Frakken IT

[pumpkinpi]

Ok, not all IT is bad. But this time it was for me.

My computers are very optimized to run my dome. They are property of the University but we arranged for them to be kept away from automatic U-directed updated so as not to frak them up.

I had a problem with one booting--I called IT and found it seem to be a problem they were seeing with a recent windows update. The IT guy I talked to said he encountered it with his own personal computer.

So they had the computer for a night, ran "a couple updates." Seemingly harmless things like flash, java. Nothing I worried about.

Boy was I wrong. They frakked up my nvidia graphics drive. And when I try to investigate I get an error "you are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU" Frak frak frak. I wouldn't be surprised if I could find a fix on the internet. But I SOOOO do not have time to spend trying to fix this. I sent them an email but I know the person I worked with is not in the office. Hopefully someone else at the help desk will contact me.

The kicker is when I reported the problem, THEY HAD NO RECORD OF MY COMPUTER IN THEIR SYSTEM! Even when I shared the yellow asset tag number. What the hell? And I was working with someone different than who configured it originally, so when I told him "don't break it" he didn't understand to what extent I meant it.

Ok, I have to stop wasting time here. Half an hour more and I have to give up and move on to other things.


Frak.

[pumpkinpi]

I just want to cry. 2 hours later I'm still working on this.

An older computer had a similar problem after someone else did an update.
(I should never let these computers out of my hand.)

The driver errors were diferent, though. I was able to fix the older one to the point that the program I need opens. I still need to optimize it.

For the newer one it seems to be a problem with the Intel graphics card. It tells me to reinstall it but when I do so from the link there, the download fails. I'm trying directly from the intel site.

[FZR1KG]

Pretty sure I can't help, but I can give you moral support.
Go Pumpkin!
You can do it!

[Cyborg Girl]

Hmm. How does the driver issue manifest? Does a program that needs the graphics drivers crash on opening, or something?

Can you access the Windows error logs? That might help narrow things down...

[pumpkinpi]

Hmm. How does the driver issue manifest? Does a program that needs the graphics drivers crash on opening, or something?


Can you access the Windows error logs? That might help narrow things down...

Yes. It has "switchable graphics" so I have to make sure the Nvidia high powered graphics are "turned on" for the given application that I need.

I'll have to check the error log. The problem seems to be with the native graphics.

I also get this message automatically upon start up, from the system tray
"Device driver was not successfully installed
Intel® hd graphics 4000"

When I go to the device manager, in the general tab, I get "Reinstall the drivers for this device (Code 18)."
I tried to reinstall from the button in the device properties box but it thinks the driver is up to date.
I tried to reinstall direct from the intel site. The code 18 error went away, but now it seems to think the driver is damaged or not correctly signed.

I think I've done about all I can. I'm waiting to hear back from IT. It's also given me the blue screen of death a couple times.

I am very fortunate that this is one of 3 identical computers we have. One runs the dome. This one I use for development. The other has been on loan elsewhere. I got it back and I am now in the process transferring everything to it. It's just such a pain I have to take a half of day to troubleshoot. This isn't in my job description.

Oh wait, it is. Historically I've had to do this so often that when I got a chance to update the position description, I added hardware/technology troubleshooting to it at about 5% time. I probably spend more than that, though.

[Cyborg Girl]

Ugh, hybrid graphics... Sorry, I really don't know this stuff. No experience with such hardware, and Google does not seem to be my friend today.

Here's the hoping the IT people can figure this one out.

[pumpkinpi]

Thanks for trying!

[Sigma_Orionis]

Hmm pumpkin, one question

You mentioned that your computer has an NVDIA graphics adapter, but it also has an Intel Graphics Adapter?

[Cyborg Girl]

Sigma - that would be newish hybrid graphics. See GPU switching.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Sounds to me that she'd have to remove both drivers and reinstall them.

From what pumpkin said and the Wiki article, sounds like the machine has an Integrated Intel Graphics Adapter and an NVIDIA add on card.

If that's the case I'd remove both drivers, (as in uninstall from Add/Remove Programs or whatever it's called these days on WIndows 7) reinstall the Intel driver first and then the Nvidia driver

[cid]

We had someone out here at the station decide to do a bit of rewiring on the contest computer network, and promptly brought
the whole thing crashing down.

Took the club IT guy about four hours to bring that small network and the wireless back up.

Whoever started it is taking his life in his hands if they ever do it again...