eVGA 7800GT - drivers not loading when win xp boots

[drsomewhat]

The problem I'm having is that, when I boot my machine, Windows seems not to load my Forceware drivers. When I reach the login screen, the resolution is at default low levels as if no video drivers are installed, and when I log in, the NVIDIA settings are nowhere to be found (not when right clicking the desktop, looking thru display properties, or in the taskbar).

After waiting nearly a month for my RAM to return from crucial (faulty ballistix), I finally got my PC running again and started to bring my drivers up to date. After installing nForce 6.86, I installed Forceware 91.31. Everything seemed fine so far, I tried playing Prey and everything worked. I noticed in Prey that it said my X-Fi sound drivers were not up to date, so I went to Creative's site and found the latest, and everything seemed to work nicely. (I'm not sure if maybe this caused a conflict.)

I think the first time this happened was the next day, when I booted up the system after probably 10 hours of being off. The only way I know how to fix it is if I uninstall the Forceware drivers, reboot, and reinstall 91.31. (91.33 betas didn't work at all, tried only once however.) This problem has been happening for the last three days now.

Here are my system specs:
AMD Athlon64 x2 3800+
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
eVGA 7800 GT (no SLI)
SB X-Fi Xtrememusic
2 GB Crucial Ballistix
Win XP Pro w/ SP 2

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening, and/or what route I can take to diagnose and fix it?

 

[drsomewhat]

After my most recent bout with the missing driver/forceware control panel problem, I booted into safe mode and ran Driver Cleaner Pro as admin to remove all nvidia video files and registry keys. Since I have reinstalled forceware 91.31, there has been no problem, but then again, I haven't left the machine off for any prolonged periods of time.

Still looking for ideas.