barbsicle

Hello there, I am assuming this subforum is the most suitable for my problem, which I will describe in much graphic detail (no pun intended, and I don't have much technical information anyway).

Yesterday I was minding my own business and playing some Fallout 3, when the computer suddenly hung. Thinking that Fallout 3 was always prone to this anyway, I gave no second thought and hit the hard restart. Upon reboot I loaded up Fallout 3 again, this time to see it hang the computer in 10 seconds.

Upon hitting the hard restart again, I realized something had gone horribly wrong. My BIOS screen as well as Windows startup screen were filled with graphical glitches, to say it simply, dots. It was as if my graphics card had trouble rendering the front screens. Oh and of course, Windows failed to work.

I managed to come back to normal only by going into safe mode, uninstalling my drivers and reinstalling them back in non-safe mode. I proceeded to perform more tests only to see them end up the same as I mentioned above. Then the situation took a nosedive: the driver installation ended up in a hang.

Today, I managed to install the drivers in (new release, 168.18), and I still see stuttering and partial hanging of the computer when running a small scale application (e.g. Plants Vs. Zombies). Hence, my computer is still unable to run 3D applications. I have been through many similar forum posts but still don't seem to find the answer to my problem, so I thought I'd try my luck here (so sorry if I didn't pinpoint the problem to the right hardware, if it is EVEN hardware).

And here are my specs:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: EP45-UD3
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 3326MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Graphics Card: MSI Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB DDR3 RAM

Yeah, that's about it I guess. And a thank you in advance to whoever chances upon this and helps me out.

EDIT: Oh and I've also suspected overheating at one point but even without the case open nTune gave me a peak of 64 degrees on my GPU. So I kind of doubt it but who knows?

barbsicle

a sad but desperate bump.

grimx133

64C on the graphics is no biggie, when I run the gpu client of FAH at 70% fan, my card runs at 85C, and I consider it a fairly cool running card.

Anyway, first thing I'd try is a new driver install, but cleaning the old drivers as well.

Install driver sweeper.
Uninstall the old drivers in device manager
Reboot, tapping F8, and go into vga mode
Disable antivirus
Run Driver Sweeper to get rid of driver remnants
Install new drivers
Reboot into normal mode
Turn your antivirus back on

If vga mode is not an option, use safe mode

Driver Sweeper - http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

There's no mention of your power supply, underpowering the card can lead to all sorts of difficulties. What is your current psu? Make and model.
Also look at the label for the output, in amps, on the +3.3, +5, and +12volt rail(s).
Then check your bios in a pc health or hardware monitoring for the temps and actual voltages listed there, it's considered the most accurate. This should be in the power section of the bios.