Help Me Please!!

[KHammer1262]

alright i recently bought a computer with:
AMD X2 4400+ processor
2GB RAM
Geforce 7600GS video card
motherboard with an Nvidia chipset not sure of specs on the motherboard
Windows XP pro x64 edition

the problem is the drivers with the video card that they pre-installed didnt work out well with the OS(blue screen resulting). so i restarted the computer went to Nvidia's site downloaded the x64 drivers, installed them, restarted,... the system still booted up but didnt show the logon screen so i restarted again and restored last working system config and am there right now lookin for advice so the blue screen doesnt show up again. i would appreciate any advice u can give common knowledge or otherwise because i dont know this aspect of computers very well.

[muert0]

Who makes the video card? PNY, NVIDIA, 3D fuzion???

[Ouroboros]

Sounds like a driver issue to me, too. Check out www.driveragent.com to see about that. Try the 32 bit drivers instead...

[nihil]

Hello KHammer, and welcome to AO.

My first question is: where did you get the machine, and is it still under warranty? If it is, you should take it back to the shop, as it is their responsibility.

My second question is what does the BSOD say............. and I mean exactly, including the strings of numbers

If it only appears briefly, go into "setup" when you boot (as in your BIOS) and look at all the options. There should be one (or several) about what to do if there is an error............turn off all the "restart" options and it should leave the blue screen for you to read it.

Does this BSOD appear regularly.............as in time, or is it intermittent?

What are you doing when it happens?

Does it happen if you boot into safe mode?

[KHammer1262]

first of all i got the computer from cyberpowerpc.com, i thought they were trustworthy because all of the customer reviews were good and CNET rated their machines, all with fairly good scores. yes it is still under warranty however, its a weird situation. this same problem happened to me one other time back in august(same blue screen same everything) and i sent it back to them, eventually, got it back a little before christmas and now it is happening again. i would just send it back to them again but i have 2 go back 2 school in a week and a half and need a computer with me(that i can trust wont crash).

[KHammer1262]

the message seems to appear randomly. i dont know what BSOD stands for but the string of numbers at the bottom of the error message match the numbers of I/O port for the video card in system information. i just dont know if it is solely a video card problem or a video card conflicting with the OS. when it happens i am forced to just restart it. it has only happened once so far and i havent tried it in safe mode because it doesnt happen immediately at start up. this time it happened 5 or 6 hours after the computer was turned on so i have no idea what the trigger is for it.

[nihil]

Hmmm,

Somewhere; either in your system tray, programs listing, or as an icon on your desktop, you should have a way of opening the nVidia management tool. Go into it and check what the core and memory speed settings are.

EDIT: It may be a tab in your "display settings" ...... <start> <control panel> <display>

Also check what overclocking option has been checked (selected) There should be options of none, automatic and manual. Set it to "none" reboot and check what the settings are............. 400/400?

Also, take a look inside the box...............does the card have a heatsink and fan?............if so, does it have a name on it?......................does it spin freely when you power up?

This sounds like an overclocking/overheating problem to me. This might be compounded by having a slightly defective video card.

Please let me know the answers

EDIT: BSOD = "Blue Screen Of Death"

[KHammer1262]

alright i found out how to view and/or change the overclocking speeds and GPU temp however as soon as i click the menu link i get a microsoft error message saying Nvidia control panel needs to close. is there a back door to finding out the GPU speed. the card is liquid cooled so it shouldnt have a heating problem but possibly a overclocking.

[nihil]

Hmmm,

You might try booting into safe mode.

If that doesn't work then try uninstalling and reinstalling the video card in hardware manager.

[KHammer1262]

The Nvidia control panel didnt show up when i booted into safe mode. however i havent seen the BSOD in 3 days and last time it was the next day so im starting to think the problem is fixed. so nihil thanks for all your help i really appreciated it.