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Red and green lines, odd text, computer restarts, video card maybe? Pictures!!!
Cade
Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
Took a few pictures so can basically show whats going on and identify the problem easier, the pictures might be a bit big, excuse me for that but right now got nothing to resize them properly.
Computer starting up
Safe Mode or start windows normally, none work
What happens instead of Safe Mode activating If I keep this running long enough a screen saver will kick in showing the Vista symbol and that little rainbow like animation as well.
A glitch in the Matrix? Shit, where's Neo when you need him, the bum.
This blue screen error message flashes for about a second or two before the computer restarts
The computer had been working very well lately, it showed no problems, no signs anything was wrong, once some months back one game got a bit buggy and some green and stuff popped up on screen but after a reboot it was working fine again, had no problem until today. I had a doctors appointment so I put my computer into sleep mode, it shut down alright and I went off to take care of matters, wasn't until a few hours later when I got back.
I hit a key on the keyboard to start it up and what you see in the pictures is pretty much what I saw upon starting, everything had green lines running across, not vertical wise. I tried to reboot thinking that might take care of the problem, some times the computer acted up due to sleep mode or wouldn't exactly shut down so I figured it had to be due to that. Again got the lines and all as soon as I restarted and what you see in the pictures is pretty much what I got now.
It won't even get to the point I can enter my password anymore, I'll get the blue error screen and it will restart asking me to try normal mode or a safe mode. I actually had the safe mode working for awhile there and I should have took the time to back up my files to an external but stupidly I didn't. I tried other things, to run a scan and a system restore being among them. The scan didn't do much though it didn't hurt anything either and the system restore crashed the computer when it exited safe mode and tried to go into regular mode to start.
Since then I haven't been able to get into safe mode at all, only get those damn red wiggle lines now. I take it has to be the video card, I checked the RAM, it wasn't that. I know in the past people had vertical green lines but usually they are just random lines and only a few of them, doesn't exactly seem the same though it's not too different either.
Could it be a virus or a trojan or something? No idea, I run Kaspersky so figured was protected well enough. If it's a hard drive failure or not I got zero idea, though most of my important files are not on the C Drive so that might help out.
So any ideas or thoughts on the matter. My best guess is still the video card but not like I know this stuff as good as I should. Is there any way I can access my files on the computer, at least that way if I sent it off to get fixed I can have everything I need until I get the main computer back.
Computer starting up
Safe Mode or start windows normally, none work
What happens instead of Safe Mode activating If I keep this running long enough a screen saver will kick in showing the Vista symbol and that little rainbow like animation as well.
A glitch in the Matrix? Shit, where's Neo when you need him, the bum.
This blue screen error message flashes for about a second or two before the computer restarts
The computer had been working very well lately, it showed no problems, no signs anything was wrong, once some months back one game got a bit buggy and some green and stuff popped up on screen but after a reboot it was working fine again, had no problem until today. I had a doctors appointment so I put my computer into sleep mode, it shut down alright and I went off to take care of matters, wasn't until a few hours later when I got back.
I hit a key on the keyboard to start it up and what you see in the pictures is pretty much what I saw upon starting, everything had green lines running across, not vertical wise. I tried to reboot thinking that might take care of the problem, some times the computer acted up due to sleep mode or wouldn't exactly shut down so I figured it had to be due to that. Again got the lines and all as soon as I restarted and what you see in the pictures is pretty much what I got now.
It won't even get to the point I can enter my password anymore, I'll get the blue error screen and it will restart asking me to try normal mode or a safe mode. I actually had the safe mode working for awhile there and I should have took the time to back up my files to an external but stupidly I didn't. I tried other things, to run a scan and a system restore being among them. The scan didn't do much though it didn't hurt anything either and the system restore crashed the computer when it exited safe mode and tried to go into regular mode to start.
