updated display driver changes my pc appearence

[sidewinder]

help please, when i update my display adapter driver it changes the appearence of my desktop to win95 with the big chunky buttons and toolbars, i cant then change them back to winxp, even rolling back the driver leaves the same appearence the only way is to do a system restore. any help would be great
forgot to mention it's a radion x300 series

[INFRATOM]

Sounds like you are on VGA only, see if you can change the settings. if it doesn't work go to device manager and uninstall driver or roll back. if you have new driver could try to install again.

[smearbrick1]

I'd recommend not doing that then. Sounds like your adapter does not like the driver you updated to and it is defaulting back to the default display adapter driver.

Verify that the driver you are using is compatible with the OS and Hardware you are using.

Just an idiot question:

Did you try adjusting your display settings after updating or did you just assume since they changed when updating the driver that you couldn't change them?

[sidewinder]

tried to reset my display settings after installing the driver but it wouldn't change the appearence back. i'm using a 17" lcd screen. the only reason i was updating the driver is cos my pc was locking up playing games online never had a problem with playing video/dvds on my pc but thought i'd try it to see if it cured my problem.

[smearbrick1]

Just games online caused the lockup?

[Faustus]

So if you right click on the desktop thengoto properties then appearance and set it back to XP and click ok nothing happens?

[sidewinder]

yea it's just online games causing the problem and i don't even know if thats the problem since when it happens i have to switch my pc off at the socket to reboot and don't get no error message in the event viewer. when i update the driver i reset all properties back to the xp settings i have now and nothing changes, i still get the big stupid win95 toolbars and buttons i'm totally confused!

[sidewinder]

just found something which may be related to my problem. seem the themes are tied to uxtheme.dll, i wonder if thats getting overwriten when i upgrade

[Faustus]

Shouldn't have changed that file unless you also upgraded to SP2 at the same time.

[Faustus]

Try clicking on start then run. in the box type cmd and press enter.

At the command prompt type "sfc /scannow" and press enter. Make sure not to use the " marks.

Let it fix any files it needs to and hope that helps some.

[sidewinder]

thanks for all the help, finally sorted it by d/loading the ATI Catalyst pack and letting that update it. it will teach me not to let windows find the driver itself. and on a side not the game plays fine now with the updated driver. thanks again.