Cannot install video card drivers

Hi Everyone,

(Hope this is in the correct category!)

I'm upgrading my system with a eVGA Geforce GTS 450 video card.

However, after plugging it in Windows 7 started behaving strangely, with taking a long time to start up (stuck on the 'Starting Windows' screen for quite a while) and hibneration & sleep being disabled. I thought it was due to not having the video card drivers installed yet, so I went ahead and put in the driver CD. However, on trying to install it it gave me this error:

The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit.

I was already viewing my display via the video card (ie. monitor was plugged into the video card already), so it would seem that I have plugged it in securely and everything. Looking into Device Manager, there was no 'Display adaptors' category either.

Since I have a dual-boot system, I booted into XP and in there I was able to install the video card drivers fine. The OS loaded fine too. The Nvidia control panel, etc all appear and seem to work well under XP, but not Win 7.

Back in Windows 7, I uninstalled the previous video drivers (I was using onboard graphics previous), to no avail. I also went into the BIOS to make sure the video output option was 'PCIe', and that onboard was not selected. Still, the problem persisted. So, I was thinking it might be something to do with my Windows 7. Therefore I did a complete, clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on my complete hard drive (I was due for one anyway). This included wiping Windows XP; Nothing left from previous installations. But, the problem persists. I still get the aforementioned error when I try to install the video card drivers. Running it in compatability mode doesn't seem to work either. And even with the clean install, Windows 7 still takes much longer to start up than previously (the HD light doesn't seem to be constantly blinking during the long wait time either).

This is a desktop PC with a ASUS M2A-VM motherboard. I don't have any other expansion cards plugged in aside from the video card.

This is a brand-new card, and since it works in XP it seems more like something related to a Windows 7 problem. Both the card box and the CD lists 'Windows 7 as supported, and it should since this is a new card.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks

did you have auto updates turned on in 7, go into control panel set the updates to notify you but not download, you choose, services.msc make sure it's running, go to device manager find your card, properties driver etc update driver, if it says can not find driver 7 didn't call the server, type this in search box: Hdwwiz.exe also make sure the card is all good to go, power etc. sometimes it's the simplest things, windows should call to the server, grab yer driver and install, it's just me, personal preference, i don't do updates, so i turn that back off disable it, i got eset and my theory is i'll wait till all the "updates" are in a newer version already built, don't care to "add on fixes" lets say, lemme know if this helps at all ltdan