From nvidia to Radeon?

Hi everyone; thanks for having me in on MajorGeeks.
First, here are the desktop's original specs:

Vostro 400 from Dell
Intel Core 2 Qhad Q6600(2.4GHz, 8mb,L2cache, 1066Fsb)
WindowsXP
2Gb DualChannel DDR2SDRAM 800 Mhz, 2 DIMMs
320 Gb serial ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Desktop PC started freezing up on me and giving the zigzag/blue screen. Message appeared that nv4_disp is running in 'loop'.
Restarted in safe mode, my computer, hardware, with no change in screen.
Couple of weeks after trying to update drivers from Dell website, realized that vid card was 'finished' and replaced it with Radeon HD 6670 from NCIX as per recommendations and proceeded to install.

Disconnected all wiring and took out GeForce card; installed XFX card.

Reattached wiring and booted in normal mode; went into device manager and removed VGA drivers left over. Blue screen popped up again. Device manager recognized new hardware but not the XFX. Ignored it, and rebooted unders safe mode with networking.

Popped in CD from Radeon-welcome screen opens;when prompted to 'install drivers' it tells me to 'please check www.xfxforce.com for the optimized driver'. Downloaded driver support files for HD 6670. Rebooted with no change; when I click setup;windows tells me we were unable to detect an XFX product at this time

Tried clicking on drivers from CD to install with catalyst; once catalyst tries to analyze system, manager tells me failed to load detection driver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Important to note; my zigzagideddy cloudy screen is clear now, even when I first opened in normal mode.

Tried rebooting again in normal mode and blue screen back with 'An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory'; it continues until the technical information listed is
STOP: 0x000000FC (0xB7F47C40, 0x2A7B5963, 0xB747B78, 0x00000001)

Was told to download the driversweeper-phyxion file but when I try to run it; I get the message
'To run this application, you must first install one of the following versions of the .net framework. v2.0.50727
Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate version of the .Net framework.'

I have been online using safe mode but have not had any sound; my monitor connection (samsung) is fine as I have tried it at work PC.

Not sure what sequence I should follow next to correct this.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Did you completely remove the old vid card from the system?

This includes not only the old software (Add/Remove programs), but drivers as well (Device manager)?

 

Welcome MtlWeb39

Bad driver or DEP kicking in would be my guess.

Can you access the latest minidumps from C:\Windows\Minidump, copy them to the Desktop, zip and upload it as an attachment please?

 

I believe so; first I removed anything nvidia from Add-remove programs.

When I look at device manager it now lists
Audio device on High definition audio bus and
Video controller (VGA compatible)

 

Hope I did this correctly (attachment).

 

Close , you sent the shortcuts; try copying the dmp files from the folder (Ctrl+A to select all then Ctrl+C to copy) then pasting the copies on the desktop (Ctrl+V), zip them and attach.

 

Here it is.

 

Thanks, checking through those now.

Can you find your Dell ST tag # please, it'll be an alpha/numeric code of about 5-6 characters, found on a sticker or in the documents and order/delivery paperwork from Dell?

 

The Dell Service Tag is 44ZM0G1 purchased 02/04/2008.

 

Thanks (using it actually confuses the Dell system in this case , I'll point you to the correct drivers for your machine using the generic Vostro drivers). First, download and install the Chipset drivers, R158363.exe from the drivers page.

You may need to reboot to complete the install, next try to install the XFX drivers.

 

Went on Dell site; downloaded and opened the 158363 file.
Rebooted and went onto XFX website, and am downloading
Windows XP 32-bit Catalyst - AMD Catalyst APP Suite for HD-6000 models

Should I also download this driver file?
Windows XP ATI HDMI Audio - ATI HDMI Audio Driver
Once done, do I try opening in regular mode?

 

This driver file is also there
ATI Cross-Fire Application Profiles - Profiles version CAP3 for Windows 7, VIsta and XP

Should I be downloading and opening this one as well?
Is there a sequence that is recommended?

 

Once catalyst is installing it quits telling me
Failed to load detection driver.

