Okie, i ran the scan again. The message didn't come up so I'm assuming it had no trouble replacing the files. I rebooted, there was some improvement but still not what I would call normal. Was still the black scree + cursor after the windows loading screen, but only for about 15 seconds, and then the logon screen came up pretty quickly (and became functional quickly, it used to come up and then sit there for a bit before i could even click on my profile).
I ran aquamark and it teased me. The first 5 seconds it was running at over 40fps and then went back down the 20 and ran slowly the rest of the time just like it used to.
Might try reinstalling the drivers after I did the windows thing.. though i've done that a million times.

I should run a memtest, not quite sure how it works, i dl'ed it yesterday, i'll take a look..

Anyone have any ideas?

If it weren't for the fact that I did have the video card running very nicely for a period of a couple days, I would have thought it was the video card. Unless it was fine and then something went wrong with it then I don't think thats the problem.

reinstaling the drivers might help. if .dll files were damaged or missing before it would certainly effect the drivers. just dont run driver cleaner.

lol okie. I had used drivercleaner because I had about 6 sets of drivers installed over each previous driver, had never uninstalled first.

I ran memtest86 for over 9 hours, 30 something passes it completed, no errors.

Booting is more consistent, so theres some improvement at least. Not video performance wise yet. Going to reinstall the drivers now, I have to head to class soon.

Hey Iss, I opened up my tower and put it up on the desk near the window. I just finished copying my documents over to my second drive, I was going unplug it. I was going to take out my video card and put my old one just incase. Before i did this i decided to go into bios and look for the shadowing and caching motherboard settings i read about on the eVGA forums (which i never found those options hrm). I did change the boot priority, my HD was above my dvd drive. And I also disabled hyperthreading like someone mentioned.

Anyways, it booted up nicely (i'll note that there is still that black screen, but alot shorter, maybe 5-10 seconds), I opened up Aquamark3 and bam, fps were 50-100.
So I guess it was a heating problem? This is how my computer was when i had it working fine, but didnt think of heating as a problem, when its beside my desk its not confined in anyways. I dont think the hyperthreading setting was responsible for the fix. I'll try turning it back on and see if i get the same results.

I guess I should dl one of those programs that measures temps (can I use those without any special equipment? it reads straight from the hardware itself right?). I'll have to figure out if its the cpu or video card, probably video card since thats new and cpu wasnt having heating problems before.

Thanks for your help. If heat is the problem at least its not too expensive to fix, might get some sort of pci slot exhaust fan.

I'll let you know if i run into any problems that would rule heat out again.

what kind of cooling do you have now? ideally you should have at least one fan drawing air in from the front and another blowing air out the back.

That is what I have? I have a 100mm rear fan blowing out, and the same at the front bottom of the case blowing in. Then I have the obvious CPU fan, with one of those funnel things (forget name) to help the air get out of the grate in the side pannel. I wouldn't have thought I have any heating problems. Both times I've had the video card working nicely have been on my desk, with sidepanel removed.

sounds like you have sufficient cooling so there is no other explanation other than your comuter is possessed!!! call and excorcist now!!

lol maybe not quite just yet... I was back in bios to enable Hyperthreading, was snooping around and checked out the system temps etc. It said that the front fan was 0rpm so I took a look to see if maybe the power wasnt plugged in... Apparently I don't have a front bottom fan, its just a housing. I hadn't noticed because its kinda hidden behind the lip of the side of the case. Guess I'll start by ordering a fan. Cool air would have been drawn in as hot air was expulled but not as much as if it were being forced.

Any recommendations? I don't want something too loud, but hopefully a pretty high CFM so it will do its job well. I would get this but my two 3.5 drive bays are full, I have an empty 5 inch though. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=713395&CatId=0 . I'll probably be ordering from www.tigerdirect.ca

lol I think we have gone through just about everything so far in this thread. Maybe it was a combination of things; heat, those corrupted dll files, which might have messed up my drivers, a bit chain reaction.

