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July 19th, 2019 03:00
Crashing when using MS Office
My computer was frequently showing a split-second black screen, and occasionally freezing and crashing when using MS Office programs. My computer repairer traced it to a problem in switching between the two graphics cards in the XPS One 2710. He disabled one of the cards and my computer has not crashed since. My question is, what capability am I losing by having only one graphics card enabled? How can use of both graphics cards be restored without a return of the crashing problem?
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fireberd
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July 19th, 2019 03:00
You can only use one at a time so assuming he disabled the correct one you aren't losing anything.
I haven't looked at the specs for your specific model but many have the Intel CPU video and a separate NVIDIA or AMD Radeon video card (or video chip). Depending on the users applications disabling one or the other won't hurt anything.
I have a Dell Inspiron 15 gaming laptop. It has both Intel video and NVIDIA video. The Intel video is used for general PC work and the NVIDIA is used for gaming. I do not use this for gaming, I use it for my recording studio and I have the NVIDIA disabled as the Intel is more than adequate for my applications (and NVIDIA can cause audio dropouts).
RoHe
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July 19th, 2019 12:00
What version of Windows?
Does this only happen when opening MS Office?
Did you try reinstalling the drivers for both the onboard Intel Graphics and for the NVidia video card?
Did you try repairing MS Office from its toolbar?
But like @fireberd said, you're not losing much/anything by only using the one GPU...
davidium
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July 20th, 2019 08:00
Ron,
Thanks for your response.
I did 'repair' MS Office, but no change.
I haven't reinstalled the drivers for the Intel HD Graphics 4000 or the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. There is no sign of an NVIDIA video card.
In a dialogue box for the MS Basic Display Adapter, I have discovered the following message:
"This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)
The driver trying to start is not the same as the driver for the POSTed display adapter."
Perhaps that is where the problem lies?
davidium
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July 20th, 2019 08:00
Thanks for your response.
Display adapters are Intel HD Graphics 4000 and Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, No sign of NVIDIA or AMD in the Device Manager list.
RoHe
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July 20th, 2019 15:00
You still haven't told us what version of Windows is running. Dell doesn't support Win 10 on this PC model. So if that's what's running, it's possible Win 10 installed a driver for the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter because it didn't recognize the video components in this PC correctly.
Go to the system config page and enter the Service Tag for this PC. (Don't post it here!) On the Original Config tab see if an NVIDIA N13P-GS video is listed. It's possible you bought a model that doesn't have that card so NVidia may not be listed at all. (If installed, it's soldered directly onto the motherboard.)
If NVidia is listed, you might want to manually set a System Restore point to be safe and install the driver from the support page. It's listed as compatible with Win 8.1 and it might work with Win 10. If you have Win 7, be sure to select that OS on the drop-down list before downloading any drivers.