Freeze-Hardware or software?

[Odyssey]

Howdy JR,

Man, this is getting weirder and weirder. Did as you suggested and now mostly unable to boot up normally into windows. Mostly because out of 6 tries it did once boot normally, but as soon as I opened my browser, the vertical lines returned and it froze. The other 5 times it got through the Dell splash screen, then the XP splash screen and then the display went black (with the fan still running).

I am able to boot up in safe mode with networking, and the funny thing is that Device Mgr now shows a display adapter and correctly identifies it.

I have a feeling that I made a bad choice. When the reinstall was taking place, I was twice asked if I wanted to replace an existing dll file with a later date than the one being offered in the reinstall and I replied No. In retrospect, I probably should have said yes.

In any case I am in safe mode and running OK, but unsure what to do now. I hope that you can figure out what is going on here, cause I am baffled.

Thanks again.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Firstly, I noticed in your reply you were offered an updated DLL when you re-installed and you said no. You shouldnt have any offers of newer Dll's on a fresh install, the hard drive would/should have been blank/empty ?

Did you not format first and then install a fresh copy of XP, or just over copy the original XP ( Many previous problems could have been left in situ and/or dodgy/conflicting drivers ), I am a bit confused in how you did this.

OK, back to square one with the video driver. Go to Add/Remove Programs in Safe Mode with Networking where you are now and uninstall the Nvidia Drivers and the Nvidia control panel or whatever is Nvidia.

Restart the PC in Normal Mode and see if it loads properly.

If it does, you will probably have the VGA Compatible driver back in Device Manager.

I wonder if installing the MS driver again would help anything.

If you put the XP disk into the CD drive and hold down the Shift key, until the CD stops shuffling (Make sure the CD light has stopped flashing completely even after the CD has stopped shuffling).

Then go into Device Manager and update the driver as you did just previously, but this time when you get to where you put a dot in the Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) entry, change that and put a Dot in the entry above it for Search for the best driver in these locations, if it isnt already dotted, then tick the box for Search removable media (Floppy CD-ROM).

Leave the other checkbox for Include this location in the search empty.

Then click on the Next button, wait till it stops searching and it should offer a driver to install.

Hopefully it will find the MS driver for that card.

Report back what mess I have go you into then, heha.

[Odyssey]

Don't know what to tell you except that I followed your instructions closely and that came up.

I did indeed reformat (some days ago) and did a fresh install of XP using a copy of a Dell XP install CD that came with a Dimension 4500 (might have been a 4600-Cd isn't marked) I bought some time ago.

Have now deleted the nVidia drivers using Add/Remove software and restarted (normally -yea!). I got the "Found new hardware message" so rather than disregard it, I am paused and thought it might be worth mentioning to you in case this is something to explore. Let me know, and if not good, will continue with your last instruction to use Device Manager.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

I was going to mention New Hardware found, but forgot in the confusion, heha

You can use that instead of going through Device Mangler.

It should be the same procedure as what I said to do above, so give it a go and point to the XP CD.

I will be going offline shortly, so may answer back before 10pm or will be back tomorrow if I am not too tired from the nightmares, heha

[Odyssey]

Proceeding with that and it is searching for NVDD.INF as we speak, but it is taking awhile. Assuming not on the CD, what then?

Edit: file not on the CD.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Go backward in the New Hardware Found wizard using the Back button to where you put a dot in the Search for the best driver in these locations and untick the Search removable media (Floppy CD-ROM). Put a tick in the Include this location in the search and click on Next

In the window that opens, at the bottom is a text box, type C:\Windows\inf into that, then click the OK button there.

It should be in there if anywhere.

I dont know what is on a Dell XP cd, but the MS XP cd has a folder on it called I386, that is where all drivers are stored, You could try the CD again and point to the I386 folder if it exists on the Dell CD. Or if you have a genuine XP cd, try that.

You must have it somewhere, because that is the driver and inf file used in the Report text you uploaded here, so it must have been installed when you re-installed XP.

Be back tomorrow.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

What was I thinking, NVDD.INF is part of the Dell R75461 video driver. It would have still been in the memory from the previous install and its not what we want. Duh!

I have been searching Dells site all morning for a different driver, but they all date back to 2003/4

I found another one through Google on Nvidia's site for the FX 5200.

We can try this one and see if it installs without any problems.

Cancel the Hardware wizard and download the file below, you have to tick the Agreement box on the left, before downloading.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_2k_93.71_uk.html

Make sure the Display Adapter in Device Manager is VGA Compatible and not Nvidia, otherwise you will have to uninstall the Nvidia drivers from Add/Remove again, then boot into safemode and run the Driver Sweeper program to clean up any remnants.

[Odyssey]

In case the original d/l was corrupted, I uninstalled Driver Sweeper, deleted the original d/l, re-d/l'ed the .exe, installed again and got the same error message:

Application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK etc

So ran the new driver d/l without a driver sweep (is there any other freeware driver sweeper proggie that you know of that I could try?)

It brought up the nVidia install screen ("NVIDIA Windows XP Display Drivers"-looking good at that point!) after the usual steps, but then an error message came up:

"The Nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers compatible with your current hardware. Setup will exit now."

Given that this is a driver install program, WTF?

Yet even weirder!

Edit: BTW, I did confirm that it was VGA, not nVidia.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

This seems to be going from bad to worse at each attempt, lol.

That setup definately supports the FX 5200, I checked the supported products blurb before I replied. EG. FX 5200/LE/Ultra. And a gazillion more nvidia cards ?

