XP System Only Boots In Safe Mode

[bjp2592]

My PC suddenly started flaking out last night. While playing a game I started to see some weird 3D artifacts that I hadn't seen before. But since it was WoW and the new patch had just come out I figured it had something to do with that and ignored it.

Eventually the system locked up completely. Now if I boot in normal mode it shows all sorts of weird graphical garbage and then freezes.

However it boots and looks fine if I start in Safe mode. I tried restoring to a checkpoint from a few days ago but get the same result. My first guess would be that the video card crapped out but I would expect it to have problems working in Safe mode too. It's a 2 1/2 year old 6800 Ultra.

Short of buying a new video card (all my older cards are AGP but this system is PCI-E), is there anything else anyone can suggest to try?

Thanks!

 

[g-paw]

If you haven't done so, try re-installing the latest video drivers. Not sure how it works but when you boot into Safe Mode, you're using something like a "generic" driver

 

[tomwaddle]

If you haven't done so, try re-installing the latest video drivers. Not sure how it works but when you boot into Safe Mode, you're using something like a "generic" driver

Agreed. Safe Mode only allows the video card to run what is absolutely necessary needed to show video. So, when you get all those extra colors in normal mode, your card is being pushed harder, and that may be your problem. If your board doesn't have onboard video, I'd try to borrow another video card to test. Or if you have another PCI E slot, you could at least rule out if the slot is bad. But since you stated the problem exists even after a checkpoint, I'm guessing your card bought the farm

 

[cutthroat]

I'm guessing your card bought the farm

Almost guaranteed. I've had this happen before.

If you need to get extra life from the card you can try to turn off hardware accelaration and/or underclock it. Of course you can't game with it, but it might allow you to use Windows without being in safe mode.

 

[chungdokwan]

yeah sorry sounds like your video cards had it.