Help, please. I'm in a slow death spiral here.
I've recently had a computer custom built by MicroCenter. I've had recurring dispay driver errors (goes black screen randomly for a few seconds with 295.73 driver error) and even took it back to the builder to have them fix it - no luck. Tech claimed they couldn't replicate the problem, but it happened within an hour after I took it home. I've also had a problem with a failed hard drive which the builder replaced, as well as an unfixable software glitch with Norton 360 and Windows. I ended up nuking Norton and switching to ESET - problem solved.
Last night, I was still getting the driver errors, and my monitor no longer appeared in device manager. I contacted the GPU manufacturer (EVGA) and they instructed me through email to Driver Fusion and OC Scanner. I was able to uninstall and reinstall the GPU drivers, but was unable to run OC Scanner. The driver reinstall resulted in magnified display that I could not resolve.
I contacted Microsoft (fortunately I have a full price version of Windows 7 so I can get free support.) The tech there took remote control of my computer and started to uninstall and reinstall the GPU Drivers. Then, he said he wanted to reinstall Windows. I inserted the original Windows 7 Professional disk into the optical driver and brought up the folder. The tech then started to run service repair from the folder and then tried to uninstall and reinstall Windows.
That's when it got serious. After about 30 minutes, I lost contact with the tech and my monitor screen was frozen with an error message that Windows was unable to install due to a possible missing or corrupted file. I waited about an hour, then left the screen up while going to bed. I didn't know if the tech was doing something in the background that I couldn't see. This morning, it was on the same screen with no apparent evidence of activity. My mouse and keyboard wouldn't respond, so I manually shut it down by pressing the power button. I restarted the computer and tried to begin Windows install from the optical drive. When I got to the page where you designate time, date, and language, the screen froze and I lost the cursor, mouse, and keyboard. I have no way to advance to the next screen. I manually shut down and restarted two more times, with the same results. I now have a very expensive desk ornament instead of a computer.
This is a classic case of pulling a loose thread and seeing your sweater disappear into a pile of yarn. What started as an attempt to fix an annoying but minor problem has now resulted in what looks like catastrophic failure. The fact that it happened while a MicroSoft tech was in control makes me very worried.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do? I'm going to contact MicroSoft again, but since I can't get onto the computer, I don't know what they can do to help.
I've recently had a computer custom built by MicroCenter. I've had recurring dispay driver errors (goes black screen randomly for a few seconds with 295.73 driver error) and even took it back to the builder to have them fix it - no luck. Tech claimed they couldn't replicate the problem, but it happened within an hour after I took it home. I've also had a problem with a failed hard drive which the builder replaced, as well as an unfixable software glitch with Norton 360 and Windows. I ended up nuking Norton and switching to ESET - problem solved.
Last night, I was still getting the driver errors, and my monitor no longer appeared in device manager. I contacted the GPU manufacturer (EVGA) and they instructed me through email to Driver Fusion and OC Scanner. I was able to uninstall and reinstall the GPU drivers, but was unable to run OC Scanner. The driver reinstall resulted in magnified display that I could not resolve.
I contacted Microsoft (fortunately I have a full price version of Windows 7 so I can get free support.) The tech there took remote control of my computer and started to uninstall and reinstall the GPU Drivers. Then, he said he wanted to reinstall Windows. I inserted the original Windows 7 Professional disk into the optical driver and brought up the folder. The tech then started to run service repair from the folder and then tried to uninstall and reinstall Windows.
That's when it got serious. After about 30 minutes, I lost contact with the tech and my monitor screen was frozen with an error message that Windows was unable to install due to a possible missing or corrupted file. I waited about an hour, then left the screen up while going to bed. I didn't know if the tech was doing something in the background that I couldn't see. This morning, it was on the same screen with no apparent evidence of activity. My mouse and keyboard wouldn't respond, so I manually shut it down by pressing the power button. I restarted the computer and tried to begin Windows install from the optical drive. When I got to the page where you designate time, date, and language, the screen froze and I lost the cursor, mouse, and keyboard. I have no way to advance to the next screen. I manually shut down and restarted two more times, with the same results. I now have a very expensive desk ornament instead of a computer.
This is a classic case of pulling a loose thread and seeing your sweater disappear into a pile of yarn. What started as an attempt to fix an annoying but minor problem has now resulted in what looks like catastrophic failure. The fact that it happened while a MicroSoft tech was in control makes me very worried.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do? I'm going to contact MicroSoft again, but since I can't get onto the computer, I don't know what they can do to help.
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