Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

video card problems

Aug 7, 2014 12:49AM PDT

have recently installed windows 7 ultimate after a major crash.
I am getting a message saying that hardware acceleration is is not turned on or is not supported by my driver.
It is telling me to either turn it on or make sure I have the latest driver.
First how do I turn on the accelerator or if that is not the problem where do I find the latest driver for it.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
Given the slim detail.
Aug 7, 2014 12:57AM PDT

Make it a warranty issue with the makers involved. Both for the major crash, this new issue plus how they left you without a good install plan for Windows.
Bob

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: driver
Aug 7, 2014 12:57AM PDT

Hardware accellerations seems like Flash. To turn it on and off google FLASH HARDWARE ACCELLERATION. But maybe it's something else; that depends on when you get the message.

There seems to be no need for the latest driver. If you didn't get the message before that major crash, using the same driver as was used then would be fine. We don't know where that came from, and you didn''t tell, so that's it for the moment.
However, usually we go to the site of the maker of the graphic card to find the driver.

Kees

- Collapse -
It could also be
Aug 7, 2014 9:35AM PDT

It could also be one of those Aero related messages where the user is being dumped to the GDI+ fallback because the video driver isn't supporting hardware rendering, just the basic 2D software rendering.

- Collapse -
graphic card problems
Aug 7, 2014 1:39PM PDT

What you suggest may well be the cause as I have adjusted with the accelerator with no improvement; I then went to nvidia website to download the latest driver and could not do it and came up with the message "installation failed....could not find compatible hardware.
What do you suggest as a possible fix for this problem?

- Collapse -
Are you sure
Aug 8, 2014 9:53AM PDT

Are you sure you have an nVidia video card? There's also ATI (now AMD) and Intel. I don't see anything in this thread where you list any specifics about your computer, so I have no idea, but the error message you got makes it sound like it's one of the latter two: AMD or Intel.

- Collapse -
Answer
Most Likely in the BIOS
Aug 11, 2014 2:19AM PDT

You need to turn on the Hardware Accleration in it. When you do, perhaps the messages will disappear, but you may also find that Flash refuses to run on youtube. If so, then go to the youtube html5 page and accept that as default viewer there.