I have had a prob with graphics card recently installed (nVidia GeForce 6200 pci) various horizontal 'dashes' apppearing in menus etc. This progressed into failure at start up ...just before the logon screen should appear. I found I could only successfully logon via F8 and choosing 'enable vga mode' eventually the fault progressed to failing even in 'safe mode'.

So I removed the pci card and reinstalled the drivers for the onboard GPU (Geforce 4MX integrated)
The system WOULD now boot successfully in VGA mode only, but in display properties I saw two monitors listed (only one has ever been connected). under display heading they were both listed as connected to the on board GPU.

In device manager I found four monitors connected!

If I disable three of them I can boot the pc but can only view in 800x600 8 BIT mode. any attempt to change these settings crashes the pc.

If I uninstall these extra monitors the pc 'finds new hardware' and reinstalls all of them in turn on start up!

My question really is: How has the removal of what maybe a faulty graphic accelerator card left my system unstable and how do I effectively REMOVE the duplicate monitors from device manager?

If I log on in safe mode as the administrator I don't see the display at all in device manager.Dont know if this will WORK for you, but it did for somone i knew. Do you have another monitor you could install.Did you select which display adaptor you wished to use in your bios?Thanks for the REPLIES (I've been away over the weekend)

No I dont have a second monitor available

I had not altered anything there before the probs started so thought best to leave the bios alone for now (I am not too familiar with the effects of changes there)After another attempt to correct the problem by re installing the Monitor's driver and uninstalling the 'ghost' monitors I now see 3 monitors in 'dislplay properties' and the pc found the ghosts again!