Dead video card?

[P2Mc28]

The family computer managed to get infected, and I cleaned it out and thought everything was good, but then later that day, the screen just went blank, like, no signal. When I turn on the computer, half way thru the Windows XP load, the screen just goes black, before the Login screen appears.

I booted it up in safe mode, and got a picture. Cool. I removed the video driver, cool. Restarted, had picture, everything seemed fine.

Went to nvidia.com, got the latest driver, and installed; you know the part of the installation where the driver kicks in and the screen flickers, picking a new res? Well the screen never comes back - just like the initial problem from before.

So, I tried installing WinXP. Everything worked - until I installed the video driver, just as before.

I might have another video card lying about so I'll be testing that too, and it's about time I rebuild that P4 system anyway, but it does (did?) what it was built to do, so I really didn't want to spend the money on it yet.


WinXP, sp1 (fresh install, sp3 before I wiped it in attempt to fix)
nVidia 7600GS, AGP

btw, tried a 2nd monitor to the same effect.

 

[TemjinGold]

Could be a driver issue. Did you try a different version? If you tried the newest, perhaps an older driver?

 

[wanderer27]

Yeah, I agree with TemjinGold.

Try an older Driver version.

Since you got infested, you may want to double check your BIOS in case things were nastier than you thought.

Could also be a power issue, but that would seem to be coincidental.

 

[P2Mc28]

Going to investigate the BIOS theory.

Tried to start it up just now, and realized I forgot to mention a couple (the same?) things: the text during POST and the various screens is somewhat corrupted. For example, on the POST screen itself, where there is a color logo, two of the pixels in the letter W are bright yellow. On the colorless screens, those pixels are missing or dark grey, don't remember. But each letter that has corruption is corrupted in the same pixels. I think the actual BIOS screen was fine tho, need to recheck.

Then, when loading Windows, the WinXP logo has a similarly corrupted look to it. Streaks of dark/black pixels marring the image. It's fine if I'm loading in Safe Mode tho.

I'm thinking maybe flashing the BIOS would be a good approach now?

 

[faxon]

sounds like video artifacts. my EVGA 7900GT SC had the same issue not long after i got it, and an RMA didnt fix the issue either. i was stuck with a 6600 128mb until i got my 2900PRO lol. could be a similar issue, only it took a lot longer to appear

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Why don't you try baking it?

 

[ahenkel]

that baking trick is pretty cool. I may have to start looking for not working as is video cards on ebay