I killed it

[dan.walker]

Long descriptive story here. If you just want the cliffs, go to the bottom.

I was in the middle of playing Insurgency, and I had just tried to switch servers when the entire game froze. No biggie, I thought. I'll just restart the game and go on my merry way. Of course, this didn't work out. I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del a few times, but I couldn't get the Task Manager to show up, all I saw was a black screen. After waiting awhile, I managed to get the BSOD telling me that Windows couldn't recover from a video card driver crash. When I restarted, I could tell something was off. Instead of the normal English text, everything was in jibberish. It wasn't a foreign language, it was pure gobbledygook. This didn't seem to be a good sign, but I let the computer continue booting. I could never get to the login screen. It should show me the cursor, then (presumably) the video card driver would crash again, and I would be stuck doing a hard restart on my computer.

I restarted into Safe Mode and uninstalled the video card driver. When I booted back into Windows it would tell me it found new hardware, install a driver, and ask me to restart. Installing this driver make the problems return again, so I went back to Safe Mode and uninstalled the driver again. This time, instead of installing the driver that Windows wanted to, I downloaded and installed the drivers from ATI's site, and just as the installer asked, I restarted.

No dice. The same problem returned. I could use my computer in one of two ways: In safe mode, or without a proper video card driver. Frustrating, but I had a recent backup so I figured I would just reinstall windows and everything would be hunky dory. I popped in the Windows 7 RC CD and began the installation. Format hard drive...check. Copying and expanding files...check. Installing feature and updates...check. Completing installation...BZZRT! Houston, we have a problem. After it restarts so it can boot from the hard drive to complete the installation, I get a BSOD again. It's still whining about the dadgum video card driver, only this time I haven't even finished installing Windows.

At this point, I was quite annoyed. I figured the one thing I could do was remove the overclock on my processor (the only overclock on my system). I wasn't sure what that could be doing to the video card, but it couldn't hurt. As expected however, this made no change. I still can't get Windows to install.


My theory so far is that somehow the video card overheated, and might need to be replaced. I don't know exactly how. When monitoring my temps, I've never seen them go above 75C, which should be plenty cool for the HD4830 I have in my rig.

Cliffs:
- Video card driver crashed
- BIOS shows jibberish
- Can't boot into Windows
- Can't reinstall Windows
- HELP!

 

[Guile]

get your self a inexpensive nice computer from tiger direct preferably a AMD based building kit, they sell for like $350 really nice check it out

 

[dan.walker]

get your self a inexpensive nice computer from tiger direct preferably a AMD based building kit, they sell for like $350 really nice check it out

No reason to do that. I could replace my motherboard and video card for less than $350. Other than this problem, my computer is fine. I want to fix what I have, not build a new computer.

 

[RustyPwns!]

Wowzers I don't know what to say! That's one heck of a problem you got there. I say you buy a temp video card and check if everything else is fine. Like a crappy 9400 that's like 50 bucks

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4471677&CatId=3670

I personally hate ATi because of their drivers. Back in my old PC I had an on-board and that thing sucked. I wasn't able to play counter strike/hl engine games because of some dumb dll missing in the drivers that wasn't missing. (lol) Point is, unless you have like a 4890, just get a nVidia card. They NEVER fail.

 

[Stryck9]

Maybe, your video card short circuted some how

 

[air_nith]

The bios problem sounds like a motherboard problem, do you got rid of the dust in your pc regularly? my mom's computer had too much dust in the cpu heatsink and overheated the cpu and destroid the motherboard with it we had to replace the mother board and cpu.

 

[Treasure Troll]

computer specs and error codes would help, but if you can not reinstall windows remove your vid card and install that way. check website for the maker of the vid card and see if a newer driver is available, if not get the previous version of the one that was crashing, then install the vid card and see if it happens again. if it does get the error code and hopefully we can find an easy solution. =)

 

[RustyPwns!]

computer specs and error codes would help, but if you can not reinstall windows remove your vid card and install that way. check website for the maker of the vid card and see if a newer driver is available, if not get the previous version of the one that was crashing, then install the vid card and see if it happens again. if it does get the error code and hopefully we can find an easy solution. =)

Yeah, Install windows without the damned video card. And then when everything is fine, download some alternative "working" drivers.

 

[Un4Gvn]

I need:

Pc Specs
Software Specs, How long ago did you install the new windows.

Sounds like you've fried the vid card, agp? pci?
If you open the case, check to see if the fan on the vid. card is spinning. Any old vid cards laying around? To test?

Can you run ventrilo on the laptop? Get in here and we can trouble shoot IRT(inrealtime).

PC, problems suck. But if you can work through them and isolate and resolve the problem then you grow a little bit more each time you have to do this.....next time don't be so quick to reinstall the os....and when you do reinstall this next time and get all your stuff downloaded and installed. Do a system back up that burns the whole image of the drive to dvd's that you can just install next time.

 

[dan.walker]

Wowzers I don't know what to say! That's one heck of a problem you got there. I say you buy a temp video card and check if everything else is fine. Like a crappy 9400 that's like 50 bucks

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4471677&CatId=3670

I personally hate ATi because of their drivers. Back in my old PC I had an on-board and that thing sucked. I wasn't able to play counter strike/hl engine games because of some dumb dll missing in the drivers that wasn't missing. (lol) Point is, unless you have like a 4890, just get a nVidia card. They NEVER fail.

