Need help with video card

[ineedmajorhelp]

Ok, heres the problem yesterday I was in the middle of playing WoW when I got an error with my Video Card drivers while using Vista, it says it failed to fix the problem my monitor shut off. I rebooted couldn't load into Windows normally the screen was all messed up, and wouldnt let me in windows at all. I could get in Safe mode, i reinsalled and uninstalled drivers to no avail. So then I decided to reformat and also i cleaned out my Video card / PC with dust cleaner. It did the reformat and didnt work until after I cleaned out my pc , then it did load into windows and everything was fine until i decided to try and load WoW today it crashed and is doing the same thing. Im also getting a BSOD about Display drivers not being able to repair and timeing out something to that effect? Can't really read it all that fast. Im typing this from safe mode w/ networking. Also, im trying to reinstall the newest drivers and its not letting me like it says it cant use those for my Video Card, as I was just using the default ones after reformat.

MY pc specs - AMD 5000+
2gb RAM
7600GS

 

[stabgotham]

Have you checked your temps on the GPU? Where are they at currently?

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

highest it got was 60c

 

[jerreece]

Hmm, wow that's weird. Might try an older driver version and see if that works. Just in case there's some issue/conflict going on there. This one is probably a little over my head. Wish I could help more.

Did you recently install any other drivers or software that could be causing this? Perhaps an Addon/plugin for WoW that just got installed/updated?

Other than that, dunno. Worst case could be the video card itself.. which would suck.

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Ya this is rough, um no i have installed any major new addons, just the normals like atlasloot/deadly boss mods. The only thing I had done in that week major was updated my driver to the newest everything was fine before that, but now When i try to install new drivers, After i have uninstalled the drivers from device manager and then driver cleaned them, It says either Invalid Handle when it searches online, Or just Windows cannot find drivers blah blah

 

[stabgotham]

Download the drivers directly from Nvidia's website at www.nvidia.com. They just released an update, but you should try the older drivers since you had no problems with those. Then let us know how that worked.

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Ok, i was able to get into windows normally, but looked terrible with the res and 4bit color and screen tearing it seemd not for sure if thats what you'd call it. Vista then tried to install the drivers only for it to fail with Invalid Handle

 

[kad]

If things were good with your old driver go back to the old one
or wait for the next driver update
And please always keep your old driver somewhere on your HDD before updating
Just in case you need it like what happened now
Do not panic, your graphic card is OK
But you mean you cleaned out Video card / PC with dust cleaner ????
Hope you did not use the dust cleaner you use for your house cleaning !!!!!!!!!!!!
It will generate Static Electric Charge and you'll zap something
I lost one graphic card because of it
Use a can of compressed air

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Ok, i might just try buying a brand new card, what would you recommend for 100-120$

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Yes, i did use compressed air, I'll give the old driver another chance i just get get ahold of it cause of some DEP on vista everytime i go to the nvidia page it restarts firefox.

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

I have this error now in my device manager for the Video Card, after installing my old Video card drivers, and it BSOD the first time I tried to reload back in. About Display adapter timing out or something

 

[kelfen]

Have you tryed a system restore?

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Im not sure if it would help consider I just reformatted

 

[stabgotham]

Well for $100-120, you can get an Nvidia 8800GS or an ATi 3850 or an Nvidia 8600GT or an Nvidia 9600GSO or....

 

[kad]

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

I have this error now in my device manager for the Video Card, after installing my old Video card drivers, and it BSOD the first time I tried to reload back in. About Display adapter timing out or something

Do not reload old driver
Uninstall the new one
Reboot
Install old driver

 

[stabgotham]

Try this - - follow these steps to a T!!!

1) Download Driver Cleaner from Guru3d.com: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745
2) Install Driver Cleaner, but do NOT run it yet.
3) Download the Nvidia 169 drivers based on the choices below to your desktop:

*Vista 32-Bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.25_whql.html
*Vista 64-Bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_169.25_whql.html

4) Uninstall the current Nvidia drivers using the Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs function.
5) Reboot into Safe Mode
6) Windows will try to detect and install drivers, just click cancel when that screen appears.
7) Run driver cleaner, completely removing the Nvidia drivers.
8) Reboot your computer.
9) Window will try to detect and install drivers, just click cancel when that screen appears.
10) Double-click on the Nvidia drivers you downloaded for your system and install. Once installed, reboot.

How did that work?

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

So far I've had 3 BSODS about attempting to reset graphics adapter driver timeout failed to that extent

 

[stabgotham]

Oi! You're F'd in the A!

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

So it looks like i'll be buying a new card

 

[jerreece]

I'm starting to think the GPU has become flawed. Thinking it's going kaput. Considering you formatted (I'm assuming you mean reinstalled Windows entirely), and can't get any driver version to install properly, there's probably a hardware issue going on.

Far as new video cards go, check Tom's monthly lists. They update a list each month to show what the best cards are in certain price brackets.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-cards,1942.html

You can also wait a few days and see if they post a Best of July list, which might offer some changes (more so in the $200+ categories I'd guess) as some new stuff was recently released.

Personally, if you can afford the extra money, I'd go for the $150 mark and pick between an ATI 3870 or GeForce 9600GT.

For $125 you can do a GeForce 9600GSO or ATI 3850.

Those are June's picks, so July could change.

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

ok great thanks for the help guys

 

[ineedmajorhelp]

Ok, one more question I am going to be spending about 130$, I have this ASUS A8M2N-LA as my mobo, and a 430w PSU Thermaltake, I dont think i have a 2.0 pcie slot , maybe wrong can someone pick me out the best card for what i have.