URGENT major troubles with computer

[pershainovitsh]

OK, first my screen zoomed in to 1024x768 while still allowing me to pan around. Spartan suggested me to update the graphic card drivers. It failed. So he I removed the old ones. After that something happened, Windows wants to get activated again (I should be able to find the key) and I can't connect to the internet. Needless to say, I cannot use Teamspeak. I'm using my father's Mac to post.

So, I need precise instructions on what to do next. Do I go to C:/NVIDIA/DisplayDriver/whatever and select setup or what? I can't just redownlaod it again without an internet connection. Speaking of which, what happened? Do I need a registered Windows to be able to connect to the internet?

[pershainovitsh]

I'll check these forums again in about 12 hours.

[mcguirk2]

What version of Windows are you running?

[swfwebmaster]

Al, told Spartan. He said he would visit the forum to assist.

Mcguirk, join teamspeak

[Spartan0536]

I expected your system to disconnect from the internet as your Nvidia drivers come with the networking drivers, a driver re-install will fix this.

The next step is to get the new drivers installed, if that driver fails to install you need to backup your files ASAP and do a fresh install of windows XP as your OS may have been corrupted by its own Kernel 32 system that is glitchy sometimes.

With the old drivers deleted and the new ones installing under a clean install setup parameter in the Nvidia driver you should be good to go as there would be no driver conflict, not being able to update or roll back a driver is a sign that windows itself is having core problems. I still do not think this is hardware related yet,

Another trick would be to see if you have system restore enabled, if so you can go back to when windows last worked correctly for you,

BTW he is using Windows XP Home 32 Bit SP3

[pershainovitsh]

I'll have to do that in the evening. (installing new drivers) And exactly how do I do that? Do I go to the folder I saved driver 402.xx in yesterday and execute which file?

And how do I see if system restore is enabled? It last worked perfectly two days ago. The problems started yesterday.

Oh, you expected me to go offline but didn't think to mention that. I didn't expect that and it was getting late so after all that I just went to sleep. A thing I noticed: when clicking "shut off" and the window appears, the first button, "power saving mode" or something like that, is blocked. Normal shutdown and restart work fine.

This is starting to be more and more like an episode of House. First we have a mysterious disease, then treating it causes strange symptoms and new problems arise when old ones are seemingly solved. All we need is an "A-HA!" moment that explains everything and we can fix the computer.

[backtothefight64]

I know with newer cards the Nvidia driver package removes the old ones first and then installs the new with out the need of a restart. Before I used to go into Control Panel, Add & Remove Programmes remove the old display drivers there, restart and install the new drivers. It never affected the Internet
If you look in the Start menu/ accessories /tools, i think system restore is in there.
Good luck !

[Spartan0536]

BTTF if you were using an Nvida card on an AMD based motherboard or an Intel based motherboard that did not use an Nvidia proprietary chipset then uninstalling all the Nvidia drivers would not cause you to lose your internet connection. I have an Nvidia based chipset and if I uninstall all my Nvidia based drivers I will lose connection on Windows XP, in Windows 7 Microsoft has a default set of universal drivers that kick in.

Al your driver version to look for should be 301.42 located here: www.geforce.com/drivers/results/44962
you have this downloaded so click on the .exe and it will self extract, before clicking on the .exe make a folder anywhere that says Nvidia, then after clicking on the .exe select that folder to have the installer extract the files to. Your system should install the driver and all should be back to normal. If this is not the case you need to find you system restore which should be located easily by clicking on search then typing in System Restore.

Manual search of System Restore will be Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore

Be sure to make note of the date, you want a restore point prior to the 'incident', if this does not work you need to manually back up all your saved data and do a fresh install of Windows XP because your system would have suffered a catastrophic driver failure, which means a DLL that runs your drivers has been corrupted.

[pershainovitsh]

I'm back on the glorious INTER-NET. (the public version of the military-used ARPA-NET) Because my graphics card doesn't want to install new drivers (or even 1-2 year-old ones) it doesn't really work so I'm browsing the INTER-NET with a whopping 800x600 resolution! It's like I've been sent back to a time when I didn't even use computers. I activated my Windows XP through the INTER-NET, which works because of the NVIDIA motherboard chip drivers found on a Compact Disc from the motherboard's case.

Now, since going back in time is hip and cool, I think I really could use System Restore. I checked, and there are restoration points made nearly every day. But if the problem persists? Let's say I go a week back in time, will I get the same problems after a week?