*edit* found this for only $12.99 canadian, http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7821&CatId=0
RPM: 2400rpm
Air Flow: 38.41cfm
Noise Leve: 26dba

it is genrally worth paying a few extra dollars for a Antec, Vantec, or panaflo fan as they are better built and last longer than the cheapo generic fans.

when you had the case open did you check to make sure that fan on the video card heatsink was working?

I still have it open, yeah its blowing air out.

Tigerdirect has this Vantec, there is a silent version with 21dBA but only 27CFM, normal version is 23-42CFM and 35-37dBA

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=674642&CatId=0

*if you take a look at the link read the review someone posted, is it worth worrying about?

I can't find a pic of the case I have, but I have the mount on the side near teh cpu where the funnel is. Would it be worth putting in an intake fan to blow into the case OR also there is a panel of holes along the bottom half of the side panel, forming a grate. Could I just mount a fan to the bottom part near the gpu assuming the holes line up with the screws? How far apart are the screws on an 80 mm fan?

If you don't know what i mean about the case I can take a pic..

oh and if i mounted a side panel fan i would still mount the front bottom case fan, just wouldnt have to worry about CFM as much.

*edit* this case has something similar. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=186331&Tab=1&NoMapp=0
In the second pic you can see the holes forming the grate. Mine goes the whole depth of the case though. Can you mount a fan to those holes?

the funnel is the same setup dell uses it is to direct hot air away from the CPU. now I see why you might be having heat issues in the case. without a fan drawing cool air in and with the funnel preventing the one exhaust fan from drawing much air out of the case you probably are getting a pretty good heat buildup in the case.

80mm fans is pretty much standard in cases these days. the screw holes should be 3 inches apart for an 80mm. and 3 1\2 for a 120mm

the 27cfm for the case would be fine you only need air being drawn in, that doesnt require a tornado. and the 27cfm would be quieter.

I looked at the pic of the case in your link you can see two screw holes to the left of the screen for a fan. but that is a 120mm opening on that case.

so would I be better off replacing the funnel with an intake fan? Or exhaust since its higher up in on the case? I'd get two of those silent vantec's. or I could get a vantec case fan for front and get an expansion slot fan for the back under the video card. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=120565&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

you wont jurt anything removing the funnel but it does offer a little dust protection for the CPU. personallly I would get the case fan for the front and the expansion slot fan for the rear. one word of advice, get an ANTEC expansion slot fan the other models rarely last more than 6 months before they go belly up. ( i went thru several before trying the antec and I have one that is still running 4 years later)

Okie thanks buddy, I think I had a bad case of a bit of everything Seems to be running pretty good now, i'm in the middle of studying for exams/starting a job so I havent been able to test it out too much (aka waste time playing games). I'll try to order some fans in the next couple days and let you know how that goes
Thanks for your help

*edit* tigerdirect has a Vantec expansion slot fan but no Antec. Expansion slot fans are intake fans correct? so that the gpu van gets some outside air?
here are the ones Tiger sells http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:494|c:804|&Sort=1
I'd prefer to order from them if I can.

Considering your configuration I would get a better power supply, not necessarily higher amperage but more juice for +3.3V, +5V and +12V.

After you take cart of cooling, try disconnecting all your optical drives as well as the floppy drive, see if your system performs any better.

I am concerned with combined output mainly for the +3.3V and the +12V but keep in mind that the +3.3V and +5V have a combined max output together then all three have another combined max output.

Even if your system works well, I would still highly recommend a better power supply, try Antec I don't know about those Coolmax never had one.

Okie thanks, I'll check that out once I get the fans my fans arrive.

expansion slot fans are exhaust fans there job is to draw air out of the case. this works well in conjunction with a fan in the front of the case drawing cool air in.

oh yeah, makes sense The captions on tigerdirect werent very clear. Then having an intake up near the cpu would work well with the high rear exhaust fan.