graphics card problem?

First of all I am totally non-technical, I would appreciate any help or advice but am unlikely to understand unless you make it VERY simple.

Last week my husband (computer expert, unfortunately does not like me playing GW) installed a new graphics card on our (shared/family) PC. The new one is ATI radeon HD 4350.

Since then whenever I play GW but leave the PC for a while (death levelling) when I come back the GW screen is blank or simply continues to show whatever windows are put in front of it, even after they are closed. This means that I cannot continue with my death levelling. Does anyone have any idea why and what I can do about it?

Did the expert install the drivers that came with the new card? Or, better yet, the latest ones from AMD?

I was just going to ask the same thing as Quaker - also, what version of Windows are you using on your computer? Other than a driver issue the only thing I can think of without actually having the PC in front of me is that you may have a ScreenSaver or some type of automatic "Sleep" mode that has been enable and which is interfering with GW.

Ty for the replies

@quaker - well this sort of thing has been his job for many years, I would think it a bit cheeky to ask. Would the graphics work at all if he had not installed the drivers?

@ Elder - ummm is windows XP a relevant answer?

I have today discovered that the problem does not occur if no-one else uses the pc and I come back to it some hours later. But if my daughter has been on her sign-in then I lose my GW window contents. She mostly plays Neopets and Harry Potter - it is only GW that is affected as far as I can tell. I find it most mysterious.

Of course the simple answer is to ban my daughter from using the PC but that is not really a practical solution.

/edit

are you using any kind of energy saver mode/profile?
what happens if you alt-tab GW?
can you alt-tab back into GW?
are you and your daughter sharing accounts?

-just poking around here, trying to re-create the problem.

When a driver is not installed for a card, windows will run in a very basic generic video mode. Try updating the driver for your card from ATIs website.

Flubber - thanks for thinking about this
I am not too sure what is meant by sharing accounts, I don't think so. When any of us uses the family pc we each have our own user. The problem occurs after my daughter has been on as her user. Nothing I do while signed in as me causes the problem although I have not tried playing her games while signed in as me.

Wrath of dragons, I will try suggesting to my husband that we do that, I had better not try it on my own. i suspect I may be facing wrath of husband when I suggest it tho - wish me luck.

Sorry about that. what I meant by sharing accounts was sharing windows user accounts.

I realize it's a bit cheeky to ask, but I've run into many 'experts' in my time.
(Of course, he may indeed be an expert.)

But now that you've mentioned your daughter using the computer, I would simply think that the problem arises from that. There may not be any simple answer to the problem as it may involve the "shared" use of the graphics driver and not be something you can cure by some setting or other.
I would suggest though, that it could be a result of the computer running out of RAM. You didn't say how much RAM you have, but if it's less than 2gig, try adding another gig or so.

You could also consider getting a Netbook (or a cheap used laptop) for your daughter to use.

I didn't want to come off as sounding like a dick. -_^
This will explain.

Quaker - I didn't mean u were cheeky, after all you dont know him, but it would be for me.
how do I find out how much RAM I have?

Flubber, I see, I think. we each have our own user accounts. I have established that the problem occurs when anyone signs in to another user account. so if i run GW and leave it running but switch users then when i go back the window is there but it has no GW content in it.
and *blush* yes my daughter has admin rights, she has since she was 2. so far so good :P

Well, you could ask the expert.

Or you can go to Control Panel, then System. It should tell you on the opening page of System.

Or, it may tell you on one of the opening screens as you boot up the computer, but that often goes by too fast and/or is replaced by a company logo screen.

Quaker - I have 2.5 gb and ty for telling me how to find out (you missed the bit where I can't ask 'the expert' anything that will help me run GW)

I went to the ATI site and found that there are newer drivers, mine are dated Sept and theirs are dated Nov. They also have a lovely step by step guide on how to install drivers, so I was very brave and gave it a go.

The guide tells to to uninstall the old drivers, which I did very successfully but then the choices on the installation of the new drivers in NO WAY resembled those given in the step by step guide, I used my common sense and eventually had to start my machine in safe mode. After 3 hours and still with no drivers at all, the expert came home to find me weeping on the floor and reinstalled the old drivers and told me not to worry my pretty little head about that stuff so I am back where I started (although now I have a mistrust of ATI and all who work there but I suspect my next step is to ask why the installation wouldn't work)

Does this happen often?

does this happen often? well, it depends on who's doing the installing.

next time, and you can do this right now if you wish: uninstall the old drivers, and then WITHOUT RESTARTING, install the new ones, and then restart. for the most part, driver installation for modern hardware simply involves pressing the next button until it installs itself.

I didn't miss that because asking how much RAM your computer has is not GW-specific.

As far as driver installation goes, like Moriz says, it should be just a matter of clicking on Next for most people. I'm not sure that drivers will help your problem though, but it shouldn't hurt.
Another thing that comes to mind is to make sure that your Windows is updated (Windows Update). Even if it's set to auto update, there can be 'optional' updates that can affect the system, such as audio and motherboard drivers. One thing you can say for Windows Update is that the drivers you get there at least have a good chance of playing nice with each other.