OK, for anyone interested, my surfing has confirmed that my observation was correct - for reasons Known only to MS and nVidia, they decided not to (fully) support the nForce3 chipset (as on my Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA mobos for example!). This results in the anomaly that multi-core cpus and Catalyst 10.2 won't work together! However, Catalyst 9.1 does work for resolution but no Aero (lack of WDDM).... So we have the tease.. Before Catalyst 10.2 installed... Standard VGA Display Driver After (no errors reported but no prompt to restart either)... ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series - (not working Code 43) After removal... ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) - (not working Code 43 - but drivers still present!) Research led to these threads for example - http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/231596-will-hd3450-agp-work-nf3-w7.html http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/5050-microsoft-listened-nforce3-support.html http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/231810-looking-agp-video-cards-supported-windows-7-32-bit.html So it is neither the multi-core cpu nor the graphics card but lack of support for the nforce3 chipset! As a matter of further concern - what exactly does the wretched Catalyst remove when uninstall is selected since just about everything is still there (including reg entries)? Ironically, on another machine - which already has a dual-core cpu but only radeon 9250 graphics - Catalyst 9.2 works but, of course, no Aero so have installed a "cheat" Aero so purchased another 9550 card to boost that yet, in view of the above, that's was a waste of money too! Have since persuaded Catalyst 10.2 xp drivers to install and, in conjuction with TrueTransparency and Transbar, have pseudo Aero! Nevertheless, these machines have been upgraded without any detectable performance boost over the lowly Sempron and a set back to the graphics (even worked perfectly with Media Centre and Satallite card)! [i resolved, some years ago when these self build projects began (with a then need to perpetuate access to Win98 on multi-boot environments), - whadda a mistaka to maka!]