Sm bus controller drivers causing problems

[subclinincal]

hey guys,
i'm fairly new to troubleshooting stuff like this, but recently my comp decided it wanted to go nuts and send small horizontal lines all over the screen. so i reinstalled windows xp and it seemed fine, but when i install all the drivers off of the disk that came with the computer, once i get to the intel chipset driver, i guess for the SM bus Controller, once its installed it goes haywire again, do i need to do a total reformat, or am i dealing with a fried part in my computer?
thanks for the help guys

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers sublcinical

The chipset drivers should be installed first and they tell the rest of the drivers what to do... particularly the video card. The SM bus controller is is only one of the drivers the chipset drivers installs. Have you tried reinstalling your video driver after the chipset driver?

If you post the motherboard make and model (or the brand and model computer) I can make a more specific suggestion.

[subclinincal]

well all i know is when i install the driver on the disk that says intel chipset utility (i believe it says, its something about intel chipset) thats when everything goes haywire.
i'm assuming its the SM bus controller driver because thats the only thing that has the yellow mark by it in computer management.
i'm not sure what the motherboard make and model is but i have a Dell dimension xps gen 2 with
Intel Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz
2.99 Ghz
2.00 GB of RAM
running windows xp sp1, now if i try to update to service pack 2 i get the same problem as when i try to install the chipset driver.

also i was just going to try and completely erase an format my drive and install windows fresh, but everyway i've found and tried to format the drive it wont allow me to do so.
because i believe a virus that i found on my comp that i cant erase even with my panda titanium antivirus (HackToolKillWin.A) may have something to do with it.
any help would be greatly appreciated, for i've had this comp for 4 years now and this is the first time ever i've had problems with it, which is surprising for a Dell, and i would like to resolve the problem myself if possible.
Thanks again guys

[NooNoo]

OK, have you got a backup of your data?
If so, have you got the disks supplied originally with your Dell?
What is the service tag for your Dell?

There is more than one way to get that machine to format... but first I want to make sure you have the right disks to put it back together afterwards!

[subclinincal]

ya i have all the disks for the comp, theres nothing i really need to backup on there now i have everything i need on disk.
service tag? i'm not sure i know what you mean, the serial #?

[subclinincal]

ok i found the service tag, dont know why i blanked there for a second, the service tag is GX9M141
express service code is 36840045601
i dont know if you needed that or not
thanks again

[NooNoo]

OK you have to do something extra details here

If you don't create the floppy disk properly, you won't be able to reinstall windows.

Then you follow the instructions in your user manual here for reinstalling windows.

From the manual I see you have a proper XP disk, so you could try a repair install first. (see the user guide) This will leave your data intact but will reinstall just the original windows files. You then install ALL the drivers on the resource CD. Does the SM bus controller issue disappear? If so then do your windows updates (lots and lots of them), but do a custom update - you want to get Service Pack 2 first.

[subclinincal]

ok before i do this is this going to completly erase my hard drive, cause thats what i want, or is it just going to erase the windows program and reinstall it

thanks

[NooNoo]

If you do the repair install, it replaces the windows files but leaves everything else alone. If you follow the instructions in your user manual, it will wipe the entire drive letter on which you have windows installed