Attempt to reset display driver and recover from time out failed

[I Bruise Easily]

Hello,
i have the nVIDIA geforce 8800 GTX on my PC and it used to work properly until one day i was playing TF2 and the game crashed and there was the message saying: Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered. my OS is windows vista 32.
the problem reoccured more frequently until it started to lockup windows and the BSoD started to appear and the PC restarts.
the problem advenced to a permanent multicolor vertical lines and dots on the display and windows never starts and again the BSoD appears with the message: attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
i tried constantly to reinstall windows and each time i fail as the installation never completes when the windows try to start for the first time it either locksup or the BSoD appears, and on either way the PC reboots and keeps locking-up or BSoD appearing and so on ..

is the GPU doomed, burnt-out, unrepairable?
or still there's something i can do before dumping this one and buying another one ?

please help.

 

[Snipergod87]

It does sound like the graphics card. What does the BSoD say when it is trying to start windows for the first time? Is it the same thing?

 

[I Bruise Easily]

thanks for reply.

well, i managed to install windows 7 successfully and i don't see the colored lines and that stuff, but it happend few times that the display goes black for a sec and goes back normal with the message that: display driver kernel mode driver no. (something) stopped working and recovered ... i think it was something like that !

so is it more likely that the GPU is malfunctioning ?

answering your Q. yes from the first time the BSoD said that: attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed
btw the BSoD appeared once since i installed windows 7 but after restart the display was normal (no abnormal colors/vertical lines) and windows started normally, but as i mentioned earlier it happens to blackout few times and recover

 

[Snipergod87]

If its a fresh install and your drivers are good than it could be overheating of the GPU or the GPU is malfunctioning (make sure its securly conencted but it doesnt seem like the case). A friend of my had a problem similar to this with his 7900GX2 He would get color distortions and all but only when gaming even with a desk fan pointed at the damned thing. (Stock clocks never overclocked).

 

[I Bruise Easily]

hello.

i've switched back to my OLD nVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE and i can't see any problems (ofc, except the fact that i can't play TF2 ! ) so it's true the GPU is the problem and prolly it's a fried capacitors problem, since it was overheated most of the time .. the evga percision reads temps over 90 ' c in-game !!

 

[Snipergod87]

Yeah in that cause it was overheating 90C is really hot. I had an old 6200LE with burst caps giving the same issue. Don't forget to mark the best answer