off a long while?

Try replacing the BIOS battery. It's usually a CD or DL2032 battery, about the size of a quarter on the mobo. The batteries are available at Wal-Mart, Target, pharmacy stores, etc.

"President Bush is doing everything he can to lower gas prices, including...making the oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money."

Let me explain why this could be happening.

The initialize display first setting in the BIOS only is applicable when you have multiple graphics cards in the system enabled for dual monitor. The setting only says which is the primary display.

Here's what I think is happening. You only have one monitor. This setting's factory default is the AGP onboard video first. Your monitor when you plug it in is becoming the secondary monitor when the init display gets changed to AGP. Why this setting gets changed after long power downs is probably a battery going out, which resets the BIOS back to default.

Another thing you could try is disabling the onboard video card within windows or find a disable onboard AGP setting in the BIOS, or jumper on the motherboard.

"President Bush is doing everything he can to lower gas prices, including...making the oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money."

Thanks for the info guys, I've subsiquently done a reformat restart to factory default on my machine, and so far so good. If the problem acts up again, my next step is to replace my bios battery (because that sounds like a very logical reasoning). Its only been one night the system has been off for a long period of time so when I go to work today I'll see when I come back if it becomes a problem again. Again many thanks.

Doug

Windows Xp Home
Celeron 2.8 Ghz
768mb Ram
Geforce 5700LE PCI Card 128MB 128 bit