No display after NVIDIA install - tried everything!

OK, here's my problem. 2 days ago I was working on my computer, installed some software, everything was going good. And then my computer restarted (actually I can't remember if it restarted or the screen went black). Afterward, I didn't think anything of it, and continued working when it happened again. I was working with another piece of software and tutorials online said to remove a certain entry in the registry, well I ended up downloading a registry program that did a "clean" and remove some stuff. It wasn't a malware one, it appeared to be from a reputable company. I thought that may have caused it.

The computer boots up in Safe Mode and Enable VGA mode. In normal windows mode, the computer screen goes black after the windows logo (monitor light goes from green to amber) I cannot tell if the computer is still running and the monitor goes black or the computer crashes, as my hard drives and fans are very quiet. I've tried a bunch of new and old drivers and all sorts of methods that were discussed in various forums, nothing worked.

Since my registry was modified, I decided to reformat. I wiped everything out and reinstalled windows thinking for sure that would fix it. Nope. Now, I cannot even get the drivers installed, and halfway through the install, the screen goes black! I wanted to try a standard VGA cord but I don't have one. It's connected via DVI. I wonder if the software is telling it to work through the VGA by default, but I've always used a DVI to get this setup. Last month when i downgraded to XP and wiped everything out the DVI cable was fine.

Is my video card toast? Any other options? I don't have any other PCI-E cards to try. I don't want to buy a video card right now as money is tight. Here are the specs:

Asus P5VD2X 775 motherboard with pentium d 3.0ghz
dual SATA 200GB Maxtor hard drives
2GB (1 chip) Consair memory
Pixelview 128MB PCI-E GeForce 6600LE card
22" widescreen Acer AL2216W