Blank Screen running new games with FX 6800

cklabyrinth

I recently got my brother's computer back from the shop, where the tech replaced a malfunctioning ABIT motherboard with an Asus A8v-MX one. The stats on the computer are: AMD Athlon 64 FX-55, 2.6 ghz processor, 2 GB ram, an nvidia GeForce 6800 GT. I'm running it with a Delta DV-770 monitor that looks like it's about 17 inches.

I'm getting a problem now when trying to start up new games like Oblivion, Titan Quest and VTM:Bloodlines. What happens is the screen will just flicker once or twice and then turn black. I have to alt-ctrl-del in order to tab the game out, and then end task to exit out.

In Oblivion, though, if I hit the escape key, the entry menu pops up with text only and no animations, simply brown text on a black background, and I can tab over to create a new character. When doing this, the game will load up a screen with character attributes like strength, dexterity, etc in brown text against a backdrop of the opening prison cell you start the game in. There is also a pseudo-picture of the character you're creating, with only its clothes, hair and no skin at all.

I've tried for the last few hours installing new drivers for the 6800, going back a few months to nvidia's release in March, and also to an omega driver I've had for a few years on a burned DVD disc. The driver the tech installed on the computer was the nvidia driver from the middle of June.

The latest Omega Driver, which is still over a year old, let the games all run, but with horrible FPS and tons of video lag. It would have taken at least an hour I think to run the entire entry video for VTM:Bloodlines, which normally takes maybe 8 minutes or so.

Older games such as Divine Divinity and Age of Empires 2 will run fine, though.

Thanks in advance for any help.

fobis

Hmm... Did you use DriverCleaner Pro in between video driver installations?
And also, were the drivers for the old motherboard already uninstalled and cleaned before drivers for the new motherboard were installed?

cklabyrinth

The technician guy I had work on the computer reinstalled windows and put the drivers on it, so I assume he wouldn't have needed to use DriverCleaner or anything off a fresh windows install.

But, in changing drivers the few times I've done it, I didn't use the program. I could maybe try it out, but I don't think that has anything to do with the problem since it was occuring before I switched any drivers on my own.

I also tried the latest ForceWare drivers from DriverHeaven here and the same blank screen was happening.

fobis

Well, I'd try uninstalling all of the drivers and reinstalling them all myself, if I were you, just to ensure everything is okay. But be sure to use DriverCleaner.