Corrupted driver?

When i turned on my laptop, after going back to my room from the vpn, i noticed that my resolution was different for my login screen. After logging in, i found that my resolution was set to 800*600 when it was previously 1680*1050. Another thing i noticed was that my options for what resolution i wanted changed from a good 20+ to 5. My Aero settings were disabled as well. Upon checking my Display settings, i found that EVERYTHING under this tab was listed as "<unavailable>" or "n/a". After this is ran dxdiag and came up with this (which happens to be different that it was before seeing as there were more tabs.)

Also, when i load windows i get a error message which is also posted below; the fault module version is my video driver, and ive tried restarting already.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what may have happened or a solution to my problem?

 

Try a different driver to begin with. What gpu is it and what drivers were you using?

Your drivers are crashing, thus gpu is not functioning properly. A change of drivers should fix it

 

I have a 8600m GT (gddr3 version) and i was using 167.49. Are there any drivers that especially come to mind that you are willing to suggest?

 

169.09 from laptopvideo2go. Most stable driver so far

 

No that didnt work; i get the same error message except with that driver now. Im thinking something is wrong with whatever loads the video driver rather than the driver itself. Is there a way to fix that other than a reinstall?

 

Its causing a fault at nvapi.dll which is part of the nvidias driver files

Download Driversweeper here. Run it on safe mode and completely clear your out your drivers. Instructions are on website, quite simple.

Then try re-installing again

 

Ok, i still get that same error message heres what i did;

I downloaded driver sweeper, extracted and installed it. I rebooted into safe mode and selected the nvidia drivers. I then went and checked the log to make sure that nvapi.dll was deleted and it was. After this i rebooted again and installed 169.09. Rebooted and got that error message again.

I tried twice with 169.09 and once with 167.49 and nothing worked.

 

I see.. not sure then. Theres one definate way to fix it but you will have to do a clean or recovery install :/

Are you sure your installing the right drivers for your OS? lv2go site can be confusing...

 

Im sure im using the correct drivers; vista 32-bit.

 

I know you know this but still t be sure have you used the modded .inf file?

 

Yea i got the modded .inf; i dont think you can install the driver without it.

 

So does anyone have an idea other than a reinstall of windows?

 

Cleaning your registry? Im all out of ideas...

Vista might be conflicting with it. Try a repair install first before you do a clean install

 

I cant do i repair because i dont have a oem vista; i have a recovery disc. And should i clean my registry with ccleaner?

 

There should be a better registry cleaner than ccleaner, check the free software sticky. I dont think this will solve it but give it a go anyway..

 

Yea, pretty much anything is better than a reinstallation considering that would eat a good 4-5 hours or so to get it back to the way i had it.