RE: Video Card or RAM issue?

From: BAR (BAR_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/28/04 

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:19:03 -0800

Sounds like you have some bad driver files and not a memory problem.

Need to clean up all the nasties and uninstall any useless applications.
Make sure the PC is cleaned up and then do a Repair installation of XP.

Perform a Repair Install by following the step by step below.
Boot up from the XP Installation CD, when you see the "Welcome To Setup"
screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
   Windows XP to run on your computer:

   To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

   To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

   To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows
installations.
Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to
start the repair.
Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not
press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue
as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will
remain intact.

After that run SP2 updates.

"Kevin" wrote:

> I'm working on a friends machine running an Athlon processor, Windows XP Pro
> and 512 MB of Crucial memory with an NVidia Ti4600 video card. The machine
> will not boot normally, only to Safe Mode. Some, not all, desktop icons are
> blacked out. Same for some taskbar icons. Mouse movement or clicking an
> icon can result in blocks of black stripes that do not go away unless
> another window is opened or the machine is rebooted.
>
> There was an error message regarding the video driver from NVidia, but
> Device Manager shows no problems at all. When I cracked the box and checked
> the RAM I found one stick in contact with the edge of the video card. Just
> enough contact to see it and feel it when removing or inserting the stick in
> its slot. I removed hundreds of items of spyware, adware (Ad-Aware found
> 174 items!) and other malware as this system was not protected in any way
> and is cable modem connected to the internet.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas about the problems? At this point, I am leaning
> toward uninstalling the video card drivers and reinstalling to see if that
> is the cause. When I left the machine last night it was cycling black
> screen and desktop at regularly spaced intervals. Could bad RAM be suspect
> here? What about both bad RAM and a bad video driver or even failing video
> card? It would seem that both failing at once would be a low probability.
>
> Any help will be appreciated. I'm returning this evening to try a couple
> more things on this machine.
>
>
>

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