Please help me, problem with PC not starting.

Hi there,
I have had my PC for about 2 years, I built it myself and all has been working fine until recently. After leaving my computer on overnight i came home and turned it off, when i next started up my computer it got to the windows xp home loading screen ( Win xp home SP2 ), then the screen went black! I started up the pc in safe mode and it worked fine and so i tried a system restore, my pc was not monitoring system restore, which i was almost certain it was before but either way, i went down to my local pc shop and bought a new hard drive after trying everything on the windows website as i didnt want to have to lose all my data. I tried installing new drivers for my graphics card from the cd that came with it, and using the windows repair which ended up making my computer not even boot as far as it did before, i got a message sayin " Windows setup is being restarted " which it never did. So i put my new hard drive in, SATA, formatted it and successfully set up windows and all was working fine until today, i shut down my pc and it got to the "windows is shutting down" screen and crashed, after about 5 mins i held the power button to take the power away. When i started my pc back up again i got the same black screen i was getting before, on my new hard drive! I have no idea if this is just coincidence, could it be hardware? Everything was working fine for about a month until it has just done that again. I have been playing a game that changes my resolution called Conquer online, and i didnt know if this could be the problem, or if it was leaving my pc on for long times? I have just tried system restore which this time was working, but it didnt fix the problem. I can still get into windows xp in safe mode, but not with networking. Since i started my pc i have not installed the graphics card drivers as windows did it automatically, but now when i try to do this it says " please try installing a standard VGA driver first ".


If it helps, my pc specs are:
AMD 64 3000+
2 X Maxtor SATA 80gb
1 x Hitatchi IDE 80gb
MSI K8t800 Neo Motherboard
ATI Sapphire Graphics card
1Gb DDR Ram

Would buying a new graphics card help, do you think this could be the problem? I have already spent enough money on my PC having to buy a new hard drive which is expensive as i am a student, and was wondering if i would have to buy a new graphics card? As it worked for about a month though it makes me think that there was nothing wrong with my hardware, but i am not sure. Please can someone give me a list of things to do that may resolve the problem as i have been trying to sort it for a while now, and it only seems to get worse and i dont want to make the same mistake as i made before making me have to by a new hard drive / format.

Thankyou so much!
Steve

 

The problems could be several things: flakey RAM, bad video card, failing power supply, even an overheating CPU. Make sure all fans and heat sinks are free of dust and debris and that the fans turn freely. Check the heat sink and fan on the video card also. Download and run a memory diagnostic tool. If possible hook up a different (preferably equal or higher wattage) power supply. Maybe you have an extra or can borrow one. Try removing all PCI/AGP/PCIx cards and the RAM sticks, and reseat them firmly, all the while cleaning and removing and dust buildup and looking for possibly damaged components (popped capacitors, etc). While your doing all this, be sure that the power cord is unplugged from the PC! Many motherboards stay 'hot' even if the power is shut off, so unplug the cord to be safe.

hopperdave2000

 

Thankyou for your fast reply, i have just found something new that might, well i would imagine will have something to do with it. When i start in safemode and go to the properties> settings> advances, it says my driver is "VGAsave" and that it conflicts with my PCI to AGP2.0/3.0 driver. My graphics card drivers will not install as it says something about installing a "Standard VGA driver" first. My computer is relatively clean inside and i am certain that all the parts are seated correctly, although i will try this.
Thankyou, if you have any other ideas on this since i have found the driver confliction please reply.
Thanks again
Steve

 

If you have built-in on board video and a seperate video card installed, Windows may find it confusing and try to output to the wrong device. With the monitor plugged into the video card (NOT the on board video), boot in safe mode and go to the Device Manager. Right click on the on board video listed under display adapters and choose Disable. Now, right click on the video card drivers and choose uninstall. Reboot in normal mode and Windows should pick up the 'new' video card and install the drivers or start the Hardware Wizard at which point you'll insert the driver CD or point the Wizard to the video card driver files. Reboot again and you're in business! Now, if you don't have on board video and a video card installed (you have one or the other), I'll come up with plan B....

hopperdave2000

 

Hi there, thankyou for your help any time i am really greatful!
I built my pc myself about a year and a half ago now and since then my knowledge of them has gone downhill, i don't think there is an onboard graphics card but i am not totally certain, my motherboard is listed here:
MSI Mainboard Website

Is it a good idea for me to get a list of all the display drivers and devices i have on my pc from device manager and to put them online here for you?
Thankyou again
Steve


---EDIT ---

Is there still any chance it could be a hardware fault? I don't know if it will help but my graphics card is a Sapphire Radeon 9600 pro atlantis ( 256mb ddr advantage edition ) which has its power supplied by my PSU made by akasa ( 400w 12v 2.0atx 240VA paxpower )
I have the driver cd for my graphics card, my main board and for my monitor ( i didnt know they needed drivers myself but its here anyway, i think just so you can't set an invalid refresh rate etc but it wont let me install these in safe mode )

When i try to install the drivers for my graphics card the pc says " please try installing a standard VGA driver first ". And the VGA driver appears to be VGA save.
I have tried uninstalling all drivers i see to be relevant wanting windows to reinstall them but it didn't seem to do much, would it harm for me to go down the whole list and uninstall things? Also if i disable the wrong drivers is there any chance i won't be able to get into safe mode to enable them again?

Thanks again
Steve

 

Hi there, after creeping around my ill girlfriend in my room lol i managed to find some information about whats happening on my pc, here is what i found:

under display adapters:
1)Radeon 9600 PRO Family ( Microsoft Coporation )
2)Radeon 9600 PRO Sec Family ( Microsoft Corporation )

(Note: should there be 2 of these or only one?)

Under display settings on the advanced - monitor tab it says :
"Default Monitor"

On the troubleshooting tab under the hardware acceleration it is on full, but i have changed this to none to see if it works, but it didn't.

Under the adapter tab it says:
Adapter type : ( blank )
Chip type : Unavailable
DAC Type : Unavailable
Mem Size : Unavailable
Adapter String : Unavailable
Bios information : Unavailable

When i click on the properties it says:
Driver : VGA Save
Non plug and play drivers
manufacturer : Unknown
Location : Unknown

then says that this device is working properly ( evidently not )
under the driver tab it says
VGA SAVE
Status : started ( there is an option to stop which crashed my computer )

this is the interesting part, i now see under resources tab:
Conflictions :
Input/Output range 03B0-03BB
( Via CPU to AGP Controller )
Input/Output range 03C)-03DF
( Via CPU to AGP Controller )
Memory Range 00A0000-000DFFF
( Via CPU to AGP Controller )

So i went into the device manager and found the Via CPU to AGP Controller and under properties, working properly and no conflictions.
Should i try disabling this as it is causing conflictions? It sounds rather important though to me but i wouldn't know.

Thankyou
Steve