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My comp kept freezing and it said it was a video hardware problem.  I rebooted into safe mode and did a restore.  That didn't work. Uninstalled my vid card and reinstalled.  Now won't boot to the desktop and just gets hung up.  I can still boot into safe mode but that is it.

Any suggested next move would be appreciated.

What do you mean by "uninstalled" and "reinstalled" video card?

Edit: also what video card and OS are you using?

In safe mode went into the device manager, display adapters and uninstalled the driver. Then reinstalled.

Running a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 on Win 7 64 bit Home Premium

If you uninstall in safe mode and reboot can you get to the desktop with the card running in generic XGA/SVGA mode?

Edit: Also can you hear the fan spinning on the video card?

Fan is running on the card.

I uninstalled and rebooted. It booted to desktop in what looked like generic display mode. It then automatically installed a driver for the 460.  I didn't restart so now I am sitting at my desktop in VGA mode.

Does it let you switch the resolution to something higher? Can you turn on Aero-mode?

Yes was able to switch resolution and enter Aero mode.

You can try running dxdiag.exe to see if it finds any issues at that level.

You might as well trying rebooting after that and see if it is able to load the desktop.

If it's still not working you can try running some sort of NVIDIA driver cleaner, though I haven't used one in a long time so I don't know what's decent these days.

Did you recently upgrade your video drivers to play a new game? If not your card may be having hardware issues which is why I asked about the fan.

Nope. Won't reboot. Gets hung up with just the word "Welcome" and the little circle that usually has the blue running around it, but it just sits there.

Maybe my card just blew up.

Maybe though I would try a driver cleaner before giving up on the card.

Another thing is there may be something else interfering with the startup process. Back in safe mode you could try running msconfig and turning off startup items and services.

Would it make sense to just reinstall Windows? I don't have that much on this thing.

Sure if it's not that much work to reinstall what you have on it. Though I still wonder how if it's a software issue it would've gotten into this state.

I'd take the RAM and the video card out, check them and their sockets for dust and then carefully reseat them.  I ran a vacuum over my video card about 18 months ago when it started playing up, but it was either that or a buy new one.

So I used a driver cleaner and then reinstalled the driver. No dice. Went into msconfig and disabled all services and processes. Booted up to the desktop, but nothing works because everything is off.  Went back, turned on the processes and it booted up. So maybe its a problem in the services.  Any tips on narrowing that long list down as to potential culprits?


AP: I did clean out the case and make sure they were seating properly although I didn't take them out of the sockets.

Unfortunately, symptoms like the ones you describe can be your video card, but it can also be software,  ram, or a motherboard capacitor failure (for example). Since it does boot with startup processes disabled, it may be of interest to start isolating processes that you know are non-essential, such as Adobe Speed Launcher, Quicktime startup, java scheduler, etc.

To sort through the processes, I like to use CCleaner, since one of its functions is to list all startup functions regardless of location. Start up processes are placed in a few locations, and its a bit of a pain to track them all down. For example, startup procs can be in the registry under HKLM and HKCU. It gets further complicated by being a 64 bit OS, since that will list stuff in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

instead of the usual location, which is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Additionally some start up processes are listed in the 'start up folder', which is not where it used to be in XP. Its here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

and here:

C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

CCleaner lists them all together and allows you to disable or delete the individual processes for easier troubleshooting.

Sounds like a good excuse to buy a nice new card to me. 

That good excuse can quickly turn into a bad one if he buys a new gfx card and it STILL doesn't boot up normally. :P

Details, details. 

Meh, that just means he has eliminated one potential source for the root of the problem, and can now procied to buy a new Motherboard + Processor set to continue with the testing  :why_so_serious:

I'd bet money it's a failing power supply. Attempt a boot with one less drive attached to the power supply (like a CD/DVD burner) and if it boots it's probably a power issue.

I had the exact same symptoms today with a coworker's machine. It was a fried capacitor, so don't bet the farm on the PSU.

So through process of elimination I was able to get it to boot.  The only thing I had to turn off was the Desktop Window Manage Session Manager.  Now I can get to the desktop and even run some programs (like Teamspeak) but when I try to run a program that seems to need graphics from World of Tanks down to Freecell (including a browser) it now doesnt just stall out. It reboots.

