something is broken, but not sure what

[bob191919]

When I went to start to play a game yesterday(age of empires III the war chiefs), the computer froze and then went black and then after about 45 seconds i saw a red screen. Just like the blue screen of death, but red. It said that there was an infinite loop error and that nv4_disp was causing it.

When i restarted the computer i saw green vertical lines of dots and all of the letters had streaks in them, until i went into safe mode where that did not occur

So i went and into safe mode(the pc would not load into normal mode or vga mode) and downloaded the newest nvidia drivers and installed them. I tried to log into normal mode and it wouldnt work even with the updated drivers. Then i opened up the computer. and took out, and then put the video card back in (GeForce 6800). I turned the Computer back on and it didnt show anything. The moniter showed the amber light, not the normal green one. The computer just had a new video card put into it about 6 weeks ago, when dell came because of another problem. The computer has worked perfectly since then until yesterday. Sadly, I no longer have a warranty, so i cant just call Dell up and say i need a new video card.

I have tried using the computer on a different moniter and that doesnt work either.

I have played that game many many many times before and there has never been a problem.

Im wondering what else i can try to do or if i just need to buy a new video card.

[3dfxrain]

uninstall the drivers, then use driver cleaner in safe mode and then reboot and install the newest drivers from nvidia, dont install the newest drivers in safe mode, then install the latest WHQL drivers for your OS that is from nvidia and then reboot again and see if the driver error is still there or not

[bob191919]

I cant do that, because when i turn the pc on it shows nothing. I can hear the log on noises after a few moments, but i can see anything. The screen is black witha n amber light on the monitor

[3dfxrain]

thats very serious, what are the full specifications of the computer?

[oralpain]

If it's logging in and going to windows, the card is probably being detected.

Try the card and your monitor on a different system, but first double check cabling and make sure the card is seated correctly. Also try the second connector on the card, if there is one.

[3dfxrain]

i've seen this happen if the monitor resolution or frequency is out of range for the graphics card and I have to press F8 twice or more at start up to go to safe mode and uninstall the drivers

[bob191919]

2gb memory
2.66ghz processor
300gb hard drive
nvidia 6800 geforce graphics card.

i tried the monitor on my other computer and it works fine.

[3dfxrain]

maybe the graphics card is faulty however if you want to test it and you are capable then you can take the geforce 6800 out of that computer and use it on another to find out if it displays properly

when changing the video card the new system its in must not have graphics drivers installed and the motherboard must be known to be good, if there is a display on the monitor then the video card is fine, if not then its faulty with some sort of hardware bug and should be replaced, this also works by having a totally different graphics card

[RatboyX]

Okay well if I recall correctly the 6800 AGP cards require a separate Molex power connector on the card because they couldn’t draw enough through the AGP slot. Some, if not all of the PCIe 6800 cards didn’t require a separate power source.

You don’t mention exactly which card you have but if it’s AGP it will need that extra power. If it does then make sure it didn’t come loose. Try reseating the card again just to be sure. Also when you power the system on does the fan on the card spin?

[bob191919]

i have a PCIe card

when i turn on the computer the fan does not spin

i will try take it out and put it back in again

[bob191919]

i took out and then put back in the video card.

the fan now spins

now it turns on when the computer turns on, and i can see the screen, but the letters have streaks in them.

the dell loading part shows green vertical lines, and then before the windows log on screen, the computer freezes up.

but now i can get into safety mode

[MrFuriousX]

and the lines disappear in safe mode?

or your still seeing them?

[bob191919]

when i go into safe mode the lines disapear, but when i am selecting safe mode the letters look like they have gashes in them. In safe mode everything works

[RatboyX]

Okay you say Dell came out about 6 weeks ago because of “another problem”, what was this other problem?

I’m well versed in Dell computers as I support Dell (Mostly Optiplex and Latitude) systems where I work. The Optiplex systems (Gx280 for the most part) that I work on are notorious for having bad capacitors, problems with Airflow, and Inadequate or faulty heatsinks.

If I owned ANY Dell system the first thing I would look for would be bad capacitors. Bad caps might be part of the problem. However if the card is only working correctly in safe mode I’m more inclined to target the card as the problem. Now that you can actually see something on the screen again I would suggest using driver cleaner and then installing the latest drivers for you card.

What was the card you were using before you put this one in? Were you possibly using onboard video prior to putting in this video card and if so is the onboard video disabled in the BIOS? Also if nothing else works you could test the system by using the old video card and seeing if that works.

[bob191919]

the original problem was with windows.


they came to my house and did a factory reset, which wasnt a big deal, because i didnt have too much to lose, and i had backed up everything.

they also gave me a new motherboard processor and video card and soundcard (the same ones i had when i bought the computer), just because they wanted to rule that out as a cause of the problem. I didnt think that was necesary, but they did it anyway

this happened at the beginning of february.

I reinstalled all of my stuff and the computer worked perfectly for 6 weeks, and then 2 days ago i went to start a game and....

here we are now

the first problem allowed me to log on and after anywhere from 15-600 seconds my screen would go to a bsod, but they fixed that and i had no problems until now.

i can get a picture of the streaking and the red screen if you want