Big problem

My problem started about an hour ago. I was playing Battlefieldfield 2 when all of a sudden my PC locked up, I had experienced smaller lockups earlier, but the game would go on after a small pause. But for this one I had to reset my PC. When I booted it back up, the whole screen was filled with vertical lines, but things were still showing (bios etc.) The XP-loading bar appeared, and loaded, but when my desktop should've appeared my screen went black and my monitor went to rest. The PC was still loading though, I know this because the lights on my keyboard turned on and the HDD was still working.


I'm typing this from safe mode, as I don't experiece any of the previous now...

PS: Pics can be added if needed..



I cleaned the card, but no help. I have no problems whatsoever running the system in safe mode. I've also reinstalled my driver, but that didn't fix anything

I sometimes have the same exact startup problem, if i can read enough to type my login info after hitting enter the monitor shuts off but the PC is still working. Usually after i re-seat my video card it boots normally which makes the problem elusive to me.

If your problem is more persistent than mine i would suspect the vRAM on your graphics card has been damaged,Ive seen it happen more than once. Wouldn't happen to have a reading of the videocard temps when it locked up would you?

Not really, but you can be quite sure it was under heavy load though.. BF2 has always been pretty intense for my system, requesting the max out of it. But anyway, the system works perfectly fine in safe mode, so I'm not believing it's broken yet ..

If im not mistaken,and if i am someone surely will correct me, while in Safe Mode windows XP uses its onboard graphics controller not your videocard.

Elder,Rahja,snoggy, someone confirm?

Ooh, that might be true.


I'm glad to say the problem is fixed though After installing my GPU driver again, I rebooted. Still the same problem. After another reboot it seemed to be working again though.

Thanks for the help!

Good to see you've got it working, time to go into your Event Viewer and see if it gives you any information on why this happend.
Control panel->Administrative tools->Event Viewer, then click the System Log and find the error.

Side question, What video card do you have anyways? Wouldnt doubt the sporadic graphical anomolies are a sign of my card showing its age.

Keep an eye on your temps on your GPU, sounds like it maybe getting hotter than you want it, if this is the case, and its not sorted you can fry the card.

Also can u go ahead and post a pic anyway of the error you where getting.

i had the same problem on my desktop and i had to by a new graphics card to fix it

Windows XP doesn't have it's own on-board graphics controller. The on-board controller would be part of the chipset and not all chipsets have one. Also, most of the time, if you have a discrete video card, the on-board (if you even have one) is disabled .

So, no, Windows does not use an on-board video controller in safe mode. It does, however, only use basic VGA graphics routines. These routines access simpler sections of the GPU which can result in a video card working in Safe Mode, but not in Normal Mode.

As Pinkest mentioned, the first thing you can do is to re-seat your video card in it's slot. Also make sure that the fan on the video card is working (if it has one). Also, make sure that all your drivers - mobo, graphics, and sound - are up to date.
I recently had a similar problem with my rig (Vista). It went away after I went to Windows Update and installed some "optional" updates to do with the motherboard and "Windows Platform" (?).

It wouldn't unless you physically removed your monitor cable and replaced it to the on-board video output port.

Overheating... clean clean clean or Video card is going bad

It was really clean though, I had cleaned it not even a month ago. My GPU is a Nvidia 6700XL. I believe it's a non-branded(?) 6600GT, or close.

I'm not really seeing anything special in my eventlog, but that's because it's swarmed with data lol

Okay, so it happened again... I was playing GW when I had a lock up. Rebooted and had the striped again :/ I'm in safe mode now. I guess I can safely say my GPU is slowly dying?

yeah, it's dying. a friend of mine had it after he reseated his GPU fan, without applying thermal compound. a perfectly good 9800PRO gone to waste

uhh.. I guess I could aswell turn this into a new GPU buying thread then, I guess.. I'm on really low budget, even spending €75 on a new card would be pretty painful.. *sigh*

Is it even possible to get a really decent gaming card (that runs BF2, GW, Crysis, for example on a pretty decent level?) for a low price?

Did you "re-seat" it? Which means, open the computer, find the video card (it should have the monitor plugged into it).
Basic re-seat - pull up and push down on the card to wiggle it in/out of it's socket a couple of times.
Full re-seat - Remove the screw (or w/e device) holding the card in place and remove it. CAREFUL: You should need to push aside a retaining clip at the back of the card. Plug it back in - re-install screw.

While you have the card out you can blow any dust out of the socket and check the connections on the card for dirt or corrosion.

Yes, I did that the first time I had the problem. There wasn't much dust in it, too. Also tried the basic re-seat after having it put back in already, but it didn't help either

well not sure but ive never had comp gpu probs, but i have repaired a few RRD Xbox 360 and that sounds like it overheated and the scilicon <-- spelling) has started to weaken, so if redeating doesnt help check to see if you gpu has an x bracket holding the heat sink on, if it does those are commonly crap, as stated from microsoft "using the x bracket was a mistake". This has plagued many console users and a simple retightning or removal of the x bracket fix it, BUT its also a diff platform so may not be the best idea, but positive if its x bracket type it over heated and is going dead (ive fixed some xbox 360's that to day have no further probs, but some crap out again in a month.

Is it an old AGP or a PCI-Express card slot? If it's PCI-E then yes you should be able to find a much better video card for under your budgeted amount. I'd look at a ATI HD 4850 which is probably at the high end of your price range or a 4830, or the equivalent Nvidia offerings. Or for less, the ATI HD 4600 line.

not too sure about crysis, but something like the HD 4670 would easily handle all the other games. if you can provide more info on your computer, that would be great.