Computer Locks up during Start up

[submatrix]

Everything started yesterday when I went to add a 2nd monitor on my GTX285. As soon as I plugged the 2nd DVI cable into the 2nd monitor the whole system locked up. The monitor that was on displayed some weird squiggly green line pattern and the audio that was being outputted lock up as well. I removed the 2nd monitor and rebooted in the exact same configuration it was in before the 2nd monitor was added. Everything worked fine right up until Windows finished loading. After 1 second of the Windows start-up chimes it would lock up in the exact same way; the screen goes green and the sound locks up as well.

I rebooted in safe mode and started troubleshooting. When I disable or uninstall the display adapter, Windows boots fine, albeit with no graphics options. I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers like 4 times using different methods (drivers straight fron NVidia, via Windows update, etc) but it had the same effect each time. I also removed the previously working monitor and let Windows boot with no monitors attached to it, and again, I heard it lock up on start-up via the Windows chime locking up. I am also using Windows 7 if that makes a difference.

So I'm pretty certain I have isolated the fault to the graphics card but I have no idea how to troubleshoot this further. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vexun11]

That's too bad i'm sorry to hear that, I would rma the card if there is no solution, what does anyone else think?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Everything started yesterday when I went to add a 2nd monitor on my GTX285. As soon as I plugged the 2nd DVI cable into the 2nd monitor the whole system locked up.

You did this while machine was on ????? If so you may have fried something.

Tried restoring your system to a previous state ?

Clear CMOS
Restore BIOS to defaults, save and exit
Remove all drivers, reboot
Clean registry of all things nVidia w/ CCleaner, reboot
Install new driver.

If that doesn't work, check all hardware on another machine...starting w/ monitors (all power off while connecting cables).

 

[submatrix]

Yeah, I should have known better than to plug it in while it was running but I used to hot-swap monitors all the time while troubleshooting and never had any problems; this will teach me.

And I tried all of those steps except for trying it another computer as the only PSU that can handle it is in the computer it's currently in. I did put another video card in and everything works fine.

I posted on some other forums as well and the general consensus seems to be that the card is physically damaged. So I guess I'll start on an RMA, thanks for everyone's input.

 

[James124]

Take your gfx card and then try ! If it works then your gfx card is problem ! Do you have warranty for it ? If you have exchange it !