Driver Issue

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boy0ntherun

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Hey, I had this problem a while back and hopefully finally figured it out. My computer was freezing at the windows splash screen, the loading bar would either stop completely or load very slowly.

If I got it to boot through power cycling and started playing a game or whatever, sometimes the screen would go completely pink or some other color. I would still be able to hear music of what have you through my headset.

I could boot into safe mode, so from what people tell me, it seems to be a video card driver issue. Now I completely removed all the drivers through device manager and used driver cleaner in safe mode to get rid of anything that was missed in the uninstall.

After that it booted fine, and previously before removing the drivers I downloaded the updated ones for the video card from their website and updated the drivers in a clean install.

But alas, it still freezes at the windows splash screen. So I am wondering now, what can I do. It seems to be the video card drivers; I don't know if I need a new video card now or if I can circumvent this issue with some other drivers.

Anyways, thanks.
 
Please try this:

Manual steps to run Chkdsk from My Computer or Windows Explorer
  • Open My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.
  • Click Properties, and then click Tools.
  • Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed
Use one of the following procedures:
  • • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.
  • • To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start. (tick)
  • • To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box.

Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:
The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?
Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

Wait until Chkdsk finishes Checking / Repairing any faults
Windows will then either restart your computer or continue loading Normally.
 
hey kimsland, how you doin?

I did what you said and nothing came back, no errors or anything to report. I should mention that I took the computer back to the shop where I bought it and they put in a new hard drive this very week so I don't think it is the hard drive.

Thanks for the help.
 
Hello boy0ntherun,

Could we get a little more information pls?

System specs and any minidumps that may be there..by default the directory for your minidumps is "C:\WINDOWS\Minidump" You can fit 4 or so minidumps if you zip them then attach.

Will wait for your reply.

Also have you recently updated any drivers or installed any new hardware besids the hard drive?
 
I recently was having video driver problems (ATI) https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=612524#post612524and I downloaded the omega drivers. Did driver cleaner to clean all the old files while in safe mode. After it had finished clicked on tools then used the cab cleaner to clean the files from driver.cab and sp2.cab. Restarted normally and installed the omega drivers and my card runs like new and games run great!!

Omega drivers for nvidia cards/windows XP.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/nvidia_winxp.php
 
I put my system specs in my profile, but i'll post them anyways.

CPU: AMD Athlon64 x2 6400+ Black Edition(3.2GHz)
Mobo: Asus M3A
RAM: 2 Crucial Rendition 1GB PC5400 667Mhz
Video card: BFG GeForce 8800GT
PSU: Cooler Master eXtremePower RP-500-PCAR
HD: 160GB 7200 RPM (SATA2 8MB Cache)
CASE: Cooler Master Centurion 534
Windows XP Professional OEM

I have been using the the drivers on the cd that came with my video card. But I tried another suggestion which was to completely uninstall the video drivers through device manager then use driver cleaner in safe mode to remove anything that was left after the uninstall. Then I installed the drivers that I downloaded from the nvidia website for my video card and the problem still persists.

I don't know what a minidump is ahaha, anyways, thanks man.
 
device manager

My question is, did you use the cab cleaner feature of driver cleaner to clean the driver.cab and sp2.cab files also..If not windows may load these old drivers before you install the new ones.

Also you should have uninstalled the drivers and any other nvidia software related to your video card from the add/remove programs list before running driver cleaner in safe mode. A post that was helpful to me

http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-xp-2k-radeon-display-drivers/107447-uninstalling-installing-ati-drivers-properly.html

Granted that page is for ATI stuff, however it's the same process for nvidia. You just select nvidia options with driver cleaner instead of ATI

You could also try Ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com

And minidumps are files created by windows when your PC crashes that can be used in debugging the problem and finding the source..If you have any minidump files they would be really helpful in assisting you. Again the default directory for the minidump files is C:\WINDOWS\Minidump
 
Yup, I uninstalled the drivers correctly then went into safe mode and used driver cleaner. I am pretty sure I used driver cleaner correctly as well and cleared everything with it. After I did that I booted in normal mode and updated with the newest drivers for my video card that I downloaded from the nividia website. Sorry, forgot to mention that the problem still persisted even with the newest drivers for the video card.
 
Minidumps

If there are any minidumps I could look at them and see what is the likely cause for the problem.

Without the minidumps about the only thing I can suggest is uninstall your drivers again through the add/remove programs list and run driver cleaner/cab cleaner in safe mode then get the omega drivers for your card at http://www.omegadrivers.net/omega_drivers.php
and give them a try..

I was having all kinds of issues with my pc's performance but after cleaning all of ati's software off of my pc and using the omega drivers the card runs like new and all of my problems have vanished.

I was unsure about the omega drivers at first. I had always used ati's software, however I gave them a try and now I know why there are people out there who will only use omega drivers. I am now one of the people who will only use omega drivers.
 
Hey man, I appreciate all the help. I did what you suggested and went through all the steps in that guide you gave me. I am now running with the omega drivers, so hopefully everything is cleared up but I doubt it.

When I don't have any video card drivers installed, the loading bar at the windows splash screen loads smoothly uninterrupted. But after I've installed video card drivers, the windows splash screen flickers once and the bar stops for a second then continues to load.

It had done this with every uninstall and install of drivers, smooth then interrupted/flicker. I made sure to monitor if it flickers with the omega drivers and it does sadly, oh well hopefully it doesn't mean anything.

I appreciate the help, I will report back if the problem persists.
 
Hope it works for you

I really do hope it works out for you. If it doesn't just let me know and we will see what can be done to correct the issue. Sometimes it takes baby steps to get rid of a problem. It may take some time but I think we can get it cleared up for you.
 
Hey, well the omega drivers don't work, they still cause windows to freeze/lockup at the splash screen. I just saw that Nvidia released new drivers for all there video cards today in a big package, so I could try that! maybe these drivers will work ahaha.

Anyways, I talked with the shop where I bought my comp and they said that might be able to upgrade my video card if I pay the difference so that's pretty cool. Anyways, i'll try these drivers now. If you guys have any other ideas, I am open to any suggestions.
 
Awwe man that sucks they didn't work. Not sure what to tell you to do without a minidump or 2 to look at. Are there even any minidumps in the minidump folder?
 
Hey, sorry I did not post sooner. My motherboard has been switched out to an M2N-Sli and now my computer works great. It was that damn motherboard that was causing all the lock up with my computer. Thank for all the help guys.
 
I am glad you got the issue resolved. Thanks for letting us know how you resolved your issue. If you have any further issues do not hesitate to let us know about them.
 
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