Engels, are you going to be available at all tonight? I'd like to talk to you on the TS server if you have a minute.

EDIT: Also getting a pop up that says "Display Driver has stopped responding and has recovered" and then something about a "kernel" and and a driver number that flashes by too fast for me to write down so far.

Still leaning towards the Power Supply, especially if it dies on video. Did you try and run without a drive connected yet?

Also what does Event Viewer tell you about the recent crashes? (Control Panel>Admin Tools>Event Viewer) It should detail the stop that causes it to reboot, but it may not specify exactly what the problem is.

A lack of power to load the video card or to use video apps would cause the symptoms mentioned.

I'm pretty sure if it was a burst cap he would see that on the board, and it also would cause more problems than just what he's describing.

If it reboots, you might want to check if there are any recent files in c:\windows\minidump

If so, someone with the windows debugger can look into those to find possible culprits. Helped me a few times with crash problems.

Not sure what I would disconnect.  I only have one hard drive.  I did disconnect the extra fan I have in there.

EDIT:  I'll disconnect the DVD burner.

If it's rebooting on you you are probably getting a BSOD. If you want to see what might be causing it you can turn off the auto-reboot feature in System -> Advance system settings -> Startup and Recovery Settings -> Automatically restart
.

So the event log says this:

Okay. Did that. Instead of rebooting everything just freezes now when I try to open up a progam that would use graphics.   No BOSD.

So booting without the Burner connected didn't work?

From the Windows article for Power Event ID 41 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504):

Just unplug the power connector to the drive (you can leave the SATA/IDE connector plugged in).

It didn't change anything to disconnect the burner.  It got me thinking that earlier when I was messing with the drivers I put in a disc and the drive sounded really weird. Like belabored. Maybe it wasn't getting enough power as I imagine spinning that thing is one of the more power-intense processes. So maybe that lends credence to the theory.

A way to test this is if you have a Power Supply from another machine to put in, or to purchase a Power Supply someplace local that you can possibly return if it doesn't solve the problem.

Also make sure the extra power connectors attached to your card are seated properly and the power cables themselves are connected if they are going through an adapter or if you have a power supply with modular cables.

Unfortunately the only spare power supply I have is old and doesn't have the right connections (no SATA). 

So based on what I described does it make sense for me to lay out the money to get a new power supply and try that as a solution?

Yes. The system seems to be having issues switching the card into 3D mode (though Aero does work which does require extra GPU power). It could still be a driver issue but it seems more likely it's some sort of hardware problem at the moment.

Put in new power supply.  Same shit.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Ok guys, now what? New card?

Sure :awesome_for_real:

Did you already try reinstalling Windows 7?

No.  I managed to get the few files I had onto a separate drive.  Does it make sense to do a Win 7 reinstall at this point?  The weird thing is I was able to update the NVIDIA driver (which it wouldn't before) but then it froze and rebooted when I tried to play freaking solitare.

Sure. It's possible the driver/driver update is still borked somehow.

Well, I would wait on the Windows install, because that could equal a lot of unnecessary hours wasted if it's still a Hardware problem. I was recommending power supply because it sure sounded like a power issue, and the Event log also sort of backed that up. Buying a PS is also a relatively cheap place to start, although changing the number of peripherals hooked to power should've allowed it to work normally if it was the original power supply failing. What Watt PS was the original and the replacement? Try with less drives on the new power supply if you haven't already.

Do you have any other video cards to try on that motherboard? Did you check the Caps on the mobo to see if any of them are burst? What are the full specs of this machine? Have you reseated the RAM, and possibly attempted running it with less sticks installed? ->(RAM is also a power drain)

Original was 700W. I put in a 600W. Both should be adequate for what I have running.

I did the Windows reinstall. Didn't fix it. Acting exactly the same.  I'm really frustrated.

It's a good excuse to get a new computer for Christmas :awesome_for_real:

It isn't tremendously likely to fix anything, but you could try putting the card in a different slot.

This fucking thing is only 14 months old.

So did you examine the board for burst caps? or attempt running the machine with less RAM?

Try each individual ram stick on it's own with no others installed, and possibly one of the sticks themselves is damaged.