This isn't "the old days" when ATI sucked and NVidia was awesome. Right now they're pretty much neck and neck. I've got pretty much my entire family running on ATI cards and they're working just fine.

Maybe, your video card short circuted some how

I don't know exactly. Like I said in the first post, I think it's a problem with the video card (most likely overheating), but until I can get another video card to test, I won't know for sure.

The bios problem sounds like a motherboard problem, do you got rid of the dust in your pc regularly? my mom's computer had too much dust in the cpu heatsink and overheated the cpu and destroid the motherboard with it we had to replace the mother board and cpu.

I doubt it's dust. There's barely any dust on there, and the temps are normal.

That thought had also crossed my mind. It's one of either two things:
-The motherboard is screwed up and the video card is showing exactly what the BIOS tells it to.
-The video card is messed up and isn't showing what the BIOS tells it to.

My first guess would be the video card. The jibberish problem doesn't just appear in the BIOS. It also appeared when I tried to install Windows XP. If I hadn't done it so many times, I wouldn't have been able to continue with it because I couldn't read the directions.

Pc Specs
Software Specs, How long ago did you install the new windows.

Sounds like you've fried the vid card, agp? pci?
If you open the case, check to see if the fan on the vid. card is spinning. Any old vid cards laying around? To test?

- Cooler Master Elite 330
- Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L
- Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 3.2GHz
- Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB
- Samsung WriteMaster SH-S203F
- 8GB G.Skill DDR2 800
- Scythe Mugen 2
- Sapphire Radeon HD4830
- Windows 7 RC 64-bit

It's on PCI-e. I've already got the PC on its side on a table. The fan spins just fine. I'm trying to get a new video card to test with, but I don't have another one handy at the moment.

 

[Ratfire]

It really sounds like you just had a faulty video card, happens every now and then. Like you said it's not really an ATI or nVIDIA thing. If your safe-mode driver reinstall hadn't already been tried and failed that would have been my first guess. The only other thing I would suggest here is to try both the orginal CD drivers as well as downloaded drivers just in case one doesn't take, but that's moot if you're stuck without an OS.

It's also possible that your motherboard is acting up. Since you don't have another PCI-E slot on that mobo, I would suggest running it to a different computer and seeing if you have the same problem. I'm guessing testing out that card in any of your family's computers will result in the same problem.

It sounds like you may have damage in your video card's onboard chip or one of the relays on the 3d side of your cards architecture. In safe mode / install you're using the bare minimum display standards which is why you're still able to get a signal. When you start into windows (regularly or the first time after a reinstall) it trys to activate the driver which triggers the load into the other parts of your card which gives you the fault.

There's also a rare chance that you might have an issue with your power supply. You can try changing the PCI-E power connecter if you have more than one, or just testing your card in a different computer will help with that determination.

Even if you're not under your purchase warranty most of the ATI and nVidia manufacturers (unless you went with someone like Sparkle :O) are really good about having an extended/limited lifetime warranties that cover issues like this, so I'd look at your manufacturers tech support on sending the card back for a free replacement.

 

[dan.walker]

Alright, guys. Here's where I'm at now.

I'm waiting for someone to make it home so I can get another video card to test in the computer. I've already contacted Sapphire support, and they'll let me get a replacement. After I test the card and verify that it is the problem, and not the mobo I will go ahead and get the RMA number.

Thanks for your help, I'll post again if something else goes wrong (like I found out it's a mobo problem)

 

[genpatton7]

If this problem only happened on Win 7 64 bit, I would recommend trying the 32 bit version or preferably Vista. Windows 7 RC 64 bit did not work well at all with the drivers for most of my components and caused several BSOD's. Win 7 32 fixed most of the problems, but was still too unstable to make it my primary system. I recommend you use Vista/XP over Win 7 RC if you continue to have this problem. Windows 7 retail is almost here, you don't have to wait much longer, save yourself the headache in the meantime.

 

[alf_]

I'd be willing to bet on the video card crapping out. I had an Nvidia card I was running in SLI roll over and die on me playing TF2 one day and gave me a BSOD with an error in a dll.

When it happened on my Nvidia video card, a lot of people were having the same dll issue I started with their ATI cards, which coincided with a Windows update. It turned out the Windows update had nothing to do with it.

It took me ages to troubleshoot since the problem was intermittent and would kick in only when I was playing games for a while. It eventually got to the point where I'd get the gibberish you spoke of whenever I would enable SLI.

I have never seen a motherboard fail with that particular behavior, but have seen it numerous times on failing video cards.

 

[dan.walker]

A (hopefully) final update before the problem is fixed.

I got another video card to test with and the problem went away, so I am in the process of getting my current card RMA'd. Unfortunately, I can't keep the card in my computer, but hopefully within a week I'll be back in game with a new card.

 

[Awptimus]

Good for you, this happened to my laptop... it was real annoying so I just saved up and bought a new PC

 

[WaterSnake]

Well, I'm very glad you got it resolved. It's really nice when you can pinpoint a problem like that and fix it.

 

[Panzer Grenadier Ulrich]

Same thing happened to me and after one restart it blue-screened on me. I had no idea what it was so i conacted a friend and got him to come around and diagnose the problem for me (my friend, he is a computer technician). After switching all of the components over to try and find out what was failing, I found out that i had blown my graphics card and I could do nothing else but replace it.

EDIT: Btw congrats for fixing by yourself.