nv4_disp infinite loop and crazy figures on my screen

Hi guys,

I'm having big big problems. While I was just using a word processer, suddenly my screen had all strange figures on it. I scanned it on viruses (none found) and rebooted. I got the blue screen with an error message for nv4_disp:
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_disp. The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

Since then the strange figures on the screen haven't left. They are there once you turn the computer on (so already before booting the drivers). I run WinXP but I can also boot with Win98 and in MSDOS and also if I boot with Win98 or MSDOS or WinXP-safe mode, the figures are there.
I've dowloaded the latest drivers for my graphical card (Asus NVIDIA V8420) but this didn't help. And because the figures are there immediately when you turn on the computer, I guess the problem cannot be the drivers of the graphical card, can they, so that I don't have to look into these any further?

Help! What should I do? What could be the cause? The computer has worked just fine for the last 5 years or so (no hardware changes).
Is it perhaps the BIOS? I don't know how to determine the BIOS I have and neither how to download BIOS updates. Please advice, I'm starting to panic!

 

I've done the steps you described. Unfortunately, this hasn't solved the problem.

I don't know what overclocking is, which probably means that I haven't done this (I resetted BIOS to default values when updating the BIOS).

Is there anything else I could try?

The screen regularly goes black for a second, until after a while it stays black and I need to reset. In addition, there is a (long) delay between what I order the PC to do and when it executes it. The PC has troubles (graphically) processing the closing of a window. With booting in Win98 or XP-safe mode there's only the problem of the strange signs on the screen and the PC being slow (it doesn't crash (yet)).

 

Thanks,
I uninstalled the display device in the device manager, rebooted, ran driver sweeper, rebooted again, installed the drivers again, and rebooted (all in Safe mode with networking).

This is as far as I got. The problem still persists. I haven't gone further because of the monitor and 3D-settings:
- I can't find anywhere how many monitors (drivers) I've got installed. Device manager doesn't say anything about the monitor. I'm using only one monitor. Under Properties > Settings > Advanced > Monitor is says "Default monitor" and the properties box is gray (can't click on it).
- I can't find the information about 3D settings. What I do find regarding the settings of the graphical card is: Hardware acceleration of graphics hardware is set to full (has 6 levels ranging from none to full). And "Enable write combining" is enabled.
In the control panel there's something called "NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager" but when I double click it nothing happens; so the program doesn't start. This might be because I still boot in safe mode (with networking). Should I boot normally and see if I can then start "NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager" to check on the 3D settings?

By the way, every time I reboot it starts with the ASUS-logo on the screen. Then I can already see that every time the strange figures have not left (after for example uninstalling the graphic device). Subsequently, when I boot in safe mode there is the white text on the black background of the computer loading all the drivers. With this screen of text, the strange figures are not there. I guess, this may have to do that this screen requires very little graphical power...

 

On the control panel there's the NVIDIA desktop manager as well as "NVIDIA Control Panel". Although I do recognize your screen from when my PC was still working properly, the screen of the NVIDIA desktop manager is something very different now and 3D isn't part of any menu. So perhaps this screen is part of NVIDIA Control Panel. Unfortunately, this doesn't load anymore (not when booting in normal mode nor in safe mode). The processor makes a lot of noise for a second, then is silent for a second, then make a lot of noise for a second, etc. But it doesn't load. This seems to have to do with winlogon.exe and nvcplui.exe, which belongs to NVIDIA Control Panel.

Anyways, I guess the video card or motherboard is simply broken. A new computer was due anyway (I checked this afternoon and my computer is 7 years old). Thanks for your good advice, anyway! I'll have someone else pull out the graphic card once I've got a new computer (personally, I know little about computers so don't feel very confident to do this myself). I don't have a another graphic card or monitor either (now work from a very old laptop).