Video card or XP registry problem? VisionTek GTS-V

[PanJack]

Help.

I've just built a new computer running XP. Most of my son's games don't run but lead to an XP message that the program has run into problems and has shut down and would I like to send information to MS about this crash.

Normal business applications run okay (Word, Excel, Photoshop, Cooledit 2000, etc).

My son's games include Simcity 3000, Rock Raiders, and Lego Island 2. Not exactly cutting edge 3d stuff.

A few hours ago these programs did get running and would only crash later on. Now they crash at start up. When they were running they would crash at the same point in the program. I've tried various "compatibility modes" but none made any difference. I've read references that Simcity runs okay in XP (for other people, at least).

The computer is a P4 1.6 with ASUS P4t-e mobo and 512 MB of samsung RDRam and 60 Gig HD. I have a Audigy but switched to the on-board sound to see it that helped matters. (In one game the sound when into an endless loop before it crashed). It did not help at all.

I have a VisionTek GTS-V 32MB video card. I've used both the Nvidia driver that comes on the XP disk and a more nvidia recent driver ("approved for XP') downloaded from the internet. Crashes just the same with both.

Among other things I've changed all the Windows settings for the display (resolution, refresh, color depth). No change in behavior.

I've reseated the video card. No improvement.

I swore at it; no change in behavior.

Unfortunately I don't have any other 1.5 volt video card to put in to test an alternative card. I really want to avoid buying a different card if I can just to test my current card.

Because of problems with XP I reinstalled the operating system. (The first install was a fresh install). But while reinstalling Windows would crash at the same point (while loading drivers). The new XP blue screen of death (but with nice text showing sympathy for my plight) would appear and required a warm boot. I messed around with safe modes, etc, but the one that seemed to solve the problem involved using "vga mode."

I figure either the video card is bad or my registry is hopelessly corrupt.

Anyone had problems like the above. HELP!

PanJack

 

[Brian48]

I would reinstall the OS. Generally speaking, if it was the video card, you'd see other indications as well (ie. artifacts, visual anomalies, etc.).

Prior to doing so, I'd check your RAM and AGP settings as well. Use a more conservative setting for the RAM, and keep the AGP aperature size down to 128mb or lower. I've found with XP and any card in the GeForce line, the higher setting tend to cause problems.