Hi,
This is my first time here and would appreciate any help/advice. I have a Dimension Desktop 4600 with Pentium 4 3.0Ghz Processor, 512 MB Ram, NVIDIA GeFOrce FX5200 vidoe card, running Windows XP Pro, SP 2.
I have had this system for nearly 2 years, used on a daily basis without any problems. 4 days ago, I go to get on the computer (it stays on all the time-so I just have to logon to my user name), I move the mouse to go to my user name, and the screen flickers BADLY, goes black, comes back OK when I stop moving the mouse. I turned the computer off, then restarted it, same problem, so I restart again and then get the BSOD saying that windows was shut down to prevent damage, problem caused by Nv4_disp. Device Driver stuck in an infinite loop. Tech info: ***STOP: oxooooooEA ()x82CBB3C8, 0x82E64558, 0xF88F5cbc, 0x00000001) Physical memeory was dumped to minidump file, and said to contact sys admin or tech support for further assistance.
I was able to log on to the system in Safe Mode with Networking and tried to troubleshoot the problem myself. (I am no expert by any definition, but I do have to deal with our computer system problems at work and am currently in the middle of a major hardware and software installation, so I am learning more and more each day about trouble shooting).
Before contacting tech support, I did a Google search, saw lots of listings for this error, some saying it was the card, some saying it was the drivers. I went to NVIDIA site, and saw that a new driver was issued 12/10/05. I uninstalled the current driver, and installed the new driver, and then attempted to restart in normal mode. This didn't work, I got the same BSOD again.
OK-- to make a 4 day long story a bit shorter....I contacted tech support, and of course we went thru the whole driver unistall/install thing again, they insisted that I log on in VGA Enabled Mode and do the driver thing again, that it would work this time. It didn't. Next online chat with tech support--interventions requested were to remove and reseat the card, and then reset the BIOS by going into setup. This didn't work either. 3rd online chat with tech support-- log off and log on in the boot utility partition and run test on the video card--get back to tech support with the error codes so they can order me a new card. Ran the "test"--it said--...."this is not a test or diagnostic. Only a confirmation that the indicated device was detected by DellDiag". This morning, I got back online with tech support, told them the message I got. This time I was sent a Google page which was a tech forum of sorts, with a link for NV4loopfix. I was assured that this BETA patch would fix the problem, but if not, I would need to reinstall Windows XP Pro, and that would certainly fix the problem.
The patch did not work, and I am hesitant to do a WIndows XP Pro reinstall at this point when the ONLY problem is with this NVIDIA card and/or driver. Fortunatley for me, I have integrated video on the motherboard, not great, but better than flickering, black screens, and the BSOD!
I have looked through the posts on here, and looked at the various M$ links that have been provided to see if any would answer this question. Even the M$ link (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341 ) for doing the reinstall states " Do not use a repair or in-place upgrade if you suspect a problem with a third-party device, and the latest device drivers are currently installed for the device. " I do suspect a problem with the card since I have done all of the troubleshooting, patch, etc, with no improvement.
Please advise as to what I should do next.