Since then I haven't been able to get into safe mode at all, only get those damn red wiggle lines now. I take it has to be the video card, I checked the RAM, it wasn't that. I know in the past people had vertical green lines but usually they are just random lines and only a few of them, doesn't exactly seem the same though it's not too different either.
Could it be a virus or a trojan or something? No idea, I run Kaspersky so figured was protected well enough. If it's a hard drive failure or not I got zero idea, though most of my important files are not on the C Drive so that might help out.
So any ideas or thoughts on the matter. My best guess is still the video card but not like I know this stuff as good as I should. Is there any way I can access my files on the computer, at least that way if I sent it off to get fixed I can have everything I need until I get the main computer back.
Cade on
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Posts
What are the odds it is just dust? It's a 8800 Ultra, I almost hate to see it go even with newer cards on the market.
I found this forum with someone with problems with his computer and that system file:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/windows-7-vista-nvidia-display-drivers/152790-how-solve-nvlddmkm-sys.html
They offer several solutions, sadly, I'm not tech savvy enough to help on executing them, but maybe this means that your videocard might not be totally dead.
Is there a good way to combat the over heating? The computer is in a good location, the fans are always going full, not sure what else can be done, it's all in a huge case as well, this thing is so big I could have put my previous computer inside and have room to spare.
Joe, that thread does seem awful similar to what I'm going through indeed, sadly I'm not tech savvy enough to understand enough to do anything with what is said unless I had direct instructions telling me exactly what to do on the matter, some of it might help solve this or help get my computer up running long enough so that I could get my important files at least, not sure, but if there is a fix I don't know.
The fact that you kept trying to run the computer likely damaged it permanently so it's time go shopping. Once you put a new videocard in it the computer will run fine, you'll be able to access all your files.
On you video card there should be a plastic enclosure for the fan that's directly cooling it. Dust cruds up in there. If you can get the top off of that and clean the dust off from inside, it may help.
This. The card either overheated or just gave up the ghost (it's 4 years old, it happens) and is now busted. Time to get a new card!
Anyone got any good solid suggestions for something equal or better to an 8800 Ultra, mind you I got to find something I can ship to Canada. Not sure if I should try to look in the States for a better deal or what, up here in Canada prices tend to be a bit worse. Actually much worse from what I seen before.
What's your budget (and what games do you play)?
Also, NCIX and Newegg.ca seem to have pretty reasonable CAD$ pricing now.
Edit: In general, it appears that equivalent modern cards are the Nvidia GTS250 1GB and Ati Radeon 5770, which run from ~CAD$140-160. I'm not sure what US sites will ship to Canada, but similar cards run USD$125-135 on Newegg.com (which does not ship to Canada) for reference.
Those are the two sites I do plan to work at, somewhere between five or six hundred is what I'm going for if need be but if I can get it for less well hey that's never a bad thing right?
Oh. Well if you want the best single card out there (discounting weird stuff like the Radeon 5970), it's the Nvidia Geforce GTX 480. Looks like the cheapest one on Newegg.ca is ~CAD$450 (for reference, the exact same card is USD$420 at Newegg.com). Make sure you have a beefy power supply, though (which I assume you do since you ran an 8800 Ultra).
That's the best huh. Hmm, it does look pretty good, and the price is certainly right. Never heard of MSI before though, sure it's a good reliable brand? Got to ask, what's so weird about the 5970? You got me curious now.
MSI is a solid brand - I use one of their motherboards in my system, and the design comes straight from Nvidia anyway.
The weird thing about the 5970 is that it is essentially two Radeon 5870s on one card - it actually draws less power than a GTX480, but it doesn't perform a whole lot better and costs about $150 more.
With what you said, the price and the capability of the card I'm strongly leaning towards it, shall check out a few other things but unless someone points out a similar card for a better price probably will get this one then. Certainly can't see any fault with it.
And thanks for the info, the one damn confusing things about videocards is there are so many with different type of versions it's hard to know what is what compared to another.