I did download the three drivers for XP; was this wrong should I delete 2 of them

 

Did you install the R158363.exe correctly? You may need to dig into the C:\Dell folders to find where it extracted itself to and run it from there.

You probably should update all the drivers you can once the chipset and video is installed correctly, you won't need Crossfire stuff, install drivers only if you can. You can uninstall anything unnecessary from Control Panel later, just keep the AMD/ATI drivers and the install manager (if you have it).

 

When I go into c:dell:drivers: R158363, it has subfolders

All
Lang
chip
Vista
x64

Should it not have a XP subfolder?

 

I just downloaded it to check it; once the file is decompressed, there should be a window from Intel appear with the main setup program - did this happen? Did the Intel install finish without error? Did you reboot afterwards?

 

It did opne up the Intel file; took < 1min and it was done installing. Rebooted afterwards and still same fault with catalyst.

 

Hmm, Try installing the Intel Chipset Device Software, and let us know if it appears to work or what any error messages are. If it's successful, after a reboot, you can try installing the graphics drives again.

 

Installed the chipset device software, reloaded PC and proceeded to try installing
12-1_xp32_dd_ccc
from xfx website. Runs through fine except when it uses catalyst and then fails and states
does not have detection driver

and tells me failed catalyst

Should I be doing this in regular mode and not safe?

 

Oh, yes - I didn't think you were still in Safe Mode, it uses a base drivers set so hardware install is almost impossible.

 

Tried to secure internet in regular mode but......

blue screen back with 'An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory'; it continues until the technical information listed is
STOP: 0x000000FC (0xB7F47C40, 0x2A7B5963, 0xB747B78, 0x00000001)

 

That's probably a bad driver trying to install - but which one?

Your version of Symantec/Norton looks to be old (and it can be problematic), uninstall it, if you can, from Safe Mode. Otherwise, try the uninstaller tool for it. Use the uninstaller anyway, even if the normal method appears to be successful.

From the Run menu, type in chkdsk c: /r /f and hit enter, you'll need to reboot and sit back with a cup of tea while it runs

 

Now, this part is freaking me out as I did this and I am now stuck with no internet access since when I open in safe mode, blue screen takes over
with message 0x00000024 (0x0019020310, 0x8a50DB00, 0xC0000102, 0x0000000) and inside message mentions to check disks? Could be wrong because I quickly scribbled trhis down as I am now stuck with access to web only at work during daytime. When I first ran the prompt you mentioned above and restarted the PC in safe mode, it seemed to get stuck as it scrolls through the drivers at multidisk partition/windows/system32drivers/mup/sys.

I have tried numerous times to reopen in normal, safe mode and the blue screen with the above codes comes on screen.

What do i do next?

 

Given the above, it might be time to throw in the towel and connect this drive to a clean computer with an up to date antivirus and get your data backed up.

 

Hi satrow

Never was worried about backing up anything as I have taken anything of workvalue and stored it elsewhere.
Was close to throwing the tower into the garbage bin BUT decided to keep it around since the radeon vid card was 'new'. Found Dell reinstallation disk and went into F12 and accessed the prompts; tried checkdisk and after ~5 minutes, it said that some files had a problem and waited for another prompt. Thought of fixmbr but device asked me if I really wanted to do this (not sure?)
I believe I typed in boot or fixboot and then the device has allowed me back in via safe mode (tried normal but previous blue screen popped up again) and at least I may access internet even though no sound and no Radeon recognized by PC.

My question: is there an easy way of fixing this inability to recognize the present vid card so that at least I can have audio and a nicer screen view or should I just be happy with this safe mode with networking?

Is the whole issue that because I am only able to run in safe mode, nothing can be installed properly with catalyst?

 

The issues are why can you only boot in Safe Mode and why can't you install 3rd party drivers. It feels like there is underlying corruption, probably already 'dealt with' by removing the invalid data. That Dell install disc you mentioned, can you do a Repair install of Windows from it?

Follow the hard drive diagnostics here first - also do a check from the Dell BIOS diags.