Why can't I install those damn drivers? It just says "Installation failed" and shows the components that failed. Installing new drivers didn't work a year ago when I first tried, not a month ago, not yesterday and not today. My father, being much better with computers (although he's fed up with PC's so he got himself a Mac) tried helping me. One thing he did I would have never done was deleting registry files. Pretty much everything related to Geforce. (my graphics card is a Geforce 9800Gt made by Club 3d.) I'm not sure if he did any damage. Every time the computer is restarted, there's a notification saying something about the Display. I think it "found" it every time. Nvidia Control Panel doesn't work. I can't set the resolution higher than what it is right now. When going to My Computer->Properties->"System Control" it doesn't find the 9800GT.




Sorry if you got offended/annoyed by my "1990's talk". Humour is my defence mechanism when I get stressed. Looking at a monitor with a 800x600 resolution is pretty awful. But today wasn't all bad. I went to a slippery track for my driving school in the morning, drove in there for a few hours and drove back. Had more fun than in the amusement park I was in for about 6 hours, after the driving. I almost threw up three times. I had to take a break every once in a while when my friends were spinning around in the machines. I think the slippery track was worth double the amount of a ticket to the amusement park. It was so much more fun.

[Spartan0536]

ok Al it seems the next best thing for you to do is back up all necessary data, like popular downloads, documents, photos, vidoes, game saves and then take your PC back to default settings using the disks that came with the PC.

[backtothefight64]

Welcome back Al, hope you get the card drivers sorted.

Spartan, oh I see, I was talking from a non Nvidia chipset motherboard perspective. Is it still not possible to select display drivers only, out of interest ?

[Spartan0536]

you can uninstall display drivers only, however I wanted to be thorough, it seems since his Device Manager cant detect his graphics card that its really 1 of 2 things.

1. His card has become dislodged and is not sending signals to the motherboard

or

2. His graphics card is failing on him.

[backtothefight64]

Probably the latter.
Pc's are a real pain in the arse when you have problems, always difficult to confirm the faulty component without a complete set to interchange to find where the problem lies.

[pershainovitsh]

Time for a sit rep.

Went back six days in time with system restore. Desktop scrolling, or a virtual screen or whatever it is, occurred. But it didn't happen until three days ago. Six days ago everything was fine. So there is something wrong with something.

Next thing was to consult my father again, this time he suggested it could be graphic card BIOS related. So, after hours of trying, he could force the new BIOS update down the computer's throat. During the flashing, no flashing occurred. After a restart of the system, everything was extremely blurry. After a second restart and furious hitting of F5 we ended up in a VGA mode I think. We couldn't see clearly, but this time we could at least make out shapes and enter the command line. We tried to get back to the previous BIOS version, which was back-upped, but it didn't work. The computer froze as bad as it can ever freeze. The mouse didn't work, the buttons didn't work, not even the start-up button would work. So I switched it off from the main switch.

First we thought we could get a temporary graphics card before I get the new computer. But why spend an extra 50 e when you could just go and buy the new Evga GTX 560 Ti right away? The problem is, I'm not sure which one I was buying. I think it was this one www.jimms.fi/tuote/01G-P3-1567-KR but I'm not 100% sure. But is it compatible with my current system so I could at the very least save everything I want to be saved?

Asus M2N is my current motherboard. Can't think of anything else useful at the moment.

If it doesn't work, it would be good if Spartan could send me the names of the components I'm buying. They are saved in my favorites but can't access them right now. And there's no way I could remember all of them correctly. You did save them, right?

[Spartan0536]

AL this is very very troubling news, at this point with the graphics card not accepting BIOS changes this is indeed indicative of a video card failure, probably within the GPU instruction itself.

Good news is you did remember the graphics card, that card is the EVGA GTX560Ti Dual Slot Dual Fan, great for getting rid of heat.

Here is what I remember for your system:

NZXT Phantom (Black) Chassis/Case
AMD FX-4170 Zambezi @4.20Ghz CPU
AsRock 990FX Fatality Professional
EVGA GTX 560Ti DS
G.Skill 16GB (4x4x4x4) RipJaws DDR3 1600 RAM
Western Digital Caviar Black SATA III (6.0) 750GB HDD
Corsair TX-750 750W Power Supply (Single +12V Rail)
Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU Cooler
Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Dont remember the DVD/CD Drive think it was an ASUS
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound /w Arctic Cleaner

I believe that is what your system is.