The error you are getting from Driver Sweeper maybe related to not having .net framework 2.0 and/or 3.0 installed. I used the standalone version of sweeper so didnt install anything extra and it worked OK, but I have .net framework 1.0 and 2.0 already installed.

I also believe this relates to the Seagate tools you tried to install, it too needs .net framework 2.0. Look at the system requirements section in the link below, it tells you in there what is needed.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

Anyway, back to the main problem.

There seems to be thousands of people with the same error problem, some say its dodgy drivers, some say its a faulty card, but nothing definate for a fix.

Shut down the PC and remove the card as before, look at the largish capacitors near the heatsink, if they are leaking, bloated, burnt or blown, the card is probably scrap. Many FX 5200 cards had a prob with cheap inferior capacitor being used on them and caused many of the problems you had at the start. If they look OK and I mean 100% OK, then re-insert the card and boot the PC back up again. The Caps look like small barrels, they will be mounted vertically and have some form of plastic sleeving on them with the specifications written on them.

Here is some reference to what you are looking for, although the caps may vary in colour and size. Pictures can be clicked on to enlarge for better viewing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_capacitors

If all is OK....

Fix the Driver Sweeper problem by installing .net Framework 2.0 ( There is a link to MS in the above URL ), then install Driver Sweeper and then uninstall any Nvidia drivers in Add/Remove if applicable, next boot into Safe Mode and run the Driver Sweeper program.

Reboot and try to install the last lot of Nvidia drivers you downloaded again, ignore/close the New Hardware Found wizard if it pops up and just run the full Nvidia setup directly.

PS. Just read the Readme in the Driver Sweeper folder and it wants .net framework 3.0 ? So you might have to install both, I dont know if .net 3.0 is accumulative of prior versions or not, and dont know why it runs OK on my .net 2.0 P.I.T.A. lol.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...5-25634c3bf043

[Odyssey]

I'm on it! Will advise progress.

Thanks.

[Odyssey]

Progress!....... I think! ........ Maybe!....... Probably!

Because there was no display problem before the re-install nor during the several days long run of the Ubunutu 9.04 virtual desktop "install", I decided to hold off on the visual inspection of the card (i.e., didn't think there is a hardware problem) until after installing .net.

Which I did (3.5 BTW, which contains 2 and 3 and their respective SP's), then installed and ran Driver Sweeper, rebooted and d/l'd and installed the nVidia driver update from the link you gave.

The bad news is that when the driver installation finished, the VBLOD (Verical Black Lines Of Death, alternating with yellow) returned. Arrrrrrgh!

So I rebooted and (the good news!) much to my surprise, it came up OK.

Ran Device Mgr, and (more good news!) it now shows not only Display Adapter, but also NVIDIA FeForce FX 5200 as the device. Yes!!!!!

The more bad news is that there was a yellow mark in front of the device. Arrrrrgh!

So I started writing this message, and just checked back in the device manager to quote exactly what the message having to do with the yellow mark was (and the good news!) is that the yellow mark has gone away.

So now holding my breath, but hopeful that this particular issue is now put to bed. With respect to this spectacularly long and tedious resolution process, I offer my sincere thanks for your enduring patience and clear-headed good counsel. I owe you a pint! or several!!!

Will now try to clear the remaining three yellow marks:

Multiple Audio Controller
Multiple Audio Controller
PCI Simple Communications Controller

Unless you advise another course, I'll d/l the drivers from Dell for each of these. Although not sure why Multiple Audio Controller is listed twice, but hopeful that installing one new Audio driver will cure both.

regards,
robert

[Odyssey]

More progress. Ran the Driver install for Analog Devices and both of the Audio items went away.

However, not sure which driver is the correct one for the Communications controller (there are 13 offered).

Can't find anything in the report that identifies the hardware, but not sure how much of the report I understand. Do you see anything?

[Odyssey]

Yet more progress!!

Ran the re-install from the Device Mgr and let it look on the internet and auto-install and damned if it didn't work. Device turns out to be Conexant D850 fax modem card.

So hopefully I am off and running.

Many thanks.
robert

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Well something good finally happened, lol.

The communication one is an onboard Dial up Modem, which I dont think anyone would want to use anyway. That can be disabled in the Bios settings, where I dont know, but it will be in there as Modem or something, lol.

The other 2 are available from Dell, via the links below. Not sure if it requires 2 different drivers or just one with 2 incorporated installers for both items.

In the Report text it mentions ADI and Creative Audigy 2, so maybe you need both of those, the 3rd one there is for a Creative Soundblaster live, which isnt mentioned in the Report.

See how it goes with the ADI one first and if still not right, install the Audigy 2 driver aswell.

http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R58182.EXE << ADI Driver.

http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R80459.EXE << Audigy 2 Driver.

When and if all is back to normal and the PC runs satisfactory, make a backup of all the drivers you installed on a CD or something, pretty please! heha.

[Odyssey]

Those worked, thanks.

Now to try to backtrack and remember which drivers I eventually used. Lol myself!

The desktop icons still disappear when the cursor is in a window, e.g., right now while I am typing in this box, but as soon as the cursor goes to the desktop, the icons return, so I'm really not bothered about this. In fact, it looks a bit cleaner this way. ;<)

So again thanks for your limitless patience and assistance.

[JohnnyReb51]

Hiya.

Thats great news overall.

Just go back through the thread and note down the drivers offered, forget all the Video drivers except the last one I gave you, then note down anything else like .Net Framework, Drivers Sweeper, Everest, etc and you should be OK for next time, GULP!. heha

Have a mess with the Screen resolution/Colour/Monitor frequency and may Hardware acceleration to see if the icons stop disappearing.


No problem on the help, lets just hope it sticks, lol.