Nvidia Killed my computer!

[Calax]

Ok, I recently updated my drivers on my good computer, and was having a ball with the thing but while playing Left 4 dead the drivers had a fatal error (they had had errors before but never bad enough that the computer locked up) I have to practically pull the plug to get the thing to shut down and when I try to restart it doesn't boot completly. It boots to the windows screen with a "loading" bar and locks up. From what I can tell the drivers for the graphics card won't load and when I tried to load off of my windows disc it errored. I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge about how to recover the system so I can use it rather than this old computer.

[Bokishi]

See if you can boot into Safe Mode

[Calax]

See if you can boot into Safe Mode

I tried safe mode and it runs through a group of driver that it launches and then just stops dead and won't do anything.

[Bokishi]

Safe Mode doesn't use any video drivers at all, so if it stops dead there, then it is likely a hardware issue, not sure though I need better description of what happens

[Calax]

Safe Mode doesn't use any video drivers at all, so if it stops dead there, then it is likely a hardware issue, not sure though I need better description of what happens

from what little I understand from talking to a few people, the computer is trying to pull up somthing that got broken when I had to cold **** my computer. I'll probably go into a computer place and ask how much to fix it tommarow.

 

and now this comp doesn't like playing any sound or video from the net. I can do stuff like ventrilo and game sounds but not youtube (locks up after 1 second and has 0 sound)

Edited January 6, 2009 by Calax

[Gorgon]

It might not be a software error, the powerloss could have damaged sectors or files on your HDD

[Morgoth]

Yeah, sounds like a kaputt Hard disk.

[Gorgon]

My last Radeon card had a GPU recover function that kept driver conflicts from forcing a boot via power off button, which is what can destroy the HDD, doesn't happen that often, but often enough that you don't want to power off that way.

 

My new box is less haphazardly put together and the soft reset button actually works, regardless of the reason for the computer locking up. Had a couple of 'red screens of death' when I ran wxp 64 bit.

Edited January 6, 2009 by Gorgon

[Kaftan Barlast]

No, this sounds very much like a software error. I experienced more or less the same thing when I accidentally damaged windows by cleaning the registry. Boot with a windows disc(not a recovery disc, that wont work) format your system partition and install a fresh windows. If have important data on your system partition/disc then you might get away with installing windows on top of your old windows without formating, but it will be slower and less stable

Edited January 6, 2009 by Fionavar

[Calax]

I'm gonna go to a repair place in the week and get it diagnosed. I'm not savvy enough with computers to do this on my own.

 

On a side note, I did figure out why my computer hated any internet music/videos and the windows basic sounds. Turns out somwhere along the line I had broken a registry for Flash and it's cousins. a quick download of Klite codec pac (which has a repair feature) was able to quickly able to repair the registry.

[taks]

most mobos have specific beep codes to acknowledge certain errors during boot. that might help with a diagnosis before you pay to do it.

 

taks

[Calax]

well i got it working, mostly.

 

It took three tries to reinstall windows (ended up repairing) but unfortunately in me swapping my network card between systems it no longer is seeable by my systems (In order to make this post I stole the card I gave to my dad). and I probably am going to reformat the computer to see if It can install things and stop getting the weird Microsoft install of "status" (whatever the heck that is). It's very wierd.

 

Ok the new system is finally back in operation but I'm worried, if that sequence of events happens again I'm going to have it looked at professionally.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Calax

[Calax]

Question, Where would I find old drivers for my 8600 gts? the current ones (181.72?) are terrible and often give me glitches in WoW and Left 4 dead.

[Deraldin]

Question, Where would I find old drivers for my 8600 gts? the current ones (181.72?) are terrible and often give me glitches in WoW and Left 4 dead.

 

nVidia's Website? At the bottom, under "Other Drivers", the first link is to beta and archived drivers. Alternatively you could try looking here.

Edited January 14, 2009 by Deraldin

[mkreku]

Why hasn't Kaftan come into this thread claiming it is all ATI's fault yet? Is he sick?

[Calax]

Question, Where would I find old drivers for my 8600 gts? the current ones (181.72?) are terrible and often give me glitches in WoW and Left 4 dead.

 

nVidia's Website? At the bottom, under "Other Drivers", the first link is to beta and archived drivers. Alternatively you could try looking here.

Thank you Der, now I hope I won't have to deal with random moments in Left 4 dead where the comp freezes for anywhere between 1-30 seconds with repeating sound and the whole deal.