Won't fit in any other slot.

No burst caps.  I'll try the RAM thing.

Also worth trying, since the PS you purchased was less than the original, would be to try booting without the burner installed with the new Power Supply.

Messing with RAM did nothing.

I have an old 7800 GT I have canabalized out of an old machine.  Would it do any good to throw that into it to test it out?  Should I take out my 460 GTX first or leave it in ?

Hey Aba,

Yes, definitely try the 7800 first. If I'd known you had that laying about, I'd have suggested that first, since that would have been the easiest thing to troubleshoot with. Pull out the 460 first tho. The good news is that if it works, you'll probably be able to play WoT on it at cruddy settings while you get a replacement card.

Tao's instincts that it was a PSU problem weren't bad or anything, and I was actually angling towards it, since the machine was rebooting rather than seizing up when you drew power through your card when doing something 'graphical'. That said, these things are very temperamental, and a bad chip or capacitor on the vid card itself can cause a odd power state that'll reboot you too.

Now, I'm thinking its either the power connection on your vid card or something more prosaic and common, like a burned out video ram chip.

At this point you're almost committed to replacing the works.  Why not just order a new processor, mobo, and videocard, gut the machine out and have a new system.  If it's a few years old, you can probably double your performance for peanuts ($200-250) and stop futzing around with bits and pieces.

--Dave

Put in th 7800 and can't get it to work.  It won't boot to desktop. I get the screen that asks if I want to boot normally or use the start up repair. If I choose start-up repair the screen goes blank and it sits there.  If I choose start normally, it going to the little four color window thing and then sits there.

Did you try a different slot?

I only have 1 PCIe slot.

Sucks to be you? :why_so_serious:

Now we're in motherboard replacement territory.

Can the motherboard be replaced without replacing the CPU (i.e. can you take it off and put it on a new one).  This thing is a fairly recent i5 760.

Yes you can though it's a bit of work to reapply the thermal paste and put the heat sink and fan back on.

Bleh. I'm fucking tired. Been wrestling with this thing for 7 hours.  I'm going to bed.

Thanks for the help so far (I owe you guys some free legal advice).  Is the next step to get a new vid card and throw it in there or would that be a waste of time/money?  Should I just go dump it on the counter of the local computer shop and have them try to figure it out?

You could try a new video card though if your 7800 also isn't working it doesn't seem as likely now that it's the 460 that's bad. If it was me I'd buy a motherboard from a place that had a liberal return policy and install the existing CPU into that board but that's a bit of work. It may be better if you know of a good shop to pay somebody to do that work for you.

You could try unhooking any external devices, printers, usb cables etc, reset your bios to default, try a different 2nd power cable for the graphics cards (assuming those cards need two power inputs) & giving the case a shake, but the chances of any of it helping are pretty low.

Type "command" in the program box, then click on it as "Run as administrator" and when you get the dos box, type "chkdsk"  If there are any HD issues, it might show up as orphaned files.

Do you have an old hard drive laying around as well?  Might make sense to install windows on an old HD and see if the problem persists.  It's still possible it's a software issue.

Ok. I shouldn't have been doing this at 1 in the morning.  When I was messing around with the RAM I installed two sticks upside down.  So, fixed that. Wired up the old power supply with the old 7800 card and SUCCESS! Everything seems to work.

So looks like it was the vid card going kabloowie.

Any suggestions on what to get to replace a gtx 460?

What are your monitor(s) sizes and resolutions?

I've been happy with my 560Ti.

I have a 24 inch I run at 1920-1080 and then a 20 inch that I sometimes use to dual monitor.

Sorry, late to this thread.

I am about 98% sure this is your graphics card. My roommate had the same issue, not quite as bad, but close. Any time he needed to run anything that was 3d related, it would freeze dead. 

It turned out it was his graphics card overheating due to massive amounts of dust inside it. We blew it out with some compressed air and it has worked fine since then. He just blows the card clean every month.

I doubt dust is your problem, but the symptoms seem very close and would lead me to say graphics card.

The 560Ti isn't a bad choice. Not sure how well it performs with two monitors, the benchmarks I've seen suggest that it may struggle a bit on specific games using two monitors (one for the game, the other just desktop etc). If money isn't an object (within reason) you may want to jump up a grade.

