'UPDATED' graphics driver vs network adapter driver

[LLisa]

Windows 7 - 32bit.

When I started my computer this morning it took a long time and flashed to black 5 or 6 times and when it finally came up a dialogue window was in my taskbar telling me something like 'graphics driver _______ failed and has successfully recovered'.

Also it could be unrelated but recently I've had a problem where my computer locks up when it sits idle for hours (screen saver running). When I wake it back up the internet isn't working and I can't open any new programs, everything lags and if I had unsaved work I can't save it. The only way to recover is to physically pull the power plug and restart. It was during one of those restarts when the graphics driver failed and recovered. I've read through all the help suggestions on google for computers locking up with screen saver and tried a bunch (short of updating drivers because it's a little scary). Setting everything to 'never sleep' helped for about a month but it started doing it again two days ago, and now this graphics failure makes me think it's connected, but I don't know.

I assume all this means it's time to update the driver but device manager told me that my graphics driver is up to date (even though it's dated from 4 years ago). There's no optional driver updates available in windows update. The Intel tool tells me that there's some special manufacturers graphics driver it detected so it can't help. The Intel tool also found an update for a network adapter driver (which I wasn't looking for, lol). When I check the network adapter in device manager and ask it to 'update' it searches online and tells me it's also up to date already. ?

My computer is a Dell, I just used Dell's website's tool and it found a 'chipset' driver that can be updated, but didn't find the network adapter driver. Should I install them both, or ... just one and wait to see if that fixes it? Install Dell's Chipset, or Intel's Network adapter? Which one is the more likely culprit for the graphics card crash upon restart? Which one is less likely to cause other compatibility issues?

Let me know what other info you need to give me a helping hand on how to proceed without (hopefully) damaging anything. Thanks in advance.

Edit: added more precise info and DXdiag text file in case it's helpful.

/message/428123/edit?draftID=441031 Attachments

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[idata]

Hello theholytoast,

This is an old system and I don't have much information about it but you can try the following:Download the http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html Intel® Driver Update Utility and see if you can update the graphics driver and there any available. If the Intel® Driver Update Utility displays a message that it has detected a customized computer manufacturer graphics driver, see http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005469.html Customized computer manufacturer graphics driver is detected. Some issues (such as the stopped responding/successfully recovered error message) can be fixed with a simple update to the systems .NET Framework* software. This software is available from the http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30653 Microsoft Web site. Ensure that your Microsoft* operating system is up to date:It is always a good practice to regularly update your system, and keep it up to date. Download the latest updates available for your operating system with the Microsoft Windows Update* and be sure to reboot your system afterwards for proper installation. More troubleshooting:If the issue continues after updating the graphics driver, use the following questions to help isolate the issue:

• Does the issue occur frequently or is it a random issue? If the issue always occurs when the system is performing a certain operation (such as running a particular application or game), check with the software.
• When was the last time the system worked without errors? What changes were made since this time, such as driver updates, adding hardware, or installing software? Try removing the changes (uninstall recently added hardware or software or roll back drivers to the previous version) to resolve issues.
• Do you have the latest system BIOS for your computer? Check with the computer manufacturer, motherboard manufacturer, or computer vendor for availability of a system BIOS update. Newer graphics drivers sometimes rely on current system BIOS updates.
• Does the issue happen, when your monitor is set to a particular setting? Return the video resolution settings back to a standard refresh rate and color depth to resolve the issue.

I hope this can help. Regards, Ivan