hardware/driver problems

I developed a problem with my computer the other day and I need help trying to restore my machine.

First I received a mesage that said the 'graphics driver had stopped responding'. My game stopped but after a few seconds things went back to normal.

A little while later I received a message that told me I needed to update my 'SATA driver' (I am unsure what this is but I *think* it refers to a driver that runs my harddrive?)

A little while after that my graphics went psycadelic.

I tried doing a system restore but it did not help, I tried updateing the graphics driver but that also did not help.

Finally I opened up my machine and swopped the two graphics cards around (Traded slots).

This seems to have fixed the wonky graphics but now I have no Nvidia control panel and I can not run any graphics intense programs (mostly games).

What I am wondering is, is it possible to run an SLI machine on one graphics card?

Also, what is a SATA driver and can I upgrade it or does this indicate that my harddrive is going and needs to be replace?

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


Machine specs 3.0 processor (dual core), runs Vista Home Premium, 8600 gts graphics cards, 2 gig of DDR2 ram

 

Hello,
Yes you can run a computer on one graphics card, even if it is SLI.

A SATA driver, as you thought, controls access to the hard drive. To update it, download it from the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling your graphics card drivers to solve the issues regarding loss of game playing ability and no nVIDIA control panel.