This chart here (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/11/10/battlefield-3-technical-analysis/4), outlining performance of BF3 at your resolution suggests that the 560Ti, while using a single monitor, averages 41FPS. That's not a great sign of how it would perform if you're gonna use two monitors routinely.

The 570 looks better, but it does require two PCI-E power connectors ( Edit: turns out the 560Ti does too, so well whatevs.) and you need a 600 watt PSU (which you have I think?).

If thermals are a concern, then just bear in mind that as a rule of thumb, the more powerful the card the hotter it gets.

Lastly, don't worry about video ram capacities over 1 GB. 1 GB is ample.

I have heard a ton of anecdotal problems with the 560Ti and BF3. Not sure if the new patch alleviated them or not. May check into it before you spend any money, however.

Yeah, I'm not a big shooter guy so I haven't seen that issue. It has been running Skyrim at 1920x1200 great, though. It's certainly not a total top of the line card, only in the $200 range.

Um; forgive me if I didn't see someone mention it but you did plug the PCI-Express power cable into the physical card itself after you installed it right?

Also; even if you reseated your RAM do it again. Also, if you can burn a MemTest86x CD and test your RAM.

Bad/badly seated RAM, bad PSUs, and failing mobos cause ridiculously hard to diagnose bluescreen/freezes/intermittent boot issues.

Also inspect your motherboard for busted or leaking capacitors. If just one is leaking, broken, or bulged badly that's all it takes.

So I should do this before I get a new card or should I assume it was the card with things now working with my 7800 in there?

I'd recommend it. At least test your RAM. You don't need to let MemTest86 run to 100% if you don't wish; generally when I find bad RAM it errors out within a few minutes.

Inspecting your mobo isn't hard either. Just look at the caps and make sure none are busted/bulged/leaking.

http://www.memtest86.com/

Sure, it can't hurt, especially if the vid card failure is due to a power spike that may have hurt other components. Also, just for giggles, put the 'broken' card back in (remove the 7800 ) and see if it still refuses to work. If it does, then ya, its pretty clear its the vid card.

Also, run a check disk ( from a command prompt launched As Administrator, type chkdsk /f C: It'll say it can't do it right now, and do you wanna do it on next reboot, say yes ) on your HD; after so many hard resets, it can't hurt to verify your file structure on your HD. Computers don't like being interrupted while accessing files.

Wait, what?  :ye_gods: I can't picture how that is even doable. Upside down or backwards, you shouldn't even be able to come close to getting the locking lever thingies to close.

The locks weren't really down which is how I noticed it. I was real tired last night.

Scotch is for AFTER troubleshooting!

Oh believe you me, I went for some scotch last night, but only after I'd finished banging my head against this.

Now that this is settled, I fully expect to see you in WoT. 

Glad things are working again!

It sucks because I have five days of lots of tank time and this infernal machine goes down. Doing some last checks (RAM test ran fine and currently doing diskcheck without anything coming up). So hopefully I will be on tonight although I probably won't be able to hit anything with the settings so low.

Just another anecdote, I had a computer doing this last year.  It was frustrating, but not overly so as it did it maybe once a week or so, but also garbled the display every other day or so.  Then one day it just froze up solid (again) and when I rebooted my computer refused to post.  I took out the video card and it would post (oddly enough).  New video card and problem solved!

I'm convinced. New card on the way from Amazon and will be here Friday.  If that doesn't fix it at least I will have a new card to go in the new system I think I will just start at that point.

Damn it. World of Tanks won't work. I push the "Play" button and it just goes away. No error message. No nothing.

EDIT: Probably has to do with the 94 Windows updates that need to be installed that I thought had already happened.  :oh_i_see:

Too bad I couldn't catch you before the OS install.   :ye_gods:
A video card upgrade is never a bad thing, and at the least it will eliminate the need for that later. I don't know if the power supply you bought and installed was expensive, but honestly that is something it's always worthwhile to have around. I at least hope you can return it.

I'll hold onto it. Can't hurt to have a back-up.  I'll probably be building a system for my son in a couple of years as well and can throw it in there.