Computer Help Needed: Urgent

[Cyber-Angel]

Hi  Guys I need urgent help with my desktop computer that has a seriuos set of  issuses that I think maybe hardware related as I eplane in  the following text I have tried updating the drivers a number of times: As of  last week I am get blue screen of death in normal boot mode constaltly now: the system boots fine in safe mode however.

I have include the screen photograph of the monitor that is mentioned in the discription of the problem of the strange grid patteren that appers on startup; that at first I through was down to a driver issuse, but I have installed the most recent driver  a number of times since all this started, making me think that it is hardware. related.

Basicly guys I have done every thing short of cheeck for and flash a BIOS update and reinstall the OS. I Have run the startup F12 Diagnostics inclueding the full memory cheecks and that cannot find a problem, I really am at a loss and don't know what to do.

Thanks.

Cyber-Angel

Problem discription:

Dell Precision T7400:

Nivida Quadro FX 4600  (Directx 11)

Windows Vista Business 32bit with Service Pack 2

4GB Ram

Intel Xenon X5482 3.20 GHz CPU

Fully Patched


Problem History:

Starting on Saturday 10th August 2013 during a game of Skyrim my Nivida Quadro FX 4600 GPU developed a fault that has since lead to system stability issues.

During playing Skyrim the game displayed a dramatic frame rate decrees with screen tearing of game assets and textures (Like someone had punched a jagged whole in the screen) at one point the screen went black and red (Like a mask used in compositing).

This lead to an automatic system shutdown and a Blue Screen of Death, on system reboot the system would freeze and not progress beyond the end of the BIOS information Screen and the blackout just before the windows logo; causing as crash and another  Blue Screen of Death.

I was able to only to login to my user account by using Safe Mode with Networking (The few times in normal boot mode that Vista would proceed to the user account login screen, on clicking my user name: I would just get a black screen with a spinning blue busy cursor, and the desktop would not load) whilst in safe mode I checked the Nvidia Website for a driver update and found one to be available I downloaded it and installed it.

To be safe I did a system reboot.

I next did a full system shutdown and power off, and pulled the side on my tower and gave the inside a careful dusting, I also removed the Nivida Quadro FX 4600 from its slot and inspected the contacts which seamed fine and resettled the card, and powered the system back on.  Logging on the system booted fine in normal boot mode, except on the windows start screen which has a symmetrical pattern of blue lines on it (See: Included Photograph) on it.

At first I throat it might be driver related and so some days latter I returned to the Nvidia site and downloaded a new driver and rebooted the system (Note: I have installed at least four new drivers on my system, I have even tried uninstalling the card via the device manager, rebooting the system and letting vista find the Quadro FX 4600 as new hardware and installing a new diver that way, it has not worked, and these lines are still there.

The device manager in vista (Under Display Adaptors) shows a yellow problem triangle clicking on this it shows error code 43 (indicating a driver issue, which should have rectified its self with a new driver, it hasn't.).

Opening the Directx Diagnostic Tool under the almost all fields are missing data (this would seem to indicate a hardware issue, rather than a driver issues all field except the current display resolution show eith blank fields  or non-applicable .



As a further test I have tried installing an older driver to see if this would fix the problem (Incase the new driver had an issue and wasn't working correctly, this test failed, consequently in short order I reinstalled the latest driver).

There is also a hardware acceleration issue as far a Vista is concerned it is either disabled or not supported by the card, I have checked the display settings slider for hardware acceleration and it is on, yet Vista will not recognize it as being so, opening Spider Solitaire will tell you words to the effect, that it not on or not supported.

       

[Kadri]

I saw such problems mostly with dying Graphic cards.
Try another graphic card to see if it goes away.

[jaf]

If you change the card and the problem still exists, I would suspect the power supply or memory.  There's a free memory diagnostic that you can install on a CD and then boot it so it will check all the memory, including where your OS normally resides.  I think there's a link to it somewhere on the forum.

[Oshyan]

MemTest86 http://www.memtest86.com/

- Oshyan

[Cyber-Angel]

Hi guys just an update! I had a computer tech to my house this morning an he spent a number of hours on my system he cleaned up some driver conflict and corruption issues using some software called combifix so no more blue-screens for the moment and the system boots faster than it has for some time. However he recommended that I change OS to Windows 7 (Which he stated may cure the blueline issue or it may not, if not then I need a new GPU,) I plan on getting a new GPU anyway but I'll have to see what is available.

For now the system boots and one is capable of using it to some degree but not to the degree that not would like! I have tested the memory and all tests passed; but with a 64bit OS I plan on getting more anyway!

When I get a new GPU I'll advise on the lay of the land then! Some advice please is there a limit on the GPU I get for this Dell I have or would I be able to use any PCI-E compatible GPU?

Thanks for now!

Cyber-Angel       

[jaf]

I believe the two most important things to be aware of with a new GPU are, is your power supply capable of handling the load and will there be cooling issues.  Some of the newer cards use less power and run cooler, so it may not be a problem.  Also, some cards take two slots (area, not physical connections.)

[Bjur]

Hi Angel

I'm not familiar with "boxed" workstations/PC's and it's components as I'm building my own Windows systems since ages for some reasons.

Your Dell system was introduced 2007 I see and owns PCI-e x16 Gen 2 graphics slots.

Beside your possibly broken FX 4600 card you could just throw in an actual lent or new 40 €'s/$'s GF cards (even passive ones)
and you may get the same or even better performance compared to your old quadro card.

I think it could be the time to think about a complete new system and the try to make money from the rest of what it's worth
to be sold as there are still many lovers of old Xeon stuff out there (if possible).

Generally spending money in hardware stuff here and there which are granting just compatibility/functionality to an outdated system now
won't make you happy for the long haul, especially game wise..

Alex

[Cyber-Angel]

Hi, Guys just an update.

My Dell has died, in ecence, the FX 6400 finnaly went while it was beining service the harddrive failed (Data recovered, at least) and then the motherboard showed (Acording to the technition) intimiant I/O Faliours.

So I have commisioned a new system which I will post a new thread about when I get it, the builder and I are still working on finnel specs right now, and he is puting to together a cost estimate so I can make a chouce on final specs , but as of right now it looks like it will be based around the Intel i7-3930k 3.2Ghz platform with around 32GB DDR3 RAM posibly 64GB, it could be less depending the numbers my builder gives me

One question, can you do 3D on a highend GTX card as I cannot put in a quadro card right now?

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel   

[Oshyan]

Quadro is going to be a giant waste of money unless you're doing CAD or high-end 3D work. TG doesn't get any benefit from it.

- Oshyan