Curse you , Jim
- metacide
- Villun
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:18 pm
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Curse you , Jim
So I was getting ready to hop on TF2 because Jim convinced me I should. I havent played in a while. So I'm joining and stupidly join the wrong team, no big deal, I hit the button to switch teams and BAM! Things go wrong. My screens turn a slightly pink color and lines appear going down both of them.
My first thought is of course "....f#$%."
Not to fret tho, I just hit the reset button, because the computer is completely locked up and wont accept any commands. The system reboots and is loading Windows 7 again, and all is fine with the world. Once it finishes loading Win7 tho, instead of seeing my login screen, my primary monitor is a vibrant purple color even the Ville would be proud of, and my secondary is totally blank. At this point, I'm feeling nervous and I try rebooting again. I'm happy to report that the second time I didnt get a vibrant purple screen where my login screen should be, this time it was a vibrant green.
Rebooting to safe mode with networking enabled everything seems pretty fine. I can even post here on the Ville! Hurray!
I plan to look for a new video card driver (nVidia GTX 280) but I thought maybe the salty old computer geeks here might have an idea or two for me. System log just shows that "the previous shutdown was unexpected". (No kidding, thank you for that wonderful insight).
I believe this to be a problem with either the video card (my primary suspect), the motherboard, or the processor.
Can I get a link to a reliable video card tester?
My first thought is of course "....f#$%."
Not to fret tho, I just hit the reset button, because the computer is completely locked up and wont accept any commands. The system reboots and is loading Windows 7 again, and all is fine with the world. Once it finishes loading Win7 tho, instead of seeing my login screen, my primary monitor is a vibrant purple color even the Ville would be proud of, and my secondary is totally blank. At this point, I'm feeling nervous and I try rebooting again. I'm happy to report that the second time I didnt get a vibrant purple screen where my login screen should be, this time it was a vibrant green.
Rebooting to safe mode with networking enabled everything seems pretty fine. I can even post here on the Ville! Hurray!
I plan to look for a new video card driver (nVidia GTX 280) but I thought maybe the salty old computer geeks here might have an idea or two for me. System log just shows that "the previous shutdown was unexpected". (No kidding, thank you for that wonderful insight).
I believe this to be a problem with either the video card (my primary suspect), the motherboard, or the processor.
Can I get a link to a reliable video card tester?
Re: Curse you , Jim
Nvidia has not been real good about getting the "dual monitor" portion of their drivers right in early versions of thier drivers. You will probably have to play with driver versions to find the most stable one for you. I have found that even using the latest driver will screw up my stability on certian multi monitor configurations.
- metacide
- Villun
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:18 pm
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
i have used the nVidia drivers for the last ... 2 years? With no issues or complaints until this very moment.
PS. Updating my video driver let me see my log in screen, upon logging in the background was loading then stopped mid load, I could just barely make out what it was suppose to be. The general effect was of a laser light show. I lack the vocabulary to describe it any better than that.
PS. Updating my video driver let me see my log in screen, upon logging in the background was loading then stopped mid load, I could just barely make out what it was suppose to be. The general effect was of a laser light show. I lack the vocabulary to describe it any better than that.
- metacide
- Villun
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:18 pm
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
So after completely uninstalling the driver for the video card I can get into Windows normally again, huzzah! Course now Windows is telling me that it wants to reboot so it can finish installing the new hardware it just found. I know a trick when I see one.
However, if the driver has never given me any issue, and there has been no real hardware changes, the only real cause of this issue would be hardware failure, right?
However, if the driver has never given me any issue, and there has been no real hardware changes, the only real cause of this issue would be hardware failure, right?
- metacide
- Villun
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:18 pm
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
On the bright side this really makes the decision of whether to stay home in anticipation of Portal 2 or go to work tomorrow an easy, easy choice.
So do I order from NewEgg or go to Fry's? Hmm.. NewEgg is cheaper but the card wont be here until Monday at the earliest I think. That'd be a whole weekend without games.
So do I order from NewEgg or go to Fry's? Hmm.. NewEgg is cheaper but the card wont be here until Monday at the earliest I think. That'd be a whole weekend without games.
- Clay Pigeon
- Retired Admin
- Posts: 4811
- Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:45 pm
- Location: Michigan
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
Driver probably got corrupted. Clean it out and reinstall it.
"No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power tyrants and dictators cannot stand." - The prophet G'Kar
- metacide
- Villun
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:18 pm
- Location: Seattle, WA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
I have completely uninstalled the driver, and installed the newest version. This takes me back to the laser light show after logging into the desktop.
- Clay Pigeon
- Retired Admin
- Posts: 4811
- Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:45 pm
- Location: Michigan
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
doesn't safe mode run 8 bit color at a very low resolution? Perhaps your card is just dying.
"No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power tyrants and dictators cannot stand." - The prophet G'Kar
- Boss Llama
- Site Admin
- Posts: 10169
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:45 pm
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
-
Offline
Re: Curse you , Jim
It is a little odd that it's fine in safe mode, or with driver uninstalled, but not in normal mode. That suggests NOT being a hardware issue. Hardware is like the honey badger, it doesn't give e sh*t - if it's borked, it's borked. Have you tried running a different, older version of the driver? I'm assuming you continued running your monitor through your GPU, even with the drivers off and in safe mode (as opposed to switching to an onboard video port).
Last time I had a "laser light-show" on my monitor, my card AND the AGP port it was in (this was a bit back) were both shot. One shorted and blew out the other, though I don't know which went first. Thing is though, they looked like this no matter what I did. There wasn't any mode or change that would make it work. I would play around with the drivers a lot more before dumping bucks on a new GPU, unless you were planning to anyway and this is merely a convenient excuse... not that I've ever done that before... honest!
Last time I had a "laser light-show" on my monitor, my card AND the AGP port it was in (this was a bit back) were both shot. One shorted and blew out the other, though I don't know which went first. Thing is though, they looked like this no matter what I did. There wasn't any mode or change that would make it work. I would play around with the drivers a lot more before dumping bucks on a new GPU, unless you were planning to anyway and this is merely a convenient excuse... not that I've ever done that before... honest!
-Boss Llama
- Cpt._Keyes
- Villun
- Posts: 3100
- Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:34 pm
- Location: York, PA
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
Re: Curse you , Jim
I use hardrive failures as an excuse to the wife to just get a whole new comp...it worksAlizée Fan wrote:unless you were planning to anyway and this is merely a convenient excuse... not that I've ever done that before... honest!
CG6505 CPT Nelson LCDR Wischmeier AST1 Skimin AMT2 Nichols-4SEP08
CG1705 LCDR Barnes LT Bryant AMTC Seidman AET2 Grigonis AET2 Beacham AMT2 Moletzsky AMT3 Kreder-29OCT09
CG6017 LT Krueger AMT1 Hoke AMT2 Banks-07JUL10
CG6535 LCDR Taylor LTjg Cameron ASTC Jorge AET3 Knight-29FEB12
WPB87340-2 BMC Terrell Horne-2Dec12
WMSL751 BM3 Obendorf-18DEC13
CG1705 LCDR Barnes LT Bryant AMTC Seidman AET2 Grigonis AET2 Beacham AMT2 Moletzsky AMT3 Kreder-29OCT09
CG6017 LT Krueger AMT1 Hoke AMT2 Banks-07JUL10
CG6535 LCDR Taylor LTjg Cameron ASTC Jorge AET3 Knight-29FEB12
WPB87340-2 BMC Terrell Horne-2Dec12
WMSL751 BM3 Obendorf-18DEC13
- Boss Llama
- Site Admin
- Posts: 10169
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:45 pm
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
-
Offline
Re: Curse you , Jim
Haha, nice. I approve!Cpt._Keyes wrote:I use hardrive failures as an excuse to the wife to just get a whole new comp...it worksAlizée Fan wrote:unless you were planning to anyway and this is merely a convenient excuse... not that I've ever done that before... honest!
It would seem I use any excuse at all to buy a whole new computer. This latest one for me makes 4 new systems in the last 14 months (though 2 of them, my netbook and my new one, were inexpensive non-gaming rigs)
-Boss Llama
Re: Curse you , Jim
url]
It could be a hardware issue. There are potions of the GPU that do not get power unless the driver gives it power. If the card has had poor air flow or uneven voltage it can weaken the circuts and cause stability issues. Most video cards do die out right, but having played with overclocking and voltages in my early days, I have seen cards die slow ulgy deaths.Alizée Fan wrote:It is a little odd that it's fine in safe mode, or with driver uninstalled, but not in normal mode. That suggests NOT being a hardware issue. Hardware is like the honey badger, it doesn't give e sh*t - if it's borked, it's borked. Have you tried running a different, older version of the driver? I'm assuming you continued running your monitor through your GPU, even with the drivers off and in safe mode (as opposed to switching to an onboard video port).
Last time I had a "laser light-show" on my monitor, my card AND the AGP port it was in (this was a bit back) were both shot. One shorted and blew out the other, though I don't know which went first. Thing is though, they looked like this no matter what I did. There wasn't any mode or change that would make it work. I would play around with the drivers a lot more before dumping bucks on a new GPU, unless you were planning to anyway and this is merely a convenient excuse... not that I've ever done that before... honest!
- Boss Llama
- Site Admin
- Posts: 10169
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:45 pm
-
Games Played
Ville Awards
-
Offline
Re: Curse you , Jim
They don't even get power without the driver? This I did not know - thanks for the tip.stujitsu wrote:url]
It could be a hardware issue. There are potions of the GPU that do not get power unless the driver gives it power. If the card has had poor air flow or uneven voltage it can weaken the circuts and cause stability issues. Most video cards do die out right, but having played with overclocking and voltages in my early days, I have seen cards die slow ulgy deaths.
-Boss